“Be still and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in all the earth,” the Father tells us in Psalm 46:10. Not long ago we polled Pioneers members about how they see God exalted where they are. We asked, “How are you seeing God’s relentless pursuit of the unreached in your context?”
One Pioneer shared a story about a young entrepreneur from an unengaged, unreached group who has shown great interest in the gospel. “Our national teammate was able to host him and share very openly with him [and] asked if he understands and would like to follow Jesus.” He said yes! “We are very encouraged and pray that he will grow into a faithful disciple of Christ.”
Others see the increasing number of cross-cultural missionaries and local believers called to serve in their area as an indication that God is pursuing the hearts of the people there. “Never in history has there been this number of workers nor the openness to receive the good news.”
A newly appointed missionary returned to his church eager to share his vision with his church family. “My wife and I are excited to see people beginning to pray for the unreached we hope to be with in the future. We believe that part of our role as cross-cultural workers is to both and inform and invite the body of Christ to be ‘world class Christians.’ This takes a lot of work, but we are humbled to think that God desires to use people like us to reach the nations.”
Sometimes the work of God is slow or imperceptible. “After being on the field for 14 years, sometimes it’s not easy to keep having hope that the people I’m serving will become Kingdom people,” one Pioneer confessed. “In a prayer time, the Holy Spirit challenged me, ‘Do you doubt my love for these people?’ …Although I don’t see the fruit, I can never doubt God’s love for the people I serve. This in turn gives me hope.”
Finally, a Pioneer in Africa shared that this year God has amazed him by sending dreams to the unreached and then, over and over, putting Christian brothers and sisters in their path.
This Pioneer was studying French in Senegal when he became friends with a man from an unreached group who for a time had lived in another West African country, Sierra Leone. Sierra Leonean Christians had welcomed him and shown him love. Returning to Senegal, God sent him a dream of a little Sierra Leonean man praying with him. He recognized this dream to be from God.
The Pioneer (who didn’t know about the dream) arranged to meet up with his friend and brought along a believer from Sierra Leone and was not much more than five feet tall. Prepared by the dream and his positive experience with believers, the man was ready to believe the gospel and give his life to Jesus. He had seen the love of Christ through His people over and over and knew God was seeking him personally. He then went back home and planted a house church in his village, where he was welcomed back despite leaving his family’s religion. He is currently getting training on how to lead these new believers.
Our God is relentless in His pursuit of the lost!
See also our series Global Glimpses, in which Pioneers worldwide share some of what they’ve seen in life and ministry. Each clip is less than five minutes long.