Focus

I was in prayer about our ministry, finances, direction we should take. I envisioned an elderly woman in southeast Asia bend forward humbly in prayer, as she just received Jesus as her personal Lord and Savior.

Her image is in my mind and it was a reminder to me of the focus. The focus is not our fundraising efforts. The focus is not the research and preparation to prepare for the mission field. The focus in not the training that equips us to live overseas. The focus is not the language learning and cultural adapting. The focus is the people like the elderly woman bent over in prayer. Those people are the billion people who has yet to receive Christ. Her people are a group that have not yet heard of our Lord Jesus Christ. The focus is reaching the unreached people of this world. The people who still live in darkness and have not even heard of the light of Jesus Christ.

Being in focus, breaks my heart. Having my heart set on it gives purpose to raising funds, language learning and training. It keeps me motivated when finances, packing, and goodbyes wear on my heart and mind.

We often time get wrapped up in the immediate. In the “have to’s” for the day. We often focus on making things right and good and getting through what is right in front of us. However if we fail to loose sight of the focus everything we do is meaningless and without true purpose.

The focus for us is the unreached people of the world and more specifically those in southeast Asia. Within that vision of reaching them the true focus is Christ. Focusing on him and the ministry call he has deeply put on our hearts to reach the lost people of this world.

This Christmas when I see Christmas lights, trees, and nativity scenes all around me. I cant help but mourn the souls that are still in darkness. I cant help but cry out for those who have not heard that light came to this sinful dark world, to save them. Our Lord came as a baby to this broken, wicked world. His “focus” was to save the world. As I read through Scripture in the book of Luke and read about Zacharias and Elizabeth, then their son John Born, Mary and Joesph and their journey to Bethlehem I can see the toil, and burdens they went through. Yet I can see the faith they all had. I can see the hope they had ,despite all the circumstances, to stay focused on the baby that was to bring salvation to the world. They did not loose the focus and God put every one of them and every circumstance into place at the right time to accomplish his magnificent work.

This Christmas I ask you to pray with us for the people who have not yet heard the Good News of Jesus. The people living in darkness who have not received the light. I pray that your focus would be on them.