By Andrew McChesney

Gina Wahlen was excited to visit a house church in a country where Christians face persecution for their faithfulness to God. She had arrived to collect mission stories for Adventist Mission.

The house church turned out to be a former home on the ground floor of an apartment building. The apartment had been gutted and turned into a church with a main sanctuary on one side and a small room on the other. Gina began interviewing people in the small side room with an interpreter.

The people were earnest and kind. But they didn’t seem to have any special stories, speaking instead about the technical aspects of a house church.

As time passed, Gina grew desperate. This was the only place where she had planned to collect stories in the country. “Dear Lord, please help me to find someone who has an inspiring story,” she prayed. “I don’t know how to find anyone because I don’t speak the language, and I don’t think that the interpreter can help. So, Lord, would You please send someone?”

Soon afterward, a woman stepped into the room. Gina felt impressed to speak with her and struck up a conversation through the interpreter.

“Have you been coming to this church for long?” Gina asked.

No, the woman hadn’t. She had been coming for only a few months.

Gina asked how she had learned about Seventh-day Adventists.

The woman said she had been walking with her children to the market on a Saturday. As they walked along the sidewalk, two neatly dressed men approached.

“The seventh day is the Sabbath,” said one.

“To learn more, look on the internet,” said the other. Then the men kept walking.

The woman went home and searched online. Somehow, she found a series of Adventist presentations by a U.S. evangelist that had been dubbed into her language. She watched many programs and was greatly blessed.

Then, she somehow found the house church. She showed up, prepared for baptism, and was baptized shortly before Gina’s arrival. “I was amazed when I heard her story and was so delighted that God answered my prayer in such a beautiful way,” Gina said.

Gina Wahlen served as Mission quarterlies editor at Adventist Mission for three years. Currently, she works as editor and project manager for the Office of the General Conference President. The house church featured in this mission story illustrates Mission Objective No. 2 of the Seventh-day Adventist Church’s “I Will Go” strategic plan, “To strengthen and diversify Adventist outreach in large cities, across the 10/40 Window, among unreached and under-reached people groups, and to non-Christian religions.” Read more: IWillGo2020[dot]org.

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Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/inside-story-desperate-for-a-mission-story/

The Mission program of the Seventh-day Adventist Church is an opportunity for us to understand the needs of others and share in supporting them. Please click on the image below to watch the Mission Spotlight presentation for this week: [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_az3HMIRtg?si=HPfrn-aFt4waXTGK&w=560&h=315]

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Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/mission-spotlight-for-october-21/

Daily Lesson for Friday 20th of October 2023

Read Ellen G. White, “The Great Commission,” pp. 25–34, and “A Seeker for Truth,” pp. 131–142, in The Acts of the Apostles.

“Before ascending to heaven, Christ gave His disciples their commission. He told them that they were to be the executors of the will in which He bequeathed to the world the treasures of eternal life.

Image © Stan Myers from GoodSalt.com

You have been witnesses of My life of sacrifice in behalf of the world, He said to them. You have seen My labors for Israel. And although My people would not come to Me that they might have life, although priests and rulers have done unto Me as they listed, although they have rejected Me, they shall have still another opportunity of accepting the Son of God. You have seen that all who come to Me confessing their sins, I freely receive. Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out. To you, My disciples, I commit this message of mercy. It is to be given to both Jews and Gentiles—to Israel, first, and then to all nations, tongues, and peoples. All who believe are to be gathered into one church.”—Ellen G. White, The Acts of the Apostles, pp. 27, 28.

The Great Commission is clear: “ ‘Go therefore and make disciples of all nations’ ” (Matthew 28:19, NKJV). Therefore, it is definitely about going to others, especially other nations.

“The gospel commission is the great missionary charter of Christ’s kingdom. The disciples were to work earnestly for souls, giving to all the invitation of mercy. They were not to wait for the people to come to them; they were to go to the people with their message.”—Ellen G. White, The Acts of the Apostles, p. 28.

“There are in our world many who are nearer the kingdom of God than we suppose. In this dark world of sin the Lord has many precious jewels, to whom He will guide His messengers. Everywhere there are those who will take their stand for Christ. Many will prize the wisdom of God above any earthly advantage, and will become faithful light bearers. . . . Convinced that Peter’s course was in direct fulfillment of the plan of God, and that their prejudices and exclusiveness were utterly contrary to the spirit of the gospel, they glorified God, saying, ‘Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life.’ Thus, without controversy, prejudice was broken down, the exclusiveness established by the custom of ages was abandoned, and the way was opened for the gospel to be proclaimed to the Gentiles.”—Ellen G. White, The Acts of the Apostles, pp. 140–142.

Discussion Questions

1. How would you define the word mission as you apply it to your own life?
   
   
2. In what ways could you, daily, express mission in your attitude and behavior? How can you be more mission minded in your daily tasks?
   
   
3. How important is it that we examine our hearts and seek power from above to be purged from prejudice against those unlike us?
   
   

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Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/23d-03-further-thought/

The late evangelist Ron Halverson told a story of him knocking on a door one night in Harlem, New York. A young woman answered the door. She had grown up a pastor’s daughter, but had become a prostitute. The woman looked at the Bible in Halverson’s hand and said, “I’m not interested!” Quick-witted Halverson responded as she tried to slam the door, “I know you’re not interested! That’s why I’m here!”

Granted, such an approach would not normally work, but this time it woke the young lady up to a need she had been neglecting. Sometimes we look at our mission field and think the grass is greener in other mission fields. Fact is, the green mission fields don’t need us as much as the parched fields do. The young lady, who answered the door to Pastor Halverson, may not have looked promising, but she actually needed his message more than anyone else in Harlem that night.

Once I was working in a church that seemed just as worldly as the … well, world! The youth teachers openly confessed to me that they entertained the kids instead of teaching them, because they themselves did not know anything about the Bible. When I held evangelistic meetings, the greeters were never around to hand out lesson outlines, because they went home when the meetings started! The musicians would come in and play before my presentation, and everyone would watch as they walked out and went home as soon as they were through playing. An elder in the church told me that his neighbor wanted to come to the meetings and would I please give him a ride. I asked the elder why he could not just bring his neighbor to the meetings himself, since, after all, they lived right next-door. The elder told me he would not be coming to the meetings since he had already heard it all before. It was very discouraging!

I asked God why he sent me to such a spiritually parched church. God told me that it was because the church was my mission field just as much as the community. This changed my attitude, and instead of getting upset because the youth leaders did not know their Bibles, I took advantage of the opportunity to teach them about the Bible and Jesus. The leaders in the church became my mission field. Before long God sent other missionaries more skilled than myself, to help turn the church around. When I left, the church was not at all like I first found it. Thanks to God and the other missionaries He sent, the youth leaders grew (and sadly some left) and there was a totally different spiritual climate in the entire church family.

I would rather have been in a church where the youth teachers knew their Bibles and the members were are on fire to do evangelism, but you know what? A church like that would not have needed me as much as this one did. While it may be easier and a lot more fun to work with people who are spiritually mature and on fire for the Lord, Pastor Halverson realized he was needed where people did not seem interested. I learned the same lesson.

When I was 11, I started piano lessons but quit after just a few weeks. A few years ago, at the age of 48 I started taking lessons again. So I don’t like to say I actually quit when I was 11. I just took a 37-year sabbatical. When I started again, my teacher just happened to be a college musician who I actually met a few years ago when she was only 11. She is more than young enough to be my daughter. Fact is, if I had stayed with my piano lessons when I was 11, I might  have been able to teach her instead of her teaching me. Instead, at the age of 48 I began taking piano lessons from a 19-year-old. She’s never said anything like, “You are almost 50. You should know all this by now.” She never said, “Look at how old you are. You should be teaching me, but instead I am teaching you.” Instead she enthusiastically seized the opportunity to teach me in the here and now.

Sometimes we get discouraged when we see people in the church who we think should know more by now. Maybe they should, but instead of getting discouraged, let’s seize the opportunity to teach. I need a good teacher like my piano teacher, because I don’t have it all together. I struggle with my timing, among other things, so I need a good teacher. If I was a polished musician I would not need her. If everyone in the church already knew their Bibles and had it all together they would not need me. There may be more gifted musicians in the world that are easier to teach than I am, but it is because I am not a gifted musician that I need my piano teacher so much.

So if your mission field looks parched and pitiful, and you are tempted to think the grass would be greener in another mission field, remember, a greener mission field would not need you, like the parched pitiful mission field does. If you look around your mission field and don’t see much potential or interest just remember what Pastor Halverson remembered – that’s why you’re here!

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Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/thats-why-im-here-2/

Daily Lesson for Thursday 19th of October 2023

This is the principle set out by Jesus that shows us how we need to act as His disciples, who have the good news to share with others. Sharing the truth is not about convincing others how wrong they are, but about sharing Jesus as portrayed in the three angels’ messages of Revelation 14:6-12.

There are, however, some principles in the words of Jesus in Acts 1:8.

Image © Lifeway Collection at Goodsalt.com

First, “ ‘you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem’ ” (NIV). As we have seen (but it is worth repeating), we are to be His witnesses in the place where we physically reside. This may include our own home, our church, our neighborhood, and our community. We need to be His witnesses first where we are, in the area He has initially placed us—home or work—and to be His witnesses to the people closest to us. It can be close family or extended family, church people, work colleagues, neighbors, and the community.

Sometimes people are interested only in going off to a far country and alien culture to be God’s witnesses. But they do not witness to people around them now. We should begin where we are and move from there as the Lord leads us.

Next, “ ‘in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth’ ” (Acts 1:8, NIV). Again, Jesus affirms the reality that witnessing involves crossing cultural boundaries. Beginning from where we are, we may be called to move to other areas to reach out to different social, ethnic, and religious groups. If I belong to a certain ethnic or language people group, it may be much easier for me to witness to them because of minimal cultural barriers to cross. In some areas of the world, only one clan or tribe is represented in the makeup of the church. However, Jesus’ great commission tells us that as His witnesses, moving out of our comfort zone and investing our resources for such people groups is crucial. They also need the message of Jesus.

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Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/23d-03-starting-from-where-you-are/