Did you know there are 6,900 unreached people groups in the world? That’s over 2.5 billion people who haven’t even heard about God!! A people group is considered unreached if there is no viable indigenous church within the group. Only 26% of Protestant mission activity is aimed at these people groups.

Kairos is a course that looks at God’s big picture. From Genesis to Revelation, God has a plan to reach the nations. He desires us to be a part of this plan. Kairos takes you through the scriptures looking at this plan and then goes on to explore the history, strategy, and cultural aspects of mission before exploring our roles within this great plan. Kairos shows you that mission is not all about going overseas (but then I knew that anyway!). The aim is to change the way you see God and give you a greater understanding of what we are called to.

I’ve been doing the Kairos course at my local church – it’s brilliant. Some of the stuff I’m already aware of, through my work with NLI and from Bible College, but there’s no doubt that Kairos is a great way to give you the bigger picture of God’s heart for mission and for reaching those who haven’t yet heard the good news of Christ, wherever they may live.

There are around 16 of us on the course, which is being run over 4 weekends. The course is a mixture of DVD presentations, facilitated ‘teaching’, group discussions, prayer focus, and even some homework!! There’s a great dynamic in our group, and it’s been good to get to know people better. This week we’re even having Chinese nosh for our lunch!!

If you want to know more about the course, check out the website. I would definitely recommend it to anyone with a heart for mission and for reaching people with the Gospel, whether those people are across the seas or merely across the street from you!

http://www.kairoscourse.org/

As I returned from Slovakia, my colleague, Doug Watson, was heading out to Constanta, Romania for their first 2-day missions training. 2008 is the first ‘official’ year mobilising short-term mission teams into our NLI’s 14 church plants in the SE region of Romania. With 17 partner churches on board, each potentially sending a team, and 2 prayer missions planned, this is going to be a very busy year for NLI staff.

Iulia (missions) Ina (admin) Elena & Traian (Project Director in Romania)

If ours was a ‘chicks’ trip, then this was most definitely a blokes trip! Doug took Ron Zerr (NLI CP staff) and Shawn Karlson (finance ‘guru’ from Canada) with him. It’s vital at the start of any project that the church planters understand what hosting a team entails, so the training was very practical; budgets, travel, itineraries, etc. The guys discovered that some pastors had no idea what STM teams actually do and the blessing they can be to the local church and comunity. This might explain some of the challenges we’ve experienced so far! In case you’re also wondering what teams get up to, there are several key areas –

Social: helping to raise the profile of the local church and create long-term opportunities for evangelism (visiting hospitals, orphanages, or practical manual work).

Schools/Kids/Youth Work: teams are not usually permitted to share the Gospel, but they often take English lessons and then invite kids to after-school events (sports, kids, and youth activities).

On Sunday, Doug, Ron, and Shawn visited one of the church plants in Lumina, near Constanta. Doug shared a testimony, Shawn gave a word of encouragement about Worship, and Ronnie preached!

We’re excited about the opportunities in Romania, and blessed to be partnering in what God is doing, although it’s no surprise that the devil has been throwing a few spiritual spanners about: he doesn’t like what’s going on. Please pray for the church planters as they host teams this year; for effective and impacting missions. Pray for Doug, Iulia (Romanian staff) and myself, as we coordinate the missions. Pray especially for Iulia; coordinating teams for the first time is challenging enough, let alone 12+ teams and 2 prayer teams. Romania is still very traditional in terms of male/female roles and attitudes. Working with male church planters is already proving a challenge with a few issues needing resolution.

Actually we saw neither sea nor sand, but at least the title grabbed your attention. Anyway, I couldn’t think what else to call my recent travels in Slovakia. We did see quite a bit of the sun though, and even a bit of snow on the distant Tatra Mountains (below).

So, what was I doing in Slovakia? Well, I went across for our annual 2-day missions training with the church planters. Next Level International has been partnering with the Apostolic (pentecostal) Church in Slovakia for the last 3 years, helping them to plant 7 churches across Slovakia. These churches are partnered with 10 churches from Canada, UK, USA, and Australia, and each year we facilitate short-term mission teams from these churches into Slovakia. This is now the 3rd year for mission teams, and so the church planters don’t need too much training on the practical side of hosting a team. The training was more about celebrating last year’s teams and looking ahead to what we can accomplish in 2008.

It was another ‘chick trip’ – like my last trip to Slovakia in July 2007. The team comprised, Connie Roy, (a Canadian currently doing a 3-month internship with NLI) Sara Mendez, (an American who we hope will join NLI later in the year as a full-time Internship Director) and Helena Gregorova (Mission Coordinator with NLI, based in Southport). Helena originally hails from Czech Republic and so her grasp of the Slovak language (very similar to Czech) was most helpful, especially when it came to ordering food or catching buses!

As well as the mission team training, the pastors had asked if we could bring some input to help them with community outreach/social action projects. In Slovakia, community needs include working with homeless people, students, drug addicts, kids, elderly, schools, etc. (not much different to any other European nation really!). The church planters have lots of great ideas, many opportunities, and even the support of local officials, but just need some practical help in establishing this sort of outreach. This is not really within my field of expertise, but with the help of Connie and Helena, we put together four productive sessions, including a brainstorming session to pool ideas and resources. The church planters seemed encouraged by our input.

It seems that all across the world, God is stirring His church to look at ways they can reach out into their local communities. In many ways the ‘established’ church has lost people’s respect and is seen as out of touch with 21st Century reality. I thank God for progressive churches who are waking up to the fact that they have a mandate to continue the work of Christ on earth; ‘anointed to preach good news to the poor; to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind; to release the oppressed, and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.’

Please pray for the courageous church planters in Slovakia as they seek to implement the input we were able to give them; for innovative and effective ideas; for staff, volunteers, and finance; for favour with local authorities; for impact within their communities, and for many people to come to know Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour.

On the Sunday of our trip we visited two local churches. Sara and I went to Zvolen, where the CP Project Director, Cyril Madaras is the senior pastor. I preached and Cyril interpreted for me. The other girls went to one of the mother churches in Banska Bystricia, where Connie preached a great message about being ‘salt and light’, and Helena shared her amazing testimony. She actually became a Christian when a UK STM team visited her home town in Czech Republic. Her parents also became Christians, and they all now live in Southport where Helena works part-time with NLI coordinating mission teams.

The trip was especially profitable for the others on the trip. Helen told me, “It has really helped; seeing the difference that mission teams are making in this country. The training we did about communit outreach was spot on. They have lots of ideas, but needed some practical help.” Sara also shared some insightful comments, “It was amazing to see the commitment of these church planters, working in areas with little Christian influence, ‘slogging away’ with passion to see lives changed.”

All-in-all we had an excellent trip. The dynamic on the team was great, encapsulated for me in one memorable moment. Whilst eating dinner in a local Zvolen restaurant one evening, we debated everything from church planting models and community outreach, to favourite movies, ice cream, and gorgeous blokes!! Only women could subject-hop like that!

If you want to know more about NLI’s work in Slovakia, or any of the other European countries we are currently working in, please contact me via my email address (right) or visit the new NLI website at www.nlieurope.com