When I was a part of a missions organization, the most popular verse that was preached was the Great Commission of Jesus:
Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. And when they saw him they worshiped him, but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” Matthew 28:16-20 ESV
I heard Loren Cunningham, the founder of YWAM, say on a few occasions, “Go means a change of location.” I also have heard other say a better translation could be “while going make disciples” ie as you are going about your everyday life make disciples of Jesus.
The interesting thing about the age we live in is that we can now go DIGITALLY.
I started to reach out digitally when I began to learn languages. I practiced Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and Turkish. In these conversations, we talked about many things and I was able to share my faith to many. It was such a natural way to share my faith and I realized the potential to reach the world with the Gospel of Jesus, especially closed countries. I was able to share with people of all faiths and orientations. I talked to Muslims, Atheist, Christians and even witches. I have had the privileged of seeing faith renewed and even a recent salvation of one of my friends.
Going on mission digitally is great because many people are in a season where they have to be in one place or don’t feel it is time to do cross-cultural missions. You can fit online missions into your schedule whether it is an hour a week for a bible study or 10 hours a week doing multiple conversations.
English – A global connector
If you speak English, you have a big opportunity. You can download Tandem app or HelloTalk and specify what language group you want to chat with. Within 15 minutes you will probably have messages from a number of people eager to talk to you. As a service, you can help them with English. You don’t even have to be learning their language. The great thing is you can actually use the Bible to help them learn English. For example, Genesis 1 is a great story because it is repetitive and talks about general things of the earth and creation. The gospels are narrative which can be easier to learn and build in common vocabulary. There are tools that help you facilitate English Discovery Bible Studies (DBS) that combine learning English with simple bible study.
Join a group to go together
I knew there were others out there doing what I was doing but I didn’t know where to find them. One day by chance I found an organization called Crecent Project. They have a program called Embassy which does exactly this! They train, support, and gather us who are going. You can check them out if you are interested in going on mission digitally here: https://www.crescentproject.org/embassy
Online turns to offline meeting
Through connecting with new friends online, we have had the opportunity to meet many of our language partners while we traveled and even hosted some in our house! We just had 2 Turkish friends stay with us for 2 days. We had many God-centered conversations and we even were able to pray over them. They were both filled with tears in their eyes because this type of personal prayer is not common outside of Christianity.
