Going Back to Peru

Last year, I went with my church to Hauraz, Peru, for a weeklong trip to work with the Quechua people of the Andes mountains. The Quechua people are "harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd" (Matthew 9:36). Our mission was to share the Good News of the Good Shepherd with them. God moved me deeply for these people. I felt gut-wrenching sorrow for these people and found myself wanting to scream out "Believe in Christ!" I hated to leave, but I rejoice that God is giving me the opportunity to go back.

We are returning to Peru on July 15-24 of this year. Our team will be doing some VBS activities with children in a village, as well as some teaching with the adults as well. Also, we are going to be helping our host family, the Rockwells, with some repairs and work needed around the Center (where they live and work from). We are also planning a conference for pastors, to help them better learn how to shepherd.

God has been incredibly good in providing this opportunity for me again. I look forward to all he will do in and through our team this year. I hope that you will join us on your knees for this trip. Here's how you can pray for us:

UNITY - There will be 12 people going on this trip, from teenagers to senior saints. There will be planning issues, personality differences, and various other trials that will test our strength. Pray that God would cause us to love one another so that we will demonstrate Christ well to the Quechua people (see John 13:34-35)

SALVATION - The Quechua need to believe in Jesus, and so be saved. Pray that the Quechua will be thirsty and look to Christ for drink (John 7:37). Pray that the Holy Spirit would cause many of them to be born again (John 3:3-8).

PROVISION - The cost of this trip will be about $2100 for each person. This money is coming entirely from donations. Pray that God will supply all of our needs (Philippians 4:19).

If God is leading you to give, you can make checks payable to WESTMINSTER PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. For the memo line, write Peru: Charles R. Higham. Checks can be mailed to 230 Alice Dr., Sumter, SC 29150. No gift is too small to give.

Thank you in advance or your partnership with us as we seek to take the gospel to the Quechua!

The Best News in the World - Bracelet Edition

As Christians, we have the best news in the universe. But do we present it as it is meant to be presented?

While we were in Peru, we made a craft with the villagers often referred to as a "Gospel Bracelet." I would then get up and, using the bracelet, explain God's great news for all humanity. This week, I'd like to share with you how I shared the message with them.
YELLOW - GOD
God is our creator, our maker (Acts 17:22-31). As our maker, he has the right to command how we should live. And he expects us all to live according to his way.

Also, our Creator loves us and wants to be a Father to us. He wants us to know him and be with him.

But to be with him and to know him, we must live by the rules that he set forth, which are perfectly summarized by Jesus in this way: "The most important is, 'Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' The second is this: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no other commandment greater than these." (Mark 12:29-31).

Basically, God expects us to love him more than anything else in the world, and he expects us to love others and always do what's best for them and serve them.

BLACK - SIN
Sin is not living up to God's standards. Romans 3:23 says that "all have sinned." Every person on the planet has not lived by God's standard of life. We have not loved him more than anything, and we have failed to love each other with selfless service.

By not living God's way, we have earned his punishment. "The wages of sin is death" (Romans 6:23). God must cast us "away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might" where we "will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction" (2 Thessalonians 1:9). This is called Hell, and it is not a pleasant place to be.

Yes, God loves us and wants us to be with him, but he also must punish sin. He is holy and cannot stand sin (see Habakkuk 1:13). He must punish wrongdoing if he is to remain righteous. We cannot fix the wrong we have done. Going to church and doing good things cannot save us from the punishment.

RED - CHRIST
God is the only one who can deal with the problem of our sin. And he sent Jesus Christ as the solution.

Jesus came into the world and lived the way God wanted him to - he did not sin. Because he lived a perfect life, he could die in our place and pay for our sins (2 Corinthians 5:21). After dying for our sins, he rose back to life (1 Corinthians 15:3-4).

Because Jesus died for our sins, he is now the bridge to God (1 Peter 3:18). He is the only way that we can get back to God.

WHITE - CLEANSING
John 3:36 tells us that if we believe Christ for salvation, then we will receive eternal life. God will forgive our sins and make us "white as snow" (Isaiah 1:18).

What does it mean to believe? It means to turn away from everything that we have done wrong and everything we have tried to do right and to not trust in that to save us. It means to trust in Jesus and Jesus ONLY for forgiveness and salvation from the penalty of our sins. It means to trust who he is and what he has done as our only hope. It means to receive him as Savior and Lord of our lives.

When we do this, God says that we will "become children of God" (John 1:12). He calls us his children, and he becomes our Father. He will not cast us to Hell for our sins and will instead let us be with him in Heaven after we die.

GREEN - NEW LIFE
Because of what God has done for us, we do not stay the same. We begin to grow and become like he intended us to be. We learn to love God as we should through reading the Bible, through prayer, through obeying his commands, and through worshiping with other believers. We also learn to love others and serve them through good deeds and through telling others about Jesus.

HAVE YOU BELIEVED THIS MESSAGE? WILL YOU? WHY OR WHY NOT? HOW CAN YOU SHARE THIS MESSAGE WITH SOMEONE YOU KNOW THIS WEEK?

The Greatest Obstacle to Missions

President's chapels were always one of my favorites at Columbia International University. Our president at the time, Dr. Murray (mentioned in the last post) spoke with passion and conviction, always challenging us to share our faith or be involved with missions or live godly lives.

And that week's title (the same as the title of this blog) sparked much curiosity and discussion as to what he would say. My friends and I would joke that he was going to just say "YOU! YOU are the greatest obstacle to missions! Now GO!" I'm sure if he had, he would have still done it in a fair and biblical way that would have been convicting.

But that's not what he said at all. In fact, he led us to a rather unlikely passage, a passage that until that day I hadn't connected with missions, nor seen as an obstacle to it. He took us to Matthew 9:36-38:

When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”

Get Involved In Missions
Prayerlessness is the greatest obstacle to missions. So in this final post I just want to leave you with a simple challenge: Get involved. If you are already involved, great. If not, take the first step to becoming a "world Christian" by starting small: prayer.

Start praying for the nations. Start praying for missionaries. Start praying for God to raise up missionaries to go and work his harvest field. Just start praying. Prayer is a powerful gift of God that unleashes his purposes on the earth.

Disclaimer
Prayer is a dangerous thing. You may find, as I did, that when you begin to pray for peoples who don't have the gospel, God might do something strange. He may call you to go (see Matthew 10, immediately following Jesus' call to prayer).

Resources
I would like to give you a couple of resources that will help you begin your journey of prayer for the nations:
Operation World - an annual prayer guide that walks you through the world, giving stats and prayer requests for every political nation in the world. A good guide available online or in print.
Joshua Project - daily prayer focused for unreached people groups. Great site with great info on the work left undone.
Also, your church may have prayer guides/letters for missionaries they support.

However you do it, just be sure that you pray that the task would be accomplished, that God's glory would be revealed among the nations.

How do you pray for missions? Are there other resources you know of that will help others pray for the nations?

The Best Birthday Ever

Today was our final day of ministry with the Rockwells among the Quechua of Peru. It has been an intense week physically, emotionally, and spiritually. Along with it being our last day, it was also my birthday.

We went to a national park this morning, where Danial partook of as many climbing activities as possible, including his desire to scale mid-way up the canyon walls (he did not do this though). We had a picnic lunch in a windy, glorious canyon that brought huge refreshing to my soul. I still don't get how anyone can look at something like this and say there's no God. After lunch, we went to our final village of the week.

Everything went normally, except that we had a group of adults that were sitting across from the children who also made gospel bracelets. I explained the meaning of the beads as Larry translated into Quechua. Afterwards, some more dialogue went on, and I stood by and prayed that God would open these people's eyes. One of our drivers, who's a believer, shared his testimony and further challenged these adults to trust in Christ alone. Larry told me after we had prayed that it was a very good thing, and that God was doing great things. As we were sharing the gospel, it seemed that several of the ladies were being pricked to the heart. I don't know yet what the final outcome was, but I could tell that the Holy Spirit was moving on them.

The Quechua people are a people without the hope of the gospel. They are without Christ and cut off from the God who created the world in which they live. As we were driving down the mountain back to the center here, I could hardly keep from crying. My heart breaks as I consider these people - and all of those who don't have Christ. And as my heart breaks for them and my desire to see them saved grows, the only cry of my heart is "Here am I! Send me" (Isaiah 6:8). Please pray for me as God leads me to wherever he would have me spread the glory of his name!

Day 3 with the Quechua

Sorry for last night's silence; the internet wasn't working here.

Yesterday went well - we went to one village in the afternoon and did our VBS program. There were over 20 children there, and we made the gospel bracelets and I explained the gospel to them. Larry and I had some good conversation about the Quechua and what they believe, and I found it interesting that they don't really have a concept of life after death. Coming down the mountain, as we drove by soem of the people, I found my heart breaking for them, for their hopeless situation, and for their need to know Christ, the greatest treasure and hope-giver in the universe.

It sounds like the missions bug may be biting another member of our team...Danial has expressed great interest in coming back and possibly making it longer term. Praise God for his work!

Today will be our last day with the Rockwells, as we take an overnight bus back to Lima. I will hopefully get in a final post before we leave, but if not, I will give a final update on returning to the States.

Please pray for us, that we would be faithful to finish the work that God has for us here. Pray for traveling mercies tonight and that we would all be able to rest. We will be touring Lima a little tomorrow and then taking an overnight flight back to the States. So pray that God would protect us and more importantly that he would give us a chance to lift up his name!

Harvesting Wheat and Planting Seeds of the Gospel

We helped harvest wheat today. That's something I never thought I'd be doing. We hauled wheat from two fields to a threshing area which seemed like a pretty good hike, given the geography - including wheat on some pretty steep slopes. It was a grand experience to see life in a simpler time. The Quechua are not accustomed to machines that do the work or make it easier. No, everything is done by hand. We all thought of the story of Ruth and how the people then were to leave some behind for strangers. It helps the story to come alive a little more to do firsthand what they were doing back then. Our labors have created in-roads to the village for Larry to be able to follow up on, which no doubt will lead to future opportunities for the gospel.

After that, we went to another village, where we were also granted great success. We played soccer with the locals and then performed our skit about the story of the Prodigal Son to them. Larry gave some explanation for them, as well as reading the Bible story in the Quechua language. We then did our craft, and I was given the opportunity to explain the craft, thus sharing the Gospel. It was an incredible experience to be able to tell the Quechua of a God who created them and tell them how they can be in right relationship with him. More games followed, and as we left the village, Larry told us that they had been invited back to show the villagers a film series on Genesis.

All in all, today was a great day. God is really using our team to enhance the Rockwell's ministry, and he's growing all of us to rely on him more and to be bold with the message of the Gospel.

We have two more days left here, and it's easy to do a couple of things.

One, we can focus on the end in sight and lose sight of the things that God has us here to do. We can easily become distracted by thoughts of sleeping in our own beds or being somewhere that we know the language. In doing so, we will not be so willing to pour ourselves out now while God has us here. So pray that we would not look at coming home and let our own desire for the many comforts we enjoy to distract us from our work.

The other danger, especially after a day that went as well as today, is that we could think we have things down. We can begin to rely on ourselves and our own agenda, and not look to God as the source of the strength that we need to persevere. So pray that we wouldn't get complacent but still look to God to equip us for this good work.

The Best Laid Plans

I've often said that plans look good on paper. They'll work just as we have foreseen and envisioned them to happen. That is, until you add the human element.

I've learned over the years though that just because plans don't go the way we want them doesn't mean that we have failed. In fact, often God causes us to rely on him instead of our own abilities.

I would say that today was a lesson in reliance. We've planned out how we think the VBS program should go in the Quechua villages. We've divided into teams and each been assigned our roles. We've planned our respective parts so that we can be effective in the ministry that God has us here for.

But today, we did not follow those plans. And it was frustrating at times - at least for me. I've learned to generally go with the flow over the years, and so I was able to cope with the necessary adjustments. But, you see, I had this plan. We were going to come in, engage the kids, share the gospel via translation, and they were supposed to get saved. Whole villages of children were supposed to come to Christ. It was supposed to look a lot like the book of Acts.

God, however, had other plans. One part of his plan was to remind me that, while I am here to help spread the gospel, our ultimate aim is to assist the Rockwells in the ministry that God has for them. And Larry was encouraged by what happened today.

We went to two villages, and we did our craft in each one. The craft was the gospel bracelets with colored beads for each part of the gospel. Gold reminds us of heaven, where God is. Black reminds us of the sin that keeps us from God. Red is Christ's blood shed for us. White is the purity that we have when we believe in Jesus and he takes away our sin. And green reminds us to grow in Christ-likeness. So we were able to share the basics of the gospel message with many children today - and even some of their parents. But more importantly, we've helped Larry and Sandy make connections that they will be able to follow up on and continue to show Christ to.

I am humbled and gladdened by God's change of plans. We have had a very effective day today, in spite of our plans not "working." God's plans are far greater anyway, and he knows better than we what to do.

As we approach tomorrow, I have no idea what to expect. But I will be leaning a little more on God to guide us and equip us to serve the Rockwells as they seek to reach the Quechua of Peru.

Please continue to lift us up. We are daily in need of God's grace to accomplish the good works that HE has for us to do (Ephesians 2:10).

Two Travel Days and a Day of Rest

Friday was spent in travel from the States to Lima, Peru. Then, we spent Saturday riding a bus from Lima to Huaraz. We arrived late, tired from the days' travels and hungry. The Rockwells fed us and then sent us to bed.

Today, we attended a Peruvian church, where our team leader Phil spoke on John 13:34-35, charging us to love one another. The Rockwells then treated us to lunch - I had some authentic chicken fajitas.

The weather and the scenery here are fantastic. I hope to post some pictures later.

The afternoon was pretty relaxed. Danial and Phil decided to hike up a mountain, and Taylor and I had the chance to ride up with Larry Rockwell into the village where Larry was hoping to share the gospel with a woman in one of the Quechua villages. We ended up going to someone else's house, where Larry showed a video on creation, read the story of Christ's birth and then read John 3:16-21 from the Quechua New Testament. It was an incredible experience to be a part of, to see firsthand some of Larry's work.

After dinner we met to discuss our team devotional, today's topic focusing on why we are here. It was settled in all our minds that we are here, that the goal of this missions trip and all others, is that God would receive glory from the nations (see Psalm 67:3-5). We then each shared why it was important for us to be on this mission trip. It was a delight to see how God had led the seven of us to come to Huaraz, Peru.

Tomorrow will mark our first day of work. We'll be going up to one of the villages and will have an afternoon VBS. Our craft is making gospel bracelets with colored beads to represent the different parts of the gospel message. We will also be teaching (I'll be covering the Story of the Bible, and Phil will be teaching on Luke 15). we'll also be playing games and performing a skit.

Please pray for us:

• that we would be well-rested and healthy. The altitude has affected me and probably to some extent all of us. So far no other health problems have arisen.
• that we would be faithful to what God has called us to do. We will be serving people of another culture and will be well outside of our comfort zones. We need to be able to pour ourselves into this work and pour ourselves out to the Quechua people.
• that the Lord would bring many to know him. Pray for souls to be saved and lives to be transformed. The gospel is powerful and able to save (Romans 1:16). Pray that by God's Spirit The Quechua will put their trust in Jesus and turn from their idols and spirit-worship to serve the living God (see 1 Thessalonians 1:9)

Thank you for your prayers, and may God use them to bless the Quechua of Peru. Hope to report tomorrow night on how our first day went.

Please Don't Send Me To Africa!

"I will NEVER be a missionary!"

Or so was my plan. I went to Bible college with the intent on getting a pastoral ministries degree. After that, I would work my way to become the pastor of a church and live a nice, comfortable American life.

People warned me not to tell God what I wouldn't do or he would make me do it. But that's just not true. I spent two years over seas, but not because God made me go. God changed me so that I wanted to go.

When confronted with the prospect of going into missions, many objections come.

"There's so much to do here."

"I'm too established to pack up and move."

"I can't go; I don't know enough."

"It's too dangerous."

And on and on.

While there may be some basis to some of these reasons (namely, work to be done at home), I think people too quickly resort to these reasons not to do missions. I think underneath all of our unwillingness to be involved in missions, there's a common, often unspoken thing: failing to submit to Christ's authority.

Christ's authority is the ground of missions. The Great Commission doesn't begin with "Go and make disciples." It begins when Jesus declares: "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me" (Matthew 28:18-20). So when we do not participate in the command to "make disciples," in essence we are rebelling against the authority of Christ. We are denying that he has the right to give us commands. We're saying that he can't tell us what to do.

Christ's Authority to Build His Church

I do want to briefly address the objections to the danger/hard work of missions. When we read the Gospels, we see Jesus say, "I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it" (Matt 16:18). This is not a possibility. Jesus doesn't say that he might build his Church. No, he says he WILL build his church - no doubt about it. And no persecution, no problems, no disaster, no assault from Hell itself will be able to stop him.

Elsewhere, Jesus says, "I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd" (John 10:16).

Notice three things:

1. Jesus has other followers outside of Israel. Who are these "other sheep"? They are the ones that Christ "ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation" (Revelation 5:9). His other sheep are all of the people who will believe in him and be saved.
2. Jesus MUST bring them. He will not go on without them. They are his sheep, and he will not be content to let them to be lost.
3. They WILL listen to him. Sure, there will be some who reject the message. There will be those who hate the Gospel and everything that we stand for. But those that are of Christ's flock will hear the gospel and be saved, even if it doesn't happen immediately.

We need not fear the danger of doing missions. And we shouldn't shy away from the hard work of bringing the gospel to the nations. Why? Because Jesus is in charge and HE WILL NOT FAIL!

So Why Not Go?

When I continually refused to consider going into missions, I was acting arrogantly. Subtly, I was telling the risen King Jesus that he could not tell me what he wanted to have me do. I was refusing to participate in the good works that God had prepared for me to do (Ephesians 2:10).

Thank God for Dr. George Murray. He spoke in one of my college classes, and his topic was the Lordship of Christ. But he started by analyzing the Great Commission and talking about all the nuances of the Greek and stuff. It was all old news, as I had done some research on it myself. But then he turned back from the Commission and started talking about the Commissioner. He lovingly reminded us that Jesus is the one who has authority over our lives. He pointed out that most people have a life plan that they expect God to sign off on, but that God wants us to sign off on a blank contract, where he can fill in the terms and conditions as he sees fit.

Hopefully, I have challenged you to do the same, to consider Jesus' authority over your life and his right to have you do stuff that is even painful for his name's sake.

Father, give us all hearts that submit to the perfect will of your Son, and may we walk in joyful obedience. Amen.

How does Christ's authority inspire you? How does knowing that his mission will not fail give you the confidence to do hard things, whether serving the poor, sharing your faith, or carrying the gospel to the nations?

The Beauty and Necessity of Missions

This is post #3 about missions. View my first post and my second post.

Romans 10 contains one of the greatest promises in all of Scripture. Without such a promise, we would all be lost, doomed to a Christless eternity under God's wrath, paying the penalty for our failure to honor and worship God (2 Thessalonians 1:9; Romans 1:18-23). But God was not content to send all of us to hell as we deserve. He gave his own Son to die for our sins so that we could live with him (John 3:16, Romans 3:21-26, Romans 5:8). And he gives us the greatest promise in the world:

For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” (Romans 10:13)

Who is it for? Everyone. No matter where your from, no matter what you've done. If you are a living, breathing human being (and if you are reading this, you are), then this promise is for you.

What's the offer? To be saved. Given eternal life with God rather than eternal punishment as we deserve. To be given new life and set free from the sin that has cut us off from God. To have the God of the universe look at you and, rather than see your imperfection, to call you righteous.

What do you have to do to "cash in"? Call on him. Acknowledge that he is and will be the Lord and Master of your life. That he is your King. Confess Jesus Christ as risen Lord (see Romans 10:9-10).

There is salvation no other way. Only through Jesus do we find salvation and have access to God (Acts 4:12; John 14:6). So by acknowledging Christ as our Lord, we receive salvation. To not call on him, to not make him Lord and King of your heart is to remain condemned.

Calling on Christ as Lord implies belief. Romans 10:14 makes it clear: "How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed?" Belief comes from the heart (Romans 10:9-10) and implies not only mental assent to certain facts, but a commitment to and trust in the one being believed. So to believe in Christ and call on him in a saving way, we must trust him, rely on him, cling to him, and obey him. But he is not a hard Master. In fact he even promises that he is gentle and that his burden is easy and his yoke is light (Matthew 11:29-30).

It's no wonder why we call this message "good news!"

Not Great News

This is not good news to everyone though. "But wait just a minute," you say. "You just said that this promise is for EVERYONE. Therefore it's good news for EVERYONE, right?" Yes. And no.

This good news is for every person on earth. But not every person on earth knows it. So what good is the news if you don't even know about it? Is a miracle cure for cancer good news to the person who hasn't heard of it? Likewise with the gospel. The rest of Romans 10:14 asks, "? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard?" You can't trust someone you haven't heard of.

Hearing the Good News

We've seen that it's necessary for people to believe and call upon the Lord to be saved. But how do they hear the message? In fact, as Romans 10:14 closes out: "And how are they to hear without someone preaching?"

So here we see the necessity of doing missions. Unless someone goes and takes the gosepl to those who have never heard, they will never believe in Christ. And if they don't believe, they'll never call to him for salvation. There can be no other way for the nations to believe unless people go to them and tell them the good news. Missionaries must go, learn a new language and culture, meet people, preach the gospel, and possibly suffer and die for Christ to take the gospel to the nations.

We are all to be involved in missions in one of two ways: go or send. Goers, as the name implies, go where the gospel is not and take the gospel to people who do not have it. And there are senders - those who pray for and give to and support missionaries. Romans 10:15 makes this relationship clear: "And how are they [goers] to preach unless they are sent [by senders]?"

A Beautiful Calling

Being a missionary is a hard calling. It demands daily dying. It means loss and often suffering on many levels.

Being a missionary is also a necessary calling. Without missionaries, the gospel cannot reach those who do not have it. Without missionaries, the gospel won't spread tot he nations, and the end won't come.

But being a missionary is also (and most importantly) a beautiful calling. Romans 10:15 closes with this exhortation: "As it is written, 'How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!'" We should all pray to have this beautiful calling and seek possible ways to enter in to it. But if God sees it fit not to call you to go, then rejoice and pray and give as a faithful sender!

What Are You Waiting For?

Many in the early church were left scratching their heads at why God had yet to establish the kingdom on earth. "Where is the promise of his coming?" some would ask mockingly (2 Peter 3:4). After all, at the time of Peter's writing, over 30 years had passed since Christ ascended to heaven. They couldn't help but wonder, "God, what are you waiting for? Let's get this kingdom thing on!"

Two thousand years later, many do the same thing. We have websites with indexes that help us know when the "signs of the times" are being fulfilled. Occasionally we see street preachers with signs blaring "The End Is Nigh! Repent!" We have songs of people ready to get caught up in the sky with the Lord. And naturally some are asking the same question: "Lord, what are you waiting for?"

Peter's answer then and God's answer to us today: "The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance" (2 Peter 3:9). Peter then goes on to challenge his readers to live "lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God" (2 Peter 3:11-12). He basicall tells them to speed up his coming.

How Do We Hasten His Coming?
Did you know that we do have a direct part in bringing about the end of the world? Peter hints at it by telling us to hasten the day. But Jesus makes it crystal clear when he says: "And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come" (Matthew 24:14).

This is the work of missions: taking the gospel to the nations. To those who have never heard. To those who are hopeless and without God (Ephesians 2:12). Jesus tells his disciples (and us) "that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations" (Luke 24:47).

The Work of Missions Is Not Done
So if the kingdom's coming on earth hinges on carrying the gospel to the nations, then why hasn't the end come? After all, there are Christians in every country, right? Well, the easy answer is that the work is not done.

The biblical understanding of "nations" is not political and geographical boundaries. In fact, it is better understood as "people groups." Consider also the picture from Revelation 7, where John sees "a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages" all joined together and praising God (Revelation 7:9-10). Here we see that it is not just political boundaries that God cares about, but tribal and lingual boundaries as well.

The work is far from over. Check out the following statistics from Joshua Project:
# of People Groups: 16,465
# Unreached People Groups: 6,759
% Unreached: 41.1%

What Are YOU Waiting For?
So let me turn the question back on us. We are asking "What are you waiting for, God?" and he responds by saying, "Charles What are YOU waiting for? I desire worship from all the peoples, and yet so many have not yet heard. I desire them to come to repentance, not to perish without me." That's one reason why I am going to Peru this summer.

How can you be involved in taking the gospel to all peoples?

How You Can Help Take the Gospel to Peru

This week, I just want to let you know about an exciting opportunity coming up for me, and I wanted to let you know how you can help me as I seek to do my part in fulfilling the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20).

On July 30, I will be departing with a team from my church to Peru for a nine-day mission trip. We will be going to the Andes Mountains, to the city of Huaraz, where we will be assisting Larry Rockwell and his family as they work with the Quechua tribe, a people who have heard very little of the gospel of Jesus Christ. The Quechua tribe in 2008 just had the New Testament translated into their language. We will be doing some work with the villagers and will also be serving the Rockwell’s in additional ways they might need us. We will return on August 7.

Without your support (both through prayers and through giving), none of this will be possible.

You can support us by praying for us while we are gone. Some things that our team is asking your prayers for:

• Cohesiveness of the team – that we would all be in unity and work together well.
• A vision and heart for missions, especially for the people we will be serving.
• Transformed hearts the Quechua villages where we will be serving.
• Fund raising – that God would provide everything that we need as we plan to go.

Our trip is being funded by donations and by those who are going on the trip. We will be carrying all of the supplies needed for our time there. The estimated cost is around $2000, and I could use your help in raising this amount by July 22.

If you would like to give financial support:

Please send a check payable to "Westminster Presbyterian Church." For the memo line, write "Peru: Charles R. Higham." You can mail the check to:

Westminster Presbyterian Church, 230 Alice Dr., Sumter, SC 29150