Mission Field to Missionary
What a privilege to work with different people groups in China who in turn train up their own Missionaries to go to Middle Eastern countries of the world as their “Harvest Fields.” Over the course of three years they worked with various Muslim groups in remote China learning specific cultural ways, languages, business trades and are biblically trained. These special Missionaries are named the “Back to Jerusalem Movement.” Becoming equipped with language, business trade, and cultural appropriateness, these “special forces” are welcomed in Middle Eastern countries.
In working with the leadership of this movement, their number one request was for the Word of God to be developed in the form of study Bibles. These Bibles are for Chinese businessmen and pastors in the various countries. These groups are so appreciative of the Western Missionaries that gave their lives in China around the turn of the 20th century, sowing the fruit of the gospel everywhere they went. Many have expressed to me they feel they owe a “gospel debt” to those missionaries who gave selflessly and as a result want to spread the gospel to their Middle East neighbors in like fashion. This challenge is their mandate to fulfill with God’s help. They believe fulfilling this call will lead to the gospel coming full circle, back to where it began on the steps of Jerusalem and will be a part of ushering in the return of Christ.
Do we have that kind of determination and vision as a Church in America? Do we see the fields white unto harvest as Jesus describes? Do we see the urgency of Jesus soon coming that so impregnates the united Church in China? May God help us to once again be challenged in such a way to see a lost world for what it is, flowing into eternity without hope. It is only then that we can turn our priorities to those of God’s that will change the destructive course of our world and once again give us eternal hope.
Rev. Guy Highfill