Last year my wife and I had the opportunity to serve mid-term in East Asia. The city we lived in was a busy place where several different people groups collided and called home. We studied language at a minority university where college students from these groups were represented. During this time the Lord allowed me to build relationships and share the Gospel with a lot of guys on campus and around the city. By far the most memorable relationship I had was with a guy named Ma. Ma is from one of the largest unreached people groups in East Asia.

Ma was the friend that would show up at our house unannounced at any time of the day or night. We spent most of our time together eating noodles at a hole-in-the-wall restaurant, playing ping pong with the guys at the mosque, or hanging out at home having conversations over hot cups of tea. Ma is a student at a mosque that was near our university. He is studying to be an Imam (a Muslim religious leader) and, because of this, talking about God was something that he really enjoyed doing.

I remember one day, not long after I met Ma, he came over with an electronic version of the Qur’an that read aloud in English. He kept having it read a verse about killing people who do not believe over and over. I was confused and a little nervous about the point he was trying to make with this. As it turns out, he was upset that his people were using this verse to justify killing people in a recent terrorist attack. Although my language was not very good at this point, I was able to use this opportunity to share with him the truth and hope of the Gospel.

As our relationship continued to grow we were able to go deeper in conversations about who Jesus really is and how he sacrificed his life to cover the sins of the world. He enjoyed these conversations and was always interested in hearing more. On his own accord, he even went to a church service so he could hear more about the Bible and see how Christians worship. Before we left, I was able to give him a copy of the Bible in his own language (his people group uses different words than the majority people of that country, especially when it comes to spiritual terms) so that he can continue to study the Truth. Although Ma is very interested in the Gospel, he has not made a decision to repent of his sins and believe in Jesus.

During our time serving Mid-Term, and partially because of what I experienced in my relationship with Ma, my wife and I decided that this cannot just be a Mid-Term thing. There are so many people around the world who desperately need the Gospel. The Lord used our year in East Asia to bring the Gospel to Ma. He also used this time to show us that he is calling us to “make disciples of all nations” by investing our lives Long-Term to bring the Gospel to other unreached people like Ma.

 

Taylor and his wife Julia have been members at The Church at Brook Hills for three years. Together they serve in our Preschool Ministry and are part of a small group. They just returned from serving in East Asia as Mid-Termers and are currently in the process of going Long-Term with our East Asia Church Planting Team. Through the Global Offering our faith family was able to help send them to East Asia to engage unreached people groups in their city, and now will have the opportunity to send them back out for Long-Term work.