Japanese pastors at a training conference.
(Image courtesy Asian Access)
Asia (MNN) — Believers in East Asia are planning something big. More
than 900 pastors and church leaders from their country recently gathered
to discuss the largest missionary-sending initiative in the nation’s
history.
Over the next 15 years, this restricted-access country hopes to send
20,000 missionaries to some of the least-reached people groups in the
world.
“[The country] did a survey of how many missionaries God had sent to
their country over the last 200 years, and they realized it’s about
20,000 missionaries who brought the hope of Christ to their country,”
says Joe Handley, president of Asian Access,
a ministry dedicated to raising up Christian leaders within the
continent. “As they reflected deeper and prayed, they had a sense that
they owe it back to God to be a blessing to the nations that have yet to
see this hope.”
The idea behind the initiative isn’t new. In its early days, it was
known as the Back to Jerusalem movement, a Buddhist, Hindu, and Muslim
outreach initiative. However, this movement sat dormant for many years
and never fully got off the ground.
It wasn’t until around 2011 when the nation’s idea of paying back
this “spiritual debt” began to gain momentum, beginning through a
gathering of Christians in Korea, which Asian Access attended.
The vision kept growing. Last year, 30 of the top Christian leaders
from the country gathered to pray for their 2030 vision: to send 20,000
missionaries from their country to nations with little Gospel influence.
They met again last month, this time with 900 pastors and church
leaders, to discuss ways they can collaborate to accomplish their goal.
“For years, this church in this country has been sending
missionaries, but it’s not been effective,” Handley says. “Many of them
have come home discouraged, not supported. Now, they’re poised and
looking for groups like Asian Access and many others that are coming
alongside to help build capacity for a local indigenous sending
movement.
“This is really stunning, because it’s not foreign agencies that are
running this thing. It’s not actually groups like Asian Access, although
we’re involved. It’s really local, indigenous expressions of mission
societies and churches that are going to be at the forefront of this
sending engine.”
Although support from groups like Asian Access is vital, the
indigenous missionaries are in a unique position to make a difference.
Their personal life experiences and nationality allow them to impact
people in a way that many Western missionaries could not.
“They are a church that has faced persecution,” Handley says. “They
have been living through it for decades. I personally know pastors that
have spent many years in jail, many years under torture or oppression,
many years under all sorts of different kinds of pressure, and so
they’ve already been tested and tried. They have something that
generally the Western church has not faced at all, in terms of the
pressures that have been put on them.
(Photo courtesy of Asian Access)
“The second advantage is in many of these countries, there is a
repulsion against the West. Many of these least-reached sectors of the
world, many of the sectors of the world where you have persecution
happening, there is no desire to have Western presence in those
countries.”
You might not be able to personally impact persecuted believers, but
you can always help those who can. Handley asks that you pray for
believers in this country as they foster their missionary-sending
vision, as well as for groups like Asian Access supporting them.
“I would say the key prayer point right now is praying for the
capacity building of these nations, whether it’s in collaboration,
leadership development, or setting up sending structures, having a
church that can support from behind,” Handley says.
Financial resources are also a necessity. Handley estimates that this initiative is a multi-million dollar effort. Click here for ways to give.
Source: Mission Network
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