Christians

By Scott Griswold
I
Cover
grew up in a mostly White California
town, speaking only English. I
never considered learning Spanish
to talk with migrant workers. I
never visited the Buddhist temple
on the edge of town or had even a passing
thought that Buddhists were my
mission field.
But God had His surprises waiting. I
ended up spending 16 years in Southeast
Asia, sharing the gospel in Khmer
and Thai. I am extremely thankful that I
discovered a world that had not yet met
Jesus. There is no joy like sharing with
those who have never heard. Now that I
have returned to North America, my
eyes are open to the mission field next
door.
Have you felt the tug of Jesus’ great
commission? There are about 3 billion
unreached people in almost 7,300 distinctly
different people groups who
don’t have a vibrant, multiplying Christian
witness among them. 1 How is that
final sign of Jesus’ soon return ever
going to be accomplished (Matt. 24:14)?
Just Around the Corner
God has His strategy. In the early
church He brought “devout men from
every nation” (Acts 2:5, NASB) 2 to Jerusalem,
then poured out His Spirit, and
the gospel was preached to each. In
these last days He is doing it again in
cities all over the world. God has
brought refugees, immigrants, and
international students “to our very
doors and thrust them, as it were, into
our arms, that they might learn the
truth, and be qualified to do a work we
could not do in getting the light before
men of other tongues.” Migration is
definitely “a divinely appointed means
of rapidly extending the third angel’s
message into all the nations of earth.” 3
For example, people from at least 20
of the 100 most unreached people
groups in the world have moved to live
in the United States. 4 When I worked for
the Center for East Asian Religions in
Reach
Thailand, I often prayed for the tiny
country of Bhutan, near India. Almost
no Christians live in this mountainous
country that isolated itself for years. It
is expensive to visit and dangerous to
share the gospel there.
One day I flew to the United States for
meetings at the General Conference
building near Washington, D.C. I
stopped by Target to pick up some treats
to take back to my family. To my surprise,
I saw a large man with a shaved
head and an orange robe. I had to find
out where he was from. I was delighted
to hear him say, “Bhutan!” Later I found
out his was not an isolated case. As of
December 2012, 63,400 refugees from
Bhutan have been resettled in the United
States; 5,296 in Canada; 3,837 in Australia;
and 724 in Denmark. 5
The mission field has come to us. A
problem remains, though. We think a
missionary is somebody who goes to
Africa or China, and that somebody is
certainly not us! Who are these
missionaries, anyway?
I saw the answer back in
Thailand at a crowded
theWorldNext
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(1008) | www.AdventistReview.org | November 14, 2013