Is That a Long Time?
Stephen and Carolyn Crockett have worked among the Moi people in the Asia-Pacific region since 1998, and Rich and Karen Brown since 2003. That might seem like a long time, especially in a day when “long-term missions” means, to some people, a two-year commitment. But it takes a long time to make disciples among a previously unreached people group.
Make Disciples
You’ve probably heard that the only active verb in Matthew 28:19 is “make disciples.”
And it’s important to note that even though Paul and his co-workers were ministering among “God-fearing Gentiles” — Gentiles with an interest in and knowledge of the Old Testament — they still spent months in each location where people received the gospel.
They did that because making disciples is at the heart of God’s Great Commission to all of His people.
The Heart of NTM’s Work
Making disciples has also been at the heart of NTM’s ministry from its beginning in 1942.
The June 1943 issue of NTM’s magazine proclaimed that it’s necessary to give those we reach the tools to be our co-workers. It quotes 2 Timothy 2:2: “And the things that you have heard from me … commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.”
That was a radical idea in 1942, and it’s equally counter-cultural in the age of the “instachurch.” But it’s what God told us to do. So pray that the Crocketts and the Browns and a host of others will stay faithful not to trends or fads, but to the Word of God.
Pray for the three Moi men, Bumani, Deoma, and Sepaiye, who were recently ordained as elders of the Moi church, and for Stephen as he drafts Galatians in Moi. And if you want to hear the story of one of the Moi believers, watch Awayo.
