As we look ahead to the conference which is now just 16 weeks away, let’s continue to think about the vision of ISMNZ. Read this and really let your mind SEE… IMAGINE THE IMPACT! Consider the ripple effect of what investing in one international student will have not only here in New Zealand, but into the nations!
ISMNZ’s vision is that:
- All international students in New Zealand have the opportunity to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ;
- Students from many countries – some inaccessible to traditional missionary endeavour – grow as followers of Christ while studying in New Zealand;
- Continue to serve God throughout their lives,
- And help many in their home countries and around the world become and grow as followers of Jesus Christ;
- Thereby reaching their communities and countries for Jesus Christ.
WOW! Read that again. That IS an amazing vision. Almost overwhelming. And yet, that’s exactly what God has raised up workers for ISMNZ to do for His glory. You can testify that it is true, you are witnesses to God’s amazing spreading of His kingdom as we impact the nations one life at a time.
In The Lost Art of Disciplemaking, LeRoy Eims tells the story of a young man named “Johnny” (and if you are reading this, you know who you are ). Leroy says:
The Vision of Multiplying Disciples
I was visiting a foreign mission field and spoke with a veteran missionary. He told me a story that still haunts me; I can’t get it out of my mind. It seems that he went overseas some fifteen years before we met and began the usual programmes. About the time he arrived on his field, he met a young man named Johnny, who was involved in something quite different.
Johnny was a committed disciple of Jesus Christ, but he was going about his ministry in all the wrong ways according to the “book”. In contrast to the typical missionary approach of the time, Johnny was spending the bulk of his time meeting with a few young men in that country. The veteran missionary tried to get Johnny straightened out, but the young man kept on with his “different” approach. The years passed, and the veteran missionary now had to leave the country of his service due to new visa restrictions.
As he sat across the coffee table from me in his home, he told me, “LeRoy, I’ve got little to show for my time there. Oh, there is a group of people who meet in our assembly, but I wonder what will happen to them when I leave. They are not disciples. They have been faithful in listening to my sermons, but they do not witness. Few of them know how to lead another person to Christ. They know nothing about discipling others. And now that I am leaving, I can see I’ve all but wasted my time here.”
He continued, “Then I look to what has come out of Johnny’s life. One of the men he worked with is now a professor at the university. This man is used mightily of God to reach and train scores of university students. Another is leading a witnessing and discipling team of about forty young men and women. Another is in a nearby city with a group of thirty-five growing disciples around him. Three have gone to other countries as missionaries and are now leading teams in those lands who are multiplying disciples. God is blessing their work.
“I see the contrast between my life and his and it is tragic. I was so sure I was right. What he was doing SEEMED so insignificant, but now I look at the results and they are staggering.”
Are you getting excited to come together over Labour Weekend and CELEBRATE the Lord’s harvest? In some sense, this time together is not unlike the feast that God initiated to celebrate the harvest. This feast was called, “The Feast of Tabernacles (or Booths)”, and it was thus named because pilgrims travelled from afar to meet together. During the celebration week, they dwelled in tents (sounds like a camp site to us!) Deuteronomy 16:13-15 reads -
Celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles for seven days after you have gathered the produce of your threshing floor and your winepress. Be joyful at your Feast--you, your sons and daughters, your menservants and maidservants, and the Levites, the aliens, the fatherless and the widows who live in your towns. For seven days celebrate the Feast to the Lord your God at the place the Lord will choose. For the Lord your God will bless you in all your harvest and in all the work of your hands, and your joy will be complete.
Let us celebrate the harvest God has brought to our doorsteps, and praise Him for the privilege of being His workers in His fields! May you experience complete joy.
