Mark Gillmore: Hello, I’m Mark Gilmore, missions traveler and trainer, and glad to be speaking with you here today. 

Several years ago, a missionary friend of mine was sitting in a restaurant in the country of Brazil. He was a missionary there and was taking a few days of vacation with his family, and he noticed in a table next to him, they were having trouble communicating with the waiter. 

Three men. One man was from Ireland, another was from Australia, and another man was from Iran, and they were all trying to communicateーof course, down there in Brazil the language is Portuguese. And my missionary friend that knew English as well as Portuguese, and he decided to get involved and try to help these men out. They were actually government officials visiting in the country. 

The man from Iran became interested. Why would a missionary be in the country of Brazil if it was a Christian nation? Well that opened an opportunity, and my friend was able to actually sit at length with this government official from Iran and explain to him well into the eveningーactually all the way to midnight. 

They talked about biblical Christianity. They talked about church history. They talked about the claims of Christ. And this man from Iran said, “You know, I could never have a conversation like this back in my country. In fact,” he said, “If I ever converted to Christianity, I could be killed for my faith.” 

Well, my missionary friend was able to locate a Bible in his language, the Persian language, get that to him in a couple of weeks, and they continued their conversation in an email just a month or so later. 

This man from Iran said something, he said, “Thank you very much for the Holy Bible and another book. I read something about the start of creation of the world in the Bible. It’s about six days, the God create everything, and in the seventh day, rest. I also read the famous lecture of Jesus on the hill near Jerusalem in the beginning of his invitation. This lecture makes me very interested to continue. The words and sentences is so beautiful and I must say that after reading that, my feeling and my heart grows, and I think I like Jesus much more than before. I still have many questions.”

They continued to communicate a few days. A few weeks later, in an email,  the man wrote, “Thanks a lot for your kindness to me. Every time I receive a mail from you, it makes me so happy. I liked Jesus before because he’s a prophet sent by God, but step by step, I feel that this relationship becomes stronger. I hope that I can find a good friend like you in my country, and of course, have a hidden relationship. 

Well, it was about three months later in an email this man from Iran wrote these words. He said, “Finally, I must say that after a long time thinking, now I wish to be one of yours. And I say this to my Lord and also to my lovely Jesus Christ. I continue to read the Bible. I have a very good feeling in my heart, and I pray for you, thanking God who put you in my way in Brazil. You are the first and only person that I tell about my decision. I don’t tell this to my family. Please pray for me.” 

Did you know that one of the leading government officials in the nation of Iran is a believer in Jesus Christ? Well there we have his testimony, and it’s true. And it all started from a “chance” occasion sitting in a restaurant, where one man heard another group of men having difficulty communicating, and my missionary friend got involved. 

I want to challenge you here in this GoMission. As we think about maybe the difficulties that we have in our day with the Lockdown, we may feel that, along with a lot of other things, that the GoMission has been canceled, too. 

But I wanna challenge you to open your eyes to amazing opportunities that the various immigrant peoples, who are living right around you and I, present. Do you know that in 2019, 272 million people in our world were considered immigrants? People who have traveled from their natural home or their country of birth to live in another nation. We would call them international migrants. 272 million…that’s up from, let’s say 150 million, a decade or two previous. 

The population of the United States is 331 million. Could you imagine if nearly our entire country were to pick up and move to another nation? Now that would be like the top 20 states of America, the population to those states, just moving somewhere else. In fact, the fourth largest country in the world is Indonesia. 273 million people. Imagine if that entire nation just up and moved… That’s really what has happened in our world in the recent decades. 

In fact, one out of five people who travel to live in another country come to America. That’s about 51 million people, living in America, would be considered international migrants. That’s the entire population of Texas and Florida combined. 

Even in my own area here, living as I do in Wisconsin, I have friends from India, friends from Nepal, friends from Burma, China, and they’re just natural contacts. A few years ago, a gas station attendant I befriended (came to find out that he’s from Nepal), I’ve stayed in touch with him. He’s visited me. I’ve visited him. We’ve shared Bible studies together. In fact, just this Christmas season my family went over to his gas station, and we caroled right in the station, singing to him and his wife. And they enjoyed and appreciated it so very much. 

You know when someone moves, picks up, just leaves all of their natural connections, all of their natural means of sustaining themselves and moves to another nation, they really step into an incredible sense of need. “WhoーWhat’s life gonna be like in this new area? Who am I going to meet who I will befriend? Who will understand me? Who will help me?” 

They need jobs, they need to know where to go shop. They often need to learn a language. And this is an incredible opportunity to befriend someone who otherwise you would never meet. 

It might be a gas station attendant, might be a new classmate at school, maybe a neighbor down the street. Sometimes we feel a lot of differences exist between us. There’s a difference in the customs, there’s a difference in the language, there’s a difference in patterns of living, and difference in relationships. Maybe family life is different. 

Sometimes these differences might intimidate us, but I want to just switch your mind, your mental perspective, on this. Instead of thinking of the differences as barriers and difficulties, think about those differences as incredible opportunities to get to know someone who otherwise you would never meet. 

Think about their language as an opportunity to learn a very cool thing, like, “How do I say hello in your language? How do I say thank you? How do I say ‘How are you doing?’ How do I say good morning?” You learn those little phrases, and you begin to actually expand your world and step into someone else’s. 

Maybe customs are different. Ask questions. Find out why they do what they do, not with a critical attitude at all, but one of just curiosity, and humilityーfinding out what they’re like and stepping into someone else’s world. Take them as opportunities to learn new things. 

And here would be some approach to their lives. First of all, just take time. Visit them. Invite them into the home. Share food together. Learn a few different language greetings. Laugh together…and just take time. Greet. Sometimes we’re so busy, but just slow down and spend some time. Hang out. Ask questions. Laugh together. 

Secondly, as you’re getting to know them, share your own story, especially as we think of Christ and His GoMission. Turn the conversation to the Gospel just by talking about what Christ has done for you. 

I just remember that story in the book of John where Jesus went out of His way to go to that area of Samaria. The people were different; they weren’t the common Jewish people of the area of Judea and Galilee. They had cultural differences, and Jesus specifically went out of His way to meet a lady, the woman at the well, and began to turn the conversation of the Gospel, and before long an entire people group were gathering around Jesus, discovering the good news of salvation. 

God can use you in the same way. Begin to share your story. Tell them about Jesus Christ, what He’s done for you. Very often they will have never heard about Him; never heard the truths of the Bible. Just like the man from Iran who began to read in the book of Genesis and then in the book of Matthew, and heard things about Creation; heard things about Jesus in his own words, and it just began to stir his heart about “What’s Jesus like?” And God began to open that door.

That leads meーthirdly, find a Bible that’s in their own language. You may feel intimidated about that, but actually there are some incredible online resources that, some of them literally have the Bible in a thousand languages translated into audio Scripture or downloadable Scripture that can be very easily accessed. And the moment that person hears the Bible in their own languageーbam! You just took the Bible and put it in ways that you could never even yourself communicate. Now they can read the Bible in their own language. 

I may be able to get an online link in the notes of this podcast so that you can actually link to an awesome resource for audio Bibles, and online access. 

And then I would just say, stay involved in their life. Often the relationship and even being a Gospel witness will take more than one or two or three encounters. Stay involved in life, stay as a friend, spend time together, and get into some Bible study. Maybe there’s some way they need some help, some practical assistance in your community. In fact, this could open up into one of the most amazing missionary opportunities, GoMission opportunities, you could ever experience. 

Next time on GoMission, I’m going to interview a young man who went with meーliterally, we traveled around the world just a couple of years ago, and we were searching for an opportunity to reach the unreached. And when we returned home after that trip of about three weeks, It was at that point that God had waiting for this young man an amazing connection to an unreached people group right here in his own city. And I’m going to tell you about that next time. 

So remember, the only way to stay at peace in a world of turmoil and uncertainty is to stay on mission with Jesus in His GoMission.