It is bittersweet as we finish the school year with InterVarsity. At the end of June, we will say goodbye to students and fellow staff that we love. We will say goodbye to a movement that, if it had not existed at UCSD and USD, Sarah and I might not still be following Jesus. As students, and these last 10 years on staff, InterVarsity has changed and shaped how we view and relate to God and the world. We love InterVarsity and want to see every college student, faculty, and campus transformed by Christ's love, as we have. It is our experience with IV that is pushing us out farther into the world!
Come June we will also say hello to Pioneers, a missionary sending organization that sends people all over the world to minister and plant churches among unreached people groups! We will join a team of 8 whose focus is to see people come to know Jesus that have never heard the Gospel before. That's exciting. Every year churches, colleges and other organizations in the U.S. send out short-term teams to help partner with our team in Southeast Asia. These teams enable the long-term church planters to be there, sharing the gospel.
In any given year, we hope to receive 15-25 short-term teams. As you can imagine, that takes a lot of coordination and communication. Something that is hard to do half-way around the globe, in a remote location with rustic internet. So, for the foreseeable future, Sarah and I will take up the slack and become stateside coordinators who will help recruit teams, train them to go, and help debrief them as they return. Our role will be mainly in the states, with part time in country (this makes our parents very happy).
Our hope and prayer is to grow the ministry and capacity of the team, so eventually they can expand to other villages and locations, raising up indigenous church planters and planting churches! Jesus told us to go into all the nations, and the Bible says, "Sing to the LORD a new song, his praise from the ends of the earth, you who go down to the sea, and all that is in it, you islands, and all who live in them." Our hope is to develop a ministry model that can be replicated all over the world into countries that are closed to gospel of Jesus Christ.
We feel that God has poised us to take this next step. InterVarsity has grown in us a passion for making disciples. We are connected to hundreds of college students that need to be reminded of the great commission. We have built a network of people that we hope might come with us on short-term projects to see what God is doing in the most remote parts of the world. Will you join us?
