July 01, 1995 by Rick Wood

A Little Bit of Heaven

The 4,000 delegates to GCOWE '95, from 186 countries, have now come down from their mountain-top experience in Seoul, Korea. They have returned to their home countries with a small taste of what heaven will be like. Many delegates expressed this sentiment to me directly, and it is the one thought that best sums up what we experienced at GCOWE '95.

It was heaven because of the tremendous atmosphere of Christian love and a shared passion to see the world evangelized. While the world outside still suffers under the spiritual bondage of racism and prejudice, the GCOWE delegates, representing most countries and races of the world, loved, shared, prayed for and served each other in a spirit that is very foreign to most of this world.

This global gathering dramatically demonstrated that a common love for the Lord Jesus Christ and a shared passion to see Him worshipped and glorified among all peoples is the answer to the world's problems. At various times during the consultation there were services of reconciliation between Arabs and Jews, between Japanese and Korean believers and between various denominations, accompanied by healing hugs and tears. The answer was there for all the world to see. But alas, few were watching.

This topic of reconciliation has important implications for world evangelization. Sins of one people against another which remain unconfessed and unrepented of do create spiritual barriers to the spread of the Gospel. My article dealing with this new emphasis on reconciliation starts on page 18.

GCOWE '95 was also historic because of the kind of people who came. Over two-thirds of the delegates came from Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Middle East.

God is raising up a new brand of Christian leader that springs forth from what used to be the mission fields of the world. They have

become active and vital participants in the global missionary force. They have now taken ownership of the AD2000 vision and have become full partners in world evangelization. You can read more about this in my article on GCOWE '95 which starts on page 10.

We All Have A Part to Play GCOWE represents the laying of a good foundation for tremendous global growth of the vision to reach every people with the Gospel. But for this to happen, all of us must be serious about mobilizing the church's abundant resources for strategic involvement. Everyone, both senders and missionaries, have a role to play. The sender can mobilize his church and those of his community with frontier mission vision to adopt-a-people. The missionary can mobilize the people he is working with to start mission agencies that reach cross-culturally.

At the U.S. Center we are calling on the worldwide Body of Christ to lay aside the pursuit of self-interest and material gain and join the AD2000 and Beyond Movement in this battle to bring the Gospel to every people and every person by the year 2000.

Reaching this marvelous goal will require everyone to be willing to sacrifice of their time, energy, prayers, money and perhaps even their very lives. There is no greater purpose and no higher calling to which we can dedicate our lives. Whatever sacrifice we make will pale in comparison to the all-surpassing greatness of seeing people from every tribe, tongue, people and nation honoring, worshipping and glorifying our beloved Lord Jesus Christ. Let us all lay aside the lesser things, goals and priorities that dominate our lives and dedicate ourselves to this task.

MF Impacting the World One way that you can support the AD2000 and Beyond Movement is by supporting the work of Mission Frontiers. We printed and shipped over eight tons of material for distribution at GCOWE '95, including the official delegate handbook. We shipped over 400 sets of back issues of MF to GCOWE '95 and every set was taken. We see our job here as impacting Christian leaders worldwide with frontier mission vision. It was evident at GCOWE that we have already had an impact. Yet so much more needs to be done. As you can see on the next page we are making progress in covering our costs in 1995 but we need many more to partner with us. Please consider sending a gift of whatever you can afford to help us. We will be very appreciative of whatever you can do.

Mission Frontiers Is Now Available Electronically We are very happy to announce that Mission Frontiers is now available electronically on the Internet. The Internet is a global network of computers which millions of people all over the world now use to communicate through electronic mail and to do research from their computer. You can learn more about how you can receive MF electronically by reading the article on page 27. Millions of Christians worldwide will now have access to the frontier mission vision of MF through their computers. You will now be able to receive MF at no extra cost. You won't have to wait weeks or months to receive it either. Isn't that good news.