Mark Gillmore: Hello everyone, this is Mark Gillmore here for our GoMission podcast. And I want to share something with you, an incredible excitement that I have in my heart.

As just two weeks out, I will be returning to Cameroon for a GoMission Training Conference. It’s been too long since I was able to get back there. We had a conference, a trip scheduled for April 2020. Of course, you know what happened just the month before. Everything was canceled.

And so this trip that was at that time, I have been waiting for this opportunity, and so thankful that it’s opened up. Mid-January, we’ll be heading to Cameroon for a GoMission Conference. January 18th through the 27th. And I’ll say just more about that at the end, but really, Cameroon is where the GoMission vision began to live.

In 2013, I had the opportunity to be trekking through unreached villages out in the bush of Akwaya, Cameroon. And I entered a village on that trek called Bombe.

You may have heard of the great Indian city of Bombay, now Mumbai, one of theーand perhaps, even the largest cityーthe conglomerate metropolitan area in the whole world. Well, Bombe is about the opposite. You couldn’t get much smaller than Bombe.

And we stayed there for one day. We preached the Gospel, gave some Bibles, received a warm welcome, saw some people profess faith in Christ, and we left the next morning. And I thought in my heart, “If I don’t return to this village, who ever will?” The honest answer is: No one.

And then as I thought about missions and church planting, I thought, “You know, if I were to return, and if I failed in the endeavor, who would care?” The honest answer was: No one.

So God put in my heartー“I’m going to go back to this little village. If I don’t, no one will. And if I fail in my endeavor, no one will really care anyway, so let’s go and give it a try.” And really that was the birth of GoMission.

Just that little window of opportunity, that little faith that said, “I’m going to go try; no one else will.” Well, some amazing things have happened. Let me tell you a couple stories here.

It was a couple years later that I began to hearーactually…my wife and I, in 2014 January, returned a half year later; and we lived for two weeks. We planted a church along with some national men and a team, and saw God do some really special things. That was January of 2014.

Well it was about a year later, January of 2015, where I was once again trekking out in that area, and I had heard about a man named Patrick. I didn’t meet him on that trek. I had just begun to hear about this man. Well come to find out, about 11 months after we were in that village planting the church, January 2014, Patrick had a conversation with one of the men that we reachedーEmmanuelーand Emmanuel led Patrick to the Lord.

No, I had never met Patrick; he had been led to the Lord by one of the men we reached, but immediately God put in Patrick’s heart to take the Gospel, go back to his home, and begin to give the Gospel to his family, to the other houses, the families in his village, his “quarter” of his village.

And nowーno one has discipled Patrick. Patrick has just simply received the Gospel, and he’s ready to go and share it with others. He immediately does that.

He leads his wife to the Lord. He leads his children. He leads a coupleーat least a dozen people to the Lord, and he begins to go door-to-door in his village. Opening up the Bible, reading passages, teaching it as best he could.

And when we arrive, about a half a year later (this would have been around June of 2015 now), we walk into the quarter where Patrick lived. And in his house, he is basically already planning a church.

He has 12 people ready to be baptized. He himself has not even been baptized yet. He’s got over 40 people who are meeting regularly in his home, and when we show up, we have the privilege of baptizing him. And then he, and our helping him, he baptizes the 11 people that he’s led to the Lord, and he is on-mission.

Patrick has helped plant churches in other villages. He’s built the foundation for a church building there in his own quarter. He has taken other believers, brought them with him along in evangelistic efforts. He’s been to training sessions, and Patrick is an amazing believer.

Where did Patrick come from? The fact is: Patrick simply came from a second-generation harvest. Not a single missionary reached him. Not a single outsider, trained African partner, [or] preacher reached him. He was reached by someone who was reached by us, and that’s a miracle in the harvest.

Let me tell you about another person whose story is about that time. My wife and I, we planted the church in January of 2014 as part of a team, and I returned about four months later. And I had the privilege of baptizing a lady named Immaculate. Now Immaculate was interesting because she had a wrap around the top of her head, and it covered an eye that had, frankly, that was no longer there….

There was an incident in which someone had wielded a machete towards her and had hit her on the side of the head and literally had taken out her eye. She was in a hospital at that time. Someone was able to actually help fly her out to a nearby hospital for some care.

And while she’s in the hospital she hears a rumor that some people are taking vengeance on the person who actually cut her, the side of her face. And when she hears that, she up and walks out of the hospital, begins to walkーwould take her a couple days to get back to her village. She wants to get there because she’s very concerned about what action would be taken against this individual.

You say, “Well, why would she care so much?” Well, this is why she cared. She cared because this individual was her husband. I know her husband very well. Her husband definitely can have an anger problem, and in an incident of anger he had taken a machete, and he had actually swung at his wife and hurt and harmed her irreparably.

But this lady Immaculate was absolutely determined to protect her husband from vengeance that might harm him. It was a couple months later when I was with her, and she asked me for some advice. She said, “People are telling me that I should leave my husband. What do you think?” Well, it was hard for me to discern the answer, but I asked her, “Do you have any children together?” And she said, “Yes, we’ve got about threeー We have three,” I think it was. And I said, “Well, I think that we need to consider you truly married. And according to the Word of God, no, you shouldn’t leave your husband.”

She looked at me, and with all the determination of a soul that loved the word of God and loved her husband she said, “I will never leave my husband.” She was going to stand against the pressure that relatives said, “You should leave this man who had hurt you in this way.” She said, “No, I love my husband. I know what God’s will is. I will not leave him.”

I have, I’ve never sensed a lady so determined to do the will of God and love her husband. Well, I want you to know that that woman who lives out in the middle of bush Africa, she is one of the most godly mothers and wives I know.

She is humble. I have watched her gather her children for the daily Bible teaching. I’ve seen the order in her home. I’ve seen her teaching her children to read. On a Sunday morning, she had her children, the three or four of them, up in front quoting ten verses almost word-perfect. She loves her husband, and guess who’s the man who’s the recognized leader of that local church in that village? It is her husband.

Where did this lady come from? Where did this kind of a convert come from? She just came out of the harvest, a godly woman.

Another story on a Wednesday night. In June of 2015, I’m in the village of Batomo. We’re waiting for people to come to hear the Gospel and that night only two people cameーAugustine and Philipーboth teachers, and that night they both professed faith in Christ. Augustine was absolutely clear. The next day he joined our team as we went from place to place, house to house, just repeatedly giving the Gospel, and he heard it every time.

At the end of that Thursday, he says, “Tomorrow morning, I want you to come to my side of the village.” We call it “the quarter.” His “quarter.” He says, I’m going to gather people to hear tomorrow morning. So we arrive Friday morning. That Friday morning, the school building is packed with about 100 people. We preach the Gospel, and nearly 60 people profess faith in Christ.

Augustine had gathered them, and he’d been saved only two days. Well, we baptized him that night, and he was leaving town, and we didn’t see him for a week. And when he returned, I was in a market area preaching the Gospel to a group that had gathered, and I see Augustine walking up; we wave at each other.

I finished preaching the Gospel and several men indicate that they want to receive Christ as Savior, so I asked Augustine, “Come on over, Augustine. Would you deal with these men? Would you review, would you make sure it’s clear with them the decision that they need to make?”

And I stood aside, and I watched Augustine speak with these men, and it just absolutely amazed me. You could not have been more clear on the Gospel, on simple faith, on the fact that baptism doesn’t save you, that water doesn’t wash away sin, that it’s the message, and it’s faith in Christ. He was so clear and he’d been only saved now for just over one week, and he was making the Gospel that clear.

To this very day, Augustine continues to lead the church in that quarter, that village of Agbhal. He often talks and texts me about Bible study questions or Bible study resources so he can continue to lead that church. And Lord willing, I’m going to be seeing him in just a couple weeks.

But people like Patrick, people like Immaculate, people like Augustineーthey are miracles in the harvest. When you simply say, “Lord, where can I go, where no one else is willing to go? Like, if I don’t go, who will care? If I don’t go, who will go?” And the answers are: No one will care, and no one will go. But if you go, look what’s waiting! The harvest like Patrick, the harvest like Immaculate, the harvest like Augustine.

And it is just the thrill of my heart to have these dear believers that are there continuing the work in their own quarters, in their own villages, and the miracles in the harvest. And that’s why I’m so excited to go back to Cameroon. And I’m gonna be able to see a number of these folks and encourage them, equip them to continue to go to that next village, till every village in that area has a church, and every person hears the Gospel. And eventually, every one of those churches has a pastor, and there’s pastors in that region.

In fact, right now as I’m speaking, those people are gathering. In year end of December, out there in the forest churches in one of the villages. Even in the midst of some of the civil strife and turmoil, they’re meeting together to encourage one another for a three or four day conference. And we’re praying for them as the work goes forward

And now I have the privilege to go back, and would you pray? I really appreciate your prayer. Our GoMission conference is January 18 to the 27th. It’s in an area. It’s a city called Bafoussam. And these believers are gathering, and we’re going to train them on this vision of going and planting churches everywhere, equipping every ordinary believer to do all the works of the Great Commission, and to see God complete the Great Commission in that region.

I greatly would appreciate your prayers. Obviously, you’ve got issues of COVID protocols and COVID tests, and just praying that the Lord keeps us all clear from all that. And I’ve seen God doing that in my recent trips, so I’m expecting him to do it again. Just pray that we’d be able to encourage and equip. Pray for health and safety and that God would just superintend our trip in every way.

By the way, I have some good news back from Uganda on our last podcast talking about there. I have already received wordーwe’re just about a month past the training event that we had there in Uganda. Already I’ve heard of three new churches being planted.

One of them, one man was able to baptize 15 new believers in the planting of that church and so they are on mission. Growing while they’re going, going while they’re growing, and training and obeying the Great Commission. It’s such a privilege to be part of that.

So, young people, adults listening, I just want to encourage you, don’t worry about whether you’re gonna fail or not, because there’s things that if you don’t do them, no one will. And honestly, if you step out in Gospel witness, you can’t fail.

God is there. The Gospel is the power of God. You don’t have to be the power. You don’t have to be powerful. You just have to give the Gospel in dependence on the Spirit of God, and He will work.

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.