Mark Gillmore: Hello, and once again, welcome to our Go Mission podcast. And this time, I’m privileged to have with me here in our studio a good friend of mine. Fletcher, welcome.

Thank you, Pastor Yomar. It’s good to be involved in what God’s doing in your life and watching the opportunities that are coming your way. And I know a lot of it has to do with mission work.

And I wonder if you can get us started by just telling us your backstory. How has God gotten you to where you are?

Brother Fletcher: Well, I grew up as a missionary kid, spending much of my life on deputation with a couple of short trips to Burma and Japan. But really, dying for Jesus never seemed like a bad thing in my mind. And I’ve got my parents to thank for that.

I would hear stories of Frazier and Taylor and Judson on the mission field and just the sacrifices they made. and I’m so thankful for that burden that my parents instilled in me when I was growing up. But I was living for myself all the way up until my freshman year of college in 2016.

At that point, I gave up my dreams of doing my own thing, and I surrendered to help reach the unreached, but I wasn’t sure where. I saw the greatest need among the persecuted church, but that only narrowed it down to about some percentage of the world’s population. I had a list of possible mission fields in my mind, maybe the Middle East, maybe North Korea, wherever other missionaries weren’t going.

But then I found out about a region in Southeast Asia. I saw a great opportunity there, so I simply added it to the list. Now, it was later that same week.

My classmates and I, we were all given prayer cards for specific unreached people groups of the world. And my prayer card was for the exact region that I had just begun praying about. So ever since then, the more I learn about them, the more of a burden I get, but it gets better.

In later years, I had the opportunity to minister to a refugee people group nearby my school. As my love grew for this people group, I still had a burden for this other region. I was disappointed that I had already received clear direction from the Lord towards this region, and I couldn’t devote the rest of my life to this people group, though they needed a Bible translation just as badly at the time.

By then, I found out that one of the largest pockets of these refugees had actually settled in the very same region God had called me to, which was very exciting to find out. I am so grateful for how the Lord has led. Without this kind of confirmation, I feel certain I would have given up on his call long ago.

I’ve often failed and proved my weakness, but every time he proves his faithfulness, he’s worthy of everything.

Mark Gillmore: And I think part of the story, too, was that particular people group, and you’re thinking a Bible translation, and I think we’ve discovered that actually Bible translations already been happening for their language.

Brother Fletcher: Yes, the New Testament has already been completed. They’re starting on the Old Testament from what I hear, but I’m looking forward to getting there as quickly as I can to help finish that.

Mark Gillmore: Isn’t it amazing to see a need, wonder if you’re supposed to be the one to meet it, and then discover God actually is meeting the need, but it’s not through you. That’s our God. Yeah.

And that’s so encouraging, which kind of goes back to your pursuit of God. Where do you want me then in this story? Because maybe not every need that comes in front of you is the one you’re to meet.

And God has been directing your steps. I find it interesting just to think about how that as that young person growing up surrounded by the faith of your parents, yet it wasn’t your own. And there was a point where there was that step of surrender.

Do you have anything to speak to young people who might be in a similar situation where maybe they’ve been privileged to be? Maybe even with parents who were involved in that, and it seems to be sometimes heartbreaking to see the next generation not being a part of that faith. Do you have anything to speak into that story?

Brother Fletcher: I can tell you from personal experience, if you delight yourself in the Lord, He will give you the desires of your heart. I remember thinking as a young person, And, oh, I could never do any kind of desk job. I want to go out there.

I want to be active. I want to be bushwhacking in the jungle, doing manly stuff. Bible translation, that’s for nerds.

And I specifically remember a chapel service where I went forward and surrendered to the Lord. If you want me to be a Bible translator, I will. And ever since then, it was like a switch flipped.

As soon as I started thinking of myself as a Bible translator, Everything that has to do with Bible translation was all of a sudden exciting to me. I love digging into the original languages. I love analyzing a passage and asking the hard questions.

And I love teaching people about how to wrap their minds around something difficult like that. God has just given me such a fulfillment for all the little details that goes into Bible translation. I didn’t have that before, not at all.

That’s just Him. I’m so excited for what he’s going to do with that.

Mark Gillmore: So it’s easy to be underneath that deception that somehow thinks, if I were to yield to whatever God has for me, it’s not going to bring joy. It’s going to be just this miserable existence. And that simply isn’t true.

Brother Fletcher: It’s just so foolish. It’s so foolish to think that God would call you to something without giving you a love for it. That shows a very shallow understanding of how good our God is.

What a wonderful Father we have who made you for a specific purpose. And he’s continuing to make you and shape you throughout your whole life. And everything that he calls you to do, he will equip you to do.

Mark Gillmore: It’s not possible for him to make you and fit you into something that is intentionally miserable because of his loving kindness and of his just fitting you from the womb for what he has for you. You’re not a misfit. You are made to fit into a perfect plan and it’s good and it is filled with joy.

Brother Fletcher: And he loves doing it in ways that don’t glorify us.

Mark Gillmore: Yeah. So you do have to set aside your own understanding in the process. But once you step into that, you discover that actually it does make sense.

Yeah. God is, kind of put it this way, God’s not irrational. He’s suprarational.

That’s a great way to put it. If you knew what he knows, you’d want it too. And so to trust his reasoning.

And then as you step towards it, then it becomes your own reasoning. It all makes sense often. Yeah.

And there’s that joy and that peace. Now, at this point in your life, you’ve had God’s given you this direction towards this region. You’ve visited it.

You’ve tasted what that’s going to be like. But right now you’re kind of in a deputation sort of stage, right? That’s right.

That’s it. And I’m pumped about it. Yeah.

So you’re traveling to different churches, presenting what God’s called you to. But as you began to travel, God kind of put something on your heart and mind, like, well, I can’t waste these moments of interaction, of contact. And what did he call you to?

Brother Fletcher: Well, God was definitely teaching me this in embryo stage, even from when I was on deputation with my parents. They had a very clear idea of the fact that they have an important ministry to the churches that they’re going to. It’s not just, oh, we’re getting support so that we can go to our calling.

No, my calling as a missionary on deputation, my calling is to these churches in America, to help them to come alongside pastors, to meet needs, to do the work of the ministry in the mission field that I’m in right now. And yes, I’ve got my eyes on the foreign field, but in the meantime, God has me here for a reason. If he wanted me in the field right now, he would put me in the field right now.

But no, he’s put me in these churches on deputation going around. And as I was wrestling with the Lord about what he wanted me to do there, it comes back to that idea again of not feeling equipped for that calling. I feel naturally I am not a very persuasive person.

You couldn’t really pick a worse candidate to try to persuade people to get on mission, so to speak. I’m not good at explaining to people. I’m not the best communicator.

That just doesn’t feel like one of my skills. But God’s called me to it. God’s called me to mobilize these churches.

Yes. And I just have to believe that he’s going to give me the skills that are necessary to do this. So as I was seeking the Lord about this, I was in a season of prayer, and he gave me a thought.

A lot of churches and a lot of individuals as well, they understand the need of the unreached. They understand that the priority of the modern day is people who have no chance of hearing the gospel. They know that, but where many people get stuck is they don’t know what to do next.

They pray here and there, they give here and there, but they don’t know how to help. I came across, as I was doing some research, I came across a lot of really, really helpful ideas and information that I just feel like I’ve got to get this into people’s hands. These are practical steps that people in America can take to actually impact the world.

and the problem isn’t that they don’t want to. The problem is that they don’t know about it. And it’s a big task to try to get all this information to everybody.

This takes a commitment to try to inform people on these steps that they can take.

Mark Gillmore: And when you’re talking about crossing cultures and worldviews that are different, it can be naturally very intimidating. Like, where do I get started? how do I say hi to this person or that?

But yet you came across, I think you mentioned a list of like 101 ways or something. Yes.

Brother Fletcher: On Joshua Project, I have a PDF, 101 Ways to Impact the World by Todd Arend and some other authors as well contributing to that. That’s been part of what convinced me that, okay, I have something that I can share with them and we can go from there.

Mark Gillmore: Yes, right. And that list was what you can do right from here. Yes.

Right on this side, not over some far away place. So how did you begin to communicate these different ways and make it available?

Brother Fletcher: So I pitched the idea to Pastor Gilmore here and asked him, okay, is this a crazy idea? Is this actually going to work? Well, if we’re going to try to tackle this, what would be the, what are some pitfalls?

what are things we need to do to make sure it works? And he just gave me some really good advice. I came to a point as I was thinking through this, I was really questioning it myself, but he was very encouraged, very helpful, just pointing me to some biblical principles for how to engage in this kind of thing.

And not only is part of the obstacle to overcome, not only is it that people don’t know what to do, but they also need support. They need encouragement. Yes.

I’ve had the privilege of being part of groups on WhatsApp where people are sharing prayer requests, sharing testimonies of what God’s doing, sharing things that they’ve done to take steps forward in the Great Commission. And I was just so blessed by that. I wanted to provide that for the churches I visit.

So that’s how the idea of Go Steps was born. That’s it. Go Steps.

That is an ongoing conversation on WhatsApp and email. Both options are available. This is a conversation where people can share ideas about the Great Commission, share testimonies about what they’re doing, and share questions.

And I will be periodically sending out these go steps that I’m finding here and there, just ideas for how people can practically take steps forward in the Great Commission right now. You might not feel like you can go to the mission field right away, but you can take a step forward in your mission field right here.

Mark Gillmore: So I’ve been watching this stream as it’s coming to life, and some really neat testimonies, some really passionate voices, young aged people have been sharing, and it’s been encouraging.

Brother Fletcher: Yes, you might have heard, those who are listening, You might have heard about a lot of young people who are getting sold out for God. Maybe you wish you could meet somebody. If you join the WhatsApp conversation, the Go Steps, you will meet some of these young people who are totally sold out for God.

We’re talking about this generation of Jim Elliotts and Nate Saints and Hudson Taylors. I am so excited for how God has been putting a group together. It’s been so encouraging to me just to see what God is doing, And I’m positive it would be an encouragement to you as well if you felt led to join the conversation.

Mark Gillmore: Yeah, some really intentional young people who you know are, yeah, they’ve already experienced some of their own calling and they’re moving that direction. With some of these either ideas or testimonies, any highlights come to your mind as far as maybe something you said or something else someone was doing or what?

Brother Fletcher: Definitely the one that sticks out to me the most in my mind was one where a go step that he shared was a purpose, mission, vision, and goals statement. PVMG or something like along those lines where he just laid out in this one document what he believed God was calling him to do and how he believed God was calling him to do it. knew is just so exciting to see.

This is not just the fact that he is this sold out for Christ himself, but everybody else on that stream got to see that. And he’s impacting them and encouraging

Mark Gillmore: them to be as sold out for God as he is as well. And I think he did that because someone challenged

Brother Fletcher: him to put it out like that. Yeah. He talked about the mentor that challenged him to do that.

Mark Gillmore: Yes, and he really did end up writing something very clarifying, very helpful. Maybe you’ll have to put that in the stream again in a month or two and encourage the newcomers to put their own statements together.

Brother Fletcher: Yes, I intend to add to the official list of GoSteps. I’ll be adding highlights from the GoSteps of people who send those in.

Mark Gillmore: Yes, so how’s it working? You mentioned email. You’ve mentioned the stream.

When are you sending? What are you sending?

Brother Fletcher: Yeah, it’s been pretty organic. The conversation goes along as people contribute. Anytime there’s a lull, I try to send out the next go step.

It usually ends up being every couple days or so. And as far as emails, it usually ends up being every couple weeks-ish. but it’s intentionally flexible.

Mark Gillmore: Yeah, yeah. Well, the stream can come to life and settle down. But a couple times a week, you might be interacting there in an email every couple weeks.

It seems reasonable. Yeah. You can’t kill yourself at trying to over-communicate, but that’ll be kind of a cyclical pattern that people can…

Brother Fletcher: Yeah, the biggest goal is that people who learn about their role in the Gray Commission, don’t forget about it. do not forget about your calling to your friends, your family right now. Satan wants you to get burdened about the lost and then get distracted with the rest of your life.

Mark Gillmore: One of our GoMission emails is simply letsgoatgomission.org. And it was sitting there kind of dormant. No one was using that email.

So I said, Fletcher, here, here’s your email. Use this. And so that is kind of the email side of things.

In fact, if you wanted to just reach out to Fletcher, you certainly could use that email address. In our show notes here with our podcast, you’ll be able to access a link that will send you to a Google form. And on that form, you can let Fletcher know your name, email, as well as if they’d like to get into that WhatsApp stream, correct?

That’s right.

Brother Fletcher: Yep, it’ll all be right there on that link.

Mark Gillmore: Yeah, so we invite every one of you young people to join in on that. I think the burden that God’s given you in the deputation settings certainly extends to this whole field of young people in thee Generation. Would you agree?

Absolutely. Yeah. In fact, I know many of you have been impacted either by missions challenges or by a Degeneration Youth Summit or by some sort of teen outreach event, and you’ve probably been challenged along these lines and may even feel yourself a little bit intimidated by what steps of obedience could be yours to take.

So this could be a really exciting way to trigger some thoughts, some ideas, some really neat things coming your way.

Brother Fletcher: Yeah, I’m tempted to just start reading through the list, but I think I’ll leave you in suspense to find out what’s on there.

Mark Gillmore: That’s good. Do you have one that you could throw at the young people here now? Try this step.

Brother Fletcher: Whet your appetite a little bit. Well, the last go step that I sent out earlier today, I believe, was go step number seven, to adopt a people group. Some of you might know that this Sunday is actually International Day of the Unreached.

So my Sunday school class here at Falls Baptist Church, we’re going to be choosing a people group to make our own. So Todd Arend, in those 101 ways to impact the world, he presents a hypothetical here. If all your prayers from the last month were answered, what would look different?

Your life or the world? Imagine one day in eternity, someone comes up to you and says, You have no idea who I am. We have never met.

But you prayed that God would send a missionary to my people group, and he did. And now I am worshiping Jesus with you for all of eternity. Thank you for praying.

Wouldn’t you like to hear that from somebody? If you would, you could adopt a people group. You could visit Joshua Project, and they could give you the steps for how to do that.

Or if you’ve already adopted one, join the Go Steps podcast, join the Go Steps WhatsApp group, and we would love to hear about it.

Mark Gillmore: That’s profound to think that something like that could happen. Actually, something like that is going to happen. Like when you pray, God moves.

And you may not know it till literally on the other side, God reveals what he did because you prayed in that role of intercession. That is profound. That is fantastic.

Well, we want to give you this invitation, young people, to get on this. I appreciate the vision that Fletcher had. I was glad that we could connect it into some of the Go Mission pieces that we had in place.

And now we’ve got our Go Steps that is running, a WhatsApp stream, as well as every other couple weeks, an email that’s going out. Fletcher’s moderating it and keeping it running. And a whole bunch of young people are going to be sharing about what God’s doing in their lives.

So it’s not only a platform where you’re going to receive ideas. You’re going to actually be able to share testimonies, communicate with Fletcher. I’m on that stream, kind of in the background, watching these conversations and encouraging those involved.

So it’s a blessing. I’m rejoicing in it. Any final thoughts?

Brother Fletcher: Well, this is one way to obey God’s command, to let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven. If you’re taking steps, God’s heart is for those steps of obedience to be declared, to be an encouragement to others, to be an inspiring catalyst for others to take steps as well.

Mark Gillmore: Amen. As we always say, in a world of turmoil and uncertainty, The only way to be at peace is to stay on mission with Jesus in his Go Mission.