Mon fardeau français

Spent nearly the whole of the 1st week of 2010 at CMS Summer School. Michael Raiter(*) was our morning speaker, used by God to teach from His word. (Refer to this previous post for details.)

At this missions-focused conference, there was some talk about having a "burden" for a particular country. At the same time, it was obvious that everywhere there are needs; AND, the way I see it, those needs among peoples/cultures/nations outside of mainstream** upwardly-mobile Australia will always be desperately greater than where I live.


Qu'est-ce que ça veut dire?
I came away from Summer School with the intention of commitment to a number of things, my interventionist God & Father being my strength:

1. Laying out common areas of "respectable sin" in my life, identifying personally any humans affected by it (often my immediate family, regrettably), & seeking to do what the Lord Jesus requires in that situation - empowered by the Holy Spirit that ever, always rests on me through Jesus.

2. Continuing to follow a 5-year (if not much long-term) path towards giving up a comfortable & financially secure lifestyle, for the sake of the expansion of Christ's kingdom & rule among unreached peoples of the world who right now are lost
- AND, who have significantly LESS access to hearing the good news of the Lord Jesus Christ than anywhere in mainstream** Australia.

3. Increased support of more missionaries in more prayer (as an unemployed person), & also financially (whenever adequate work & income are gifted me by the Master).


Au sujet d'un fardeau
Now about burdens.
I had the opportunity during Summer School to reflect on over 10 years of following overseas cross-cultural missionaries around the world (henceforth known as ^o.s.c.c.missio's^
- & mostly from the comfort of my Sydney home).

For around 3 years now, I've fought to hold back tears when talking or praying about the needs for the unreached to hear of & find salvation in Jesus. I suppose some people would then say I have a burden for the lost.

Now if there be any country that I am particularly burdened for, I'd say sans doute that it would be France. Significantly, because God allowed me 2 great opportunities to see & participate first-hand in the work of the gospel, His kingdom, among students there (in Paris, anyway). Unlike much of the work I've seen done by ^o.s.c.c.missio's^ in other places, it was a work in which God graciously showed me that I could play a hands-on role.

{Cont'd - next post!}

L/T.
________________


(*)
(former teacher of Murree Christian School, Pakistan; former lecturer at Moore Theological College; now on staff at Bible College of Victoria)


**
By "mainstream" I mean:
Not including the many unreached Australian Aboriginal people groups, esp. in the remote communities of Arnhem Land & the wider Northern Territory.

Where I am as a teacher, in terms of professional growth, & psychological condition, I feel I would be of extremely limited value in the NT; I have always struggled as an educator to really help the struggling. Better, I think, that teachers who are really GOOD with remedial education & have enough PATIENCE to teach students with these kinds of needs, be raised up to serve there.
..