Many of you know that I joined a team called the Engagement Team and often I am asked, "So, what is your job?" I thought it might be good today to explain a bit about what I do now.
A simplified explanation is this--Our job as the Engagement Team is to research the people groups in our 9 country cluster in West Africa (Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Benin, Togo, Niger, Nigeria, N. Cameroon, and S. Chad). We have to know where each of the groups are located, whether they have any missionaries working with them, what their religion is, population, demographics, etc. Basically, we collect as much info about them as possible. In this way, we know which groups of people have yet to hear the gospel and what those groups are like.
The second part of our job is to publicize this information and begin working with churches in America to get them to come and bring the gospel to the people here who have never heard. We also work with national churches here who want to develop and send out their own missionaries.
Our goal in all of this is not just to get churches to come one time, or even churches here to make one trip to a village, but instead, it is to see a church planting movement started among the people groups. This requires years of work and much, much dedication. I always say, "Everything takes longer in Africa."
So, the question is.....are you and your church up for the challenge? Does your church want to make an impact on a people group that has never heard the gospel? Do want to see folks from every people group, nation, family, and tongue surrounding the throne of God? If so, contact me and I'll be happy to help you get started working in our area of the world.
In the next few weeks, I will begin to show different people groups that we have visited recently that have little to no gospel influence. Hopefully, this will put faces with names of groups for you. Even if you can't come, you can pray for these peoples to have the gospel reach them and even from your home, you can make an impact on eternity.
