“We are trailblazers, bringing light and living water to unreached people groups.”
That is the new vision statement for our tribal ministry here at Within Reach Global.
Our partner pastor from Northern Philippines has been sowing into the tribal church planting ministry of Within Reach Global for over four years now. He has taken all of our co-workers through the powerful Christian training of Good News Series and School Of Workers Curriculum. He has helped us establish Bible schools within our underground training centers, and empowered our local missionaries to bless churches throughout China with this curriculum.
This week he has returned to walk our team through Roadmapping and strategic planning for the future ministry of Within Reach Global. He is helping us focus our vision to accomplish our dream of planting many more churches among presently unreached people groups in Southeast Asia.
During the three day Roadmapping seminar and Co-workers Convention, each of our local missionaries were able to hear from the Lord, and thus create our vision and mission statements, calling, central task, areas of excellence, ministry scope, and strategic goals.
Check out Facebook photos here.
The incredible thing about our local missionaries hearing from the Lord directly—rather than us simply spoon-feeding them a foreign plan or concept—is that now the vision and direction of our ministry is becoming more localized and indigenous. God has personally spoke His master plan to each of our local missionaries, and they are running with the vision.
Now every time we hear them speaking, they are always quoting the vision statement God just gave them.
“We are trailblazers! Amen?” That’s how they began the underground training with over 75 Church leaders. “Lord, we are willing to take Your light and living water to the ends of the earth!”
“Tell the person next to you, ‘You are called to blaze new trails for Jesus!'”
It is exciting to watch.
Before flying from America back to China, we have to be honest, there were some concerns about our team. We could tell that they were tired after years of doing pioneer tribal ministry on the borders of China, Myanmar, Laos and Vietnam. And not without reason. This is a really tough line of Christian ministry—to take the gospel to places where they have never once heard about Jesus before. Years of breaking up the hard ground, walking along the rice terraces sowing seeds, watering them, and waiting for the harvest is a difficult task.
And so we had some concerns that some of them might want to leave the team because the ministry we are doing is so strenuous. In fact, a couple of our co-workers in two of our training centers at The Edge and 26 Tribes did leave. We encouraged our many remaining local missionaries, “Don’t worry. God is faithful. Now we have two available slots for new underground Christian leaders to join our team!”
So we continued with our Missionary Convention and Roadmapping seminar, trusting that God was in charge of refilling and recharging each of our local missionaries with His strength and presence.
Our partner pastor from the Philippines told us, “There are many times that the local believers have a hard time hearing from God as I am leading this Roadmapping seminar in nations all over Southeast Asia. It’s not a normal training. They really need to be able to hear the voice of God clearly for the direction of the ministry.”
We spent a lot of time on our knees, crying out to God to give us His strategies to reach unreached people groups. We bathed the ministry of Within Reach Global in prayer. We broke our team of local missionaries into two smaller groups, and asked them to write down all the impressions and words that they received from God. Then we joined together to see if the words they received lined up.
“I am really amazed at how quickly the Lord spoke to your local missionaries,” our partner pastor told us. “There are times when the hearing-from-God part takes days, but they heard clear vision from Him in the first few hours!”
We were honored to hear how sensitive our local missionaries were to the voice of the Lord. And all of our concerns about the fatigue that they might be feeling was gone. We did, however, target the spirit of fatigue as the major stronghold that comes against Within Reach Global, because we are about the Father’s business.
Praise God that whenever He wants to change nations, He always chooses the weak and foolish before the wise and strong.
So with a clear vision and mission statement, we are excited for the next steps of this ministry. It’s a new season for China, and God is expanding our ministry scope.
Thank you for your continued prayers and financial support. As you sow into this ministry, it far outlasts you as new people are ushered into the kingdom. As you bless the nations, God will graciously reward you as well.