People often ask, “So what do missionaries do?” Since there are many missionaries – really, not enough – I can only answer for us. What we do also includes what we don’t do, and we don’t get in the way of the next generation. But not only this, we encourage and equip the next generation to do more than we have ever done, to reach those who have never heard, to go places we could not go, and to do it better than we did it.
Myra and I just returned from a student retreat in the Tatra Mountains on the border of Poland and Slovakia where we ministered to a group of about eighteen students over three days. The campus ministry in Krakow is one of the strongest we have seen in Europe, and the students at this retreat were at different stages in their spiritual journey. Some were still considering the gospel while others were growing in faith and asking, “What’s next?” Our goal was for every person to take one more step towards God and his plans for their lives.
We are thawing out after a busy February that ended with the student retreat, but it began with a frigid trip to Ukraine where I barely escaped with my life. Well, that’s an exaggeration. This was a fellowship and strategic planning retreat with our Ukrainian pastors, and the tradition is to go to the sauna and then take a dip in the lake. The problem is that it is winter, and there was a hole cut in the ice-covered lake where some of the guys took the plunge. I declined and am still alive.
But the trip was also work as we discussed the rollout of Every Nation’s plan to better theologically train all future pastors to thrive in this complex and ever-changing world of relativistic “truth”. This will benefit my generation, but the main goal is to better equip those who are coming after us, and this includes significant development for missionaries and church-planters over the next few years.
Over the next six weeks we will visit and minister in Albania and Ukraine, and we thank you for making this critical work possible. New cities are ready for new churches and campus ministries, and much work remains so we can accomplish this. God bless!
Mike and Myra
Contact
mike.watkins@everynation.org
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