Wherever you are and whatever your gifts and abilities, there are lots of ways to get involved in what God is doing in East Asia.
You could start praying for East Asia and see how God uses it to grow his kingdom. You could help your church welcome East Asian students and share the good news of Jesus with them. You could see first-hand how much God is doing in East Asia by going on a short-term trip. There are lots more possibilities.
But whatever you choose to do, get ready to have your eyes opened and your faith enriched.
Short-term opportunities: 2 weeks-1 year
Experience ministry first-hand through Serve Asia, our short-term mission discipleship programme.
In the UK & Ireland
Find out more about you can get involved today sharing the good news of Jesus, right where you are.
Long-term opportunities
Explore how God might use you in long-term ministry in East Asia or among East Asians all over the world.
Pray
Discover ways to get involved through praying on your own or as part of a group.
Six Ways
God’s global mission flows throughout the Bible. From the promise to Abraham in Genesis that all nations on earth will be blessed through him, to John’s vision in Revelation 7 of people from every tribe, tongue and nation worshipping Jesus.
Such a big mission is exciting, but it can be hard to know where to start. So here are 6 simple ways for you and your church to get involved in God’s global mission.
World mission is God’s idea. So we start and continue in mission by getting to know him, his mission and his world better.
As we read the Bible, we discover more of God’s heart for all the peoples of the world to know him. We can look at mission history and see God’s faithfulness and the gracious way he has drawn people to himself through work that’s already been done.
But we also find there’s much more to do. For instance, did you know there are over 600 million people without access to the gospel in East Asia? This means they don’t
know a Christian, there’s no local church or Bible in their language.
Beyond the big picture, maybe there’s a particular country, people group, or religion you want to find out more about.
But we don’t have to retreat into our private study to be learning. It’s great to learn together with friends, family and church members.
We’ve seen that as people learn, they also grow in their relationship with God and others in their church and are eager to keep on learning.
Ideas and Resources to get you started:
Prayer can be hard work. It can be difficult to know what to pray for, and perhaps you already feel overwhelmed with all the things you could be praying for in your church and for our own country. Maybe sometimes we even wonder if our prayers really make a difference.
Yet the apostle Paul urged the Christians in Rome: ‘join me in my struggle by praying to God for me’ (Romans 15:30). Paul saw his work as a struggle and invited his readers to labour with him in prayer, believing their prayer would truly help. And it’s the same today. We passionately believe God works through prayer to spread the gospel globally. Over the years, we’ve seen that as people like you join in prayer with our workers, God answers.
For instance, in 2012 one East Asian people group had only a handful of Christians. Then OMF began encouraging people to pray for that group. Some prayed at home while others joined prayer walks in the region. And today there are nearly 250 Christians and six churches in this people group!
We really value your prayers — just 5 minutes a day in prayer for the world can have an incredible impact for God’s kingdom.
Ideas and Resources to get you started:
- Download short and simple prayer guides for different countries and ministries
- Organise your prayer life, get prayer points from OMF and other organisations through the Prayermate app
- Read wise words on the power of prayer from missionaries who saw God at work in the 60 day devotional Praying for the World
- Find guided prayer videos for many countries around the world at prayercast.com
We can all help people find their place in God’s global mission, inspiring others to consider how God might use them. This can be as simple as inviting someone to a prayer group, giving someone a missionary biography or sending them a link to a specific mission opportunity.
If you talk to a missionary about how they ended up sharing the good news overseas, they will probably tell you about someone who inspired them to do it. That person might have been their pastor or a missionary speaker. But often it’s a quiet friend, a family member or someone in their homegroup who walked with them and helped them think and pray about next steps. It might have been a one-off talk or conversation that inspired them. Or, many times, it’s someone who went on a journey with them, even over several years.
You might be worried that people expect you to know the answers to all their questions. Actually, helping them to find the answer is just as helpful. And as we inspire others, we have the joy of seeing them get involved in what God is doing in the world. All you need is a desire to see others join in and a willingness to walk with them.
Ideas and Resources to get you started:
- Join OMF’s volunteer ministry and inspire individuals and churches to find their place in mission.
- Discover specific mission opportunities that could link with people’s gifts and interests
- Watch and share videos on the variety of ways to engage in world mission.
- Explore stats and information that could help people take next steps in mission at joshuaproject.net
With so many people without the opportunity to hear about Jesus, there’s still a place for Christians to go and serve cross-culturally.
And God uses all sorts of people to share the good news. He uses church planters, theology lecturers and Bible study-leaders. But he also uses administrators, architects, frisbee-players, mountain bikers and radio producers to introduce people to Jesus. Professionals with all manner of skills have used annual leave, sabbaticals or career breaks to get involved in innumerable ways. We’ve also seen God use retirees in special ways for his purposes, drawing on their rich experiences of life. Some serve for a few weeks, others for many years. How could you best serve?
Maybe you feel God could never use you. Perhaps language learning is daunting, or the idea of relocating your whole life to an unknown place is overwhelming. For over 150 years we’ve witnessed God’s faithfulness as he sends people to love and serve the peoples of East Asia. And when you’re overseas we have established systems to support and train our workers. In our experience, what matters more than specific skills is your passion for God, a love for the people, and your Christian character.
Ideas and Resources to get you started
We live in a time where people from the four corners of the Earth are on our doorstep. Many people now come to study, work and live in the UK from places where opportunities to hear the gospel are limited. They may also be more open to learning about Jesus whilst away from home. This creates a unique opportunity for the gospel and one we can take by welcoming them.
Sadly, international students and other visitors often feel isolated, and few ever get to see inside a British home. So by simply welcoming them into our homes and on outings, we can make a real difference. You don’t have to lay on a special event or worry about what to cook. You can welcome international friends into your normal routine. Also, many international visitors want to explore British culture, try local food and enjoy doing ‘British’ things.
Many are also keen to improve their English, giving a good opportunity for churches to serve international visitors with international cafés, English classes and providing practical help, for instance with form filling or lifts to the airport.
Each of these small steps can lead to meaningful friendships and, in time, bring natural opportunities to share the good news of Jesus.
Ideas and Resources to get you started
- Invite international friends for a meal, show an interest in their culture and background.
- Get resources to help you make international friends at friendsinternational.uk
- Find out about OMF’s work with East Asians here in the UK.
- Read and make use of Discovering Jesus through Asian Eyes, a resource exploring the particular questions Asians often have when finding out about Jesus.
- Consider how your church could welcome and serve internationals: an international café, English classes, and practical help.
- Church members could host international visitors through a programme like Host UK, which is run by the British Council
Christians serving overseas don’t just pack a bag, book a plane ticket and go. They are sent by their church.
Churches identify people able and willing to go cross-culturally by seeing their gifts and fruitfulness here, and their desire to serve. These people may be your ‘best’ people but they may be the only Christian people in another part of the world. Sending is often a sacrifice. But sending a cross-cultural worker gives your church a great practical connection to God’s global mission, and the experience of those you send can inform and inspire your local activity too.
Sending churches walk with their members through the process of exploring God’s guiding to cross-cultural mission, discerning where to serve and where getting support from a mission agency would be helpful. A good sending church also looks at what preparation those they are sending may need before they go.
Once the worker is overseas, a sending church is still actively involved, supporting them prayerfully, financially and practically, maybe visiting them in their ministry. They partner in the work with all its highs and lows, playing a key part in workers being fruitful, effective and long-lasting in cross-cultural service.
Ideas and Resources to get you started
- Make and send a care package with encouragements from your church, treats those overseas miss, and notes from friends.
- Host a prayer event for missionaries from your church. Show videos, share prayer points, and serve snacks from where they work.
- Explore the resources from The Upstream Collective.
- Watch videos from churches who have sent missionaries against the odds.
