Missions Conference - Day 2

I slid onto the bench just in time for the introduction of the opening speaker this evening, Pastor Don Richman, founder of Eastern European Mission Network.

Pastor Richman asked a front row Bible School student to open in prayer.

He read Habakkuk 1:5 "Look among the nations and watch—
Be utterly astounded!
For I will work a work in your days
Which you would not believe, though it were told you."

Pastor Richman went back in history to tell the story of the great oppression of communism and socialism in Eastern Europe. "The damage is still palpable to this day,"...he said. The wound is so deep.

But then he explained how God shone light in that darkness. He told the story of, "The Red Cranberry" from the autobiography of a Lutheran pastor that lived in Tartu, Estonia.It's too long to tell, but the theme was simple delight in the goodness of God even in the midst of darkness.

Pastor Richman carries such an enthusiasm in his presentation. "There are amazing doors through teaching English." He explored opportunities in Europe, though Christian English camps to touch lives. You begin by developing relationships, building trust, being available. But he added, "don't wait to go; be doing this now, just where you are."



Most memorable in my mind is the story he told of a young woman in one of these countries, who loves Jesus, and is trying to live out her faith is the midst of some really hard circumstances with family. She needs the daily strength of Jesus. I'm going to remember her name for a long time.

He led us into a segment of prayer in small groups all over the chapel, just as we did last evening. Isn't this the heart of missions conference?

Next, a ladies trio sings a beautiful rendition of Fairest Lord Jesus. We take a mission offering, (Lord, use these gifts for growing your Kingdom).

Pastor Giles opening the main service by reading Ps. 74:20. "Have respect to the covenant;For the dark places of the earth are full of the haunts of cruelty."

His message tonight took a slightly different theme than some might have expected.
"How's your prayer life? Do things happen when you pray?"

If you buy an iron and it doesn't work, what do you do. You read the instruction manual, you call the company, and if all else fails you take it back. The iron is supposed to work. Comparing this with our prayer life he explained how too many of us pray expected God to NOT answer, expecting things WON'T happen. It's like buying a new iron and then being content to set it on a shelf not working, rather than striving to find out how to make our prayer life a vital reality.

Spiritual warfare is reality. Seeing the "haunts of cruelty" breeds a prayer life, he explained. For the next little while, the chapel echoed with stories of God's provision, down to the minute, of His healing hand, or His grace.

"Why am I telling you these stories?"...he asked. "It's not to make you think I'm something special. I'm not a spiritual giant. I'm telling them to showcase the faithfulness of God. He's the God who keeps every promise He has ever made."

The first step towards answering God's call to missions is believing that He is a God who keeps His promises. If we do not begin in prayer, and remain in prayer, believing He keeps His covenant, God has little use for us in His kingdom work.

Comparing physical and spiritual warfare, the enemy must establish a beachhead in order to move inland. If he can get an inch, he has hope to go in further and further. In so many of these countries that have been overrun by darkness for generations, the battle now rages in the opposite direction. Light must make a beachhead. It starts in a few lives, but it begins to change a generation, and then the children, and later the grandchildren.

This is why we must know how to pray. Breaking from darkness into the light cannot happen on wishy washy prayers.

Matthew 28:18-19
And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit."

The pastor's closing words..."All power has been given...Go therefore..does this mean you?"