A former
student of mine, from a class at the Wheaton Graduate School, is a
church-planter in Carol Stream, the town where I live in suburban
Chicago. His work, directly supported by the North American Mission
Board of the SBC, is one of the most thrilling missional church visions
I know firsthand. He recently posted a prayer request on his Facebook
that so thrilled me I asked his permission to blog this so you could
see his vision and understand what is really going on in America. (I am
changing names here to protect the mission and the people involved.) My
friend wrote:
In
the past couple months, our team has been connecting with Nepali
refugees who have recently started moving into Chicagoland. The first
connections were made through some Karen teens who invited some Nepali
young adults to the Karen Bible study.
Our
friendships have developed well through a Karen midweek study, an
international Sunday school and some other special events. Last week
(1/11), things took a new turn as I was able to gather six Nepali’s
together for a time of prayer and conversation. They all agreed that we
should move forward in trying to start a Nepali church (satsang),
although only two of the six people are presently believers.
Tomorrow,
we will have our first formal Nepali Satsang (like a church, but
contextualized–still very Christocentric) at the home of a family that
is Brahman Hindu.
Pray
for one of the two known Nepali believers in this small group. He'll be
translating and trying to learn how to lead. His English is pretty
good, but he's not fluent. Because of this I ask that you pray for
God's wisdom to help him translate the message well.
Pray for me as I lead this service. There are several Sanskrit-language prayers that I'm not that good at yet.
Pray that God gives me the skill I will need. Pray that the
prayer/worship is encouraging and well received by the Nepali’s that
attend. Pray also for my preaching. I will speak from Mark 1, the
beginning of the gospel. I will try to explain why the coming of Jesus
Christ is good news for Nepali’s. Pray that God will give the listeners
open hearts to believe the message and begin to follow Christ.
Pray
for other Nepali’s to come to this meeting as well. There are
transportation difficulties. Pray for a good turnout. Pray that Satan
will be bound and kept away as we invade new territory. Pray also for
God to provide the financial resources we need to effectively plant
this new church. There are no Nepali churches in Chicago. This is truly
new territory. Most of the Nepali’s who are coming are from unreached
people groups. There are several things that we need, but the biggest
thing right now is a way to provide financially for this Nepali brother
so he can dedicate his full-time effort to ministry preparation. I'm
praying that God will raise him up as the pastor of this new church. He
loves the Lord, is a great singer, and speaks five languages.
I hope you read this prayer request carefully. This is in America. This
is in the suburbs of Chicago. This is not across the globe. These are
my neighbors. Who will reach them with the good news? My former student
is doing that and yet few appreciate the missional dynamic of his
calling. While you are at it pray for me that I might be a good teacher
and mentor to men like this young man who is so faithful to the gospel
of the kingdom.
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