Cross-cultural Training

Scripture is full of cultures, languages, and peoples.  In the Old Testament, God known as the One who shows no partiality between Hebrew and Gentile (e.g. foreigner).  

Deuteronomy 10:17, 18

For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality and accepts no bribes.  He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the foreigner residing among you, giving them food and clothing.

Consider the challenge of these verses (and others like them).  Eight billion people in the world today speaking over 7000 languages.  Four and a half billion live in Asia, speaking 2300 languages.  "For God so loved the world..." He knows each of those languages and loves each of those communities with each of their own cultures and sets of traditions.  

How then do we share the Hope of Jesus Christ with each of these communities in each of these languages?  First, we need to know the Joy of Jesus Christ for ourselves:  you can not give away what you do not already have!  Second, we need to learn how to see and love other cultures as God loves those cultures.  Then, the Hope and Joy can take root organically within each new community.

This is why we invest in helping our brothers and sisters, and our colleagues, learn to learn the cultures of Asia and to practice reading the Scriptures with eyes to see cultures in the Scriptures.  Whether we are in Japan, or India, or Mongolia, or Indonesia, or Thailand, or Malaysia, we are committed to seeing the Church take root locally and organically.  

Expanding Member Care

One evidence that God is at work in the world today is the number of Believers around the world who are changing the face of the Church.  The Church is now a global community of Believers - and new Believers are eager to share their Faith with those parts of the world that have not yet heard of Jesus Christ.  

As the Churches in Asia send out their own global workers to unreached peoples in nearby areas, they are seeing large numbers of those workers flounder and sadly come home broken.  They are discovering that although such issues as emotional health and counseling are not a part of their traditional worldviews, their workers benefit from it as much as those from countries where receiving such care is more common and acceptable.  Asian workers want to receive member care and ore senders are asking for training so they can meet their workers' needs.

It is hard for workers from Asian countries to have access to good member care:  it's a new concept so there's not much member care available in their contexts.  They generally lack the funds to pay for what resources do exist.  All global workers face stress.  They risk experiencing additional traumas on the field.  We are part of efforts to stand up resources specifically for our Asian brothers and sisters to receive member care promptly when needed.  

Those efforts include scouting out networks, counselors, and other people resources; training partners in effective member care strategies, and finding financial and practical resources to start up additional resources.  Please remember our Asian partners in your prayers.  Thank you.

2025 Budget:

We praise God that we were able to meet all our costs in 2024 - even as we expanded the reach of our work.  We visited eight countries in Asia in 2024, presented four conference-style trainings, hosted a two month summer internship, and worked with individuals throughout the year.  

We have now set our budget for 2025 with new goals.  We are trusting God to raise an additional $7000 to cover those goals, adjust for inflation, and replace those monies given by those who have now gone to be with the Lord.  Please pray for new partners to join us in this work - and for the increases necessary to enable those goals.

Forty Days of Prayer:

When God called us to serve in Asia in 1997, He laid a specific unreached people group on our hearts.  We have been praying and advocating for them ever since; during the years we were in the US our church adopted them and produced a "40 Days of Prayer" devotional guide.  When we returned to Asia in 2018, we hoped to be more involved with the efforts to work with this group.  We have not been able to do that - in no small part, because of the changes locally during and after COVID.  

God gave us a vision for offering an updated version of the "40 Days of Prayer" to individuals and churches to use during the 40 days of Lent (starting March 5, 2025).  We would love to see a network of people taking up the mantle of praying and advocacy for this people group.  Would you please consider inviting others (maybe even your church) to go through the "40 Days of Prayer" with you during Lent?  If you are interested in doing this, please reply to this newsletter and let us know.  We'll arrange to send you a physical copy or a guide to download and print.

Opportunities For You to Consider:

+Visit Us!  Experience Asia, see our ministries up-close, and explore the needs and opportunities in Asia.

+Take Part in Innov-Asia.  Check out the Innov-Asia summer program or sponsor someone else to attend.  Short Innov-Asia programs can also be arranged for your Church's "Global Impact" team!

+Recommend Someone to Serve in Member Care.  This might include serving as a sender from your home, or coming to Asia.  Global workers value the spiritual and emotional support provided through our Member Care networks.

+Serve as a Teacher.  Schools in multiple countries are ready to receive native English-speakers either to teach English or to teach in English.  This is a great way to make a difference with the skills that you already have.

For any of these opportunities, contact us, ask us questions, begin to catch a vision for Engaging the Adventure in a new way!

ReachUs@EngagingTheAdventure.org.