“I can’t.” Josh Joiner’s heart beats out of his chest and his hands tremble. He sits in the passenger seat of his car with his wife, struggling to breathe. She drove him to the store in an attempt to leave the house. His constant panic attacks have left him bed-ridden for a month, unable to stand without getting dizzy. Even the idea of going into the store and having to see people seems terrifying. He wasn’t always like this. All he wants to do is go back to normal. Passion for Young People Josh grew up in Mesa, Arizona. He…
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1988 – Steve Robenalt sits with his wife of three weeks, Patty, in a Christian conference. It’s his first year working full-time as a Campus Ambassador at Arizona State University, and they’re both excited to learn more about how to serve their students. A staff member at the conference teaches about ministering to people with AIDS. Not relevant to Steve and Patty’s lives, but you never know on a college campus. The next day, they receive a phone call from Patty’s mother. The words out of her mouth knock the wind out of the newlywed couple: “I have AIDS.” Entering…
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Wind River, Wyoming is a reservation with incredible people, plagued by two heartbreaking issues: post-colonialism and meth. It’s the fifth largest Native American reservation by population. Almost 27,000 people live on the reservation, and around 12,000 of them are from the Northern Arapaho and Eastern Shoshone tribes. The community has a horrific colonial history. In the past, Natives were dispossessed from their land, forced to assimilate, ripped away from their families, and had to watch their culture be destroyed. While they’ve managed to revive and keep their rich traditions alive today, the legacy of colonialism has led to generations of…
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“Do you know anyone in this village who’s deaf?” It’s a question Jessie and her team ask regularly in rural areas of Honduras. The person at the door tells them about a deaf gentleman who lives with his parents and gives them directions to find his home. “Do you know his name?” Jessie also asks. As expected, the person shakes their head. Jessie and her teammate, a Honduran deaf man, go search for him. They arrive at the steps of his humble home and knock on the door. A woman answers, looking a little tired. Jessie warmly introduces herself and…
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“Mama?” Ramon’s mother looks up from her sewing. She’s sitting on the step of their front door. “Yes, mijo.” “Who made everything?” Ramon was only in six years old, but he was already pondering life’s biggest questions. How did man come to be? Is there a creator? “God did,” his mother replies. She points to a patch of dirt in the area he likes to play in. “See that? God took the dirt, and He made a man out of it. He gave the dirt a nose and eyes. Then He breathed into the dirt and the man started to…
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The light from the projector flickers on the enchanted villagers’ faces. They’re huddled close together, sitting outside on the grass or in chairs. Many of the communities in the Honduran mountains don’t have electricity, so an animated movie brings much excitement. On the screen is a Man with a complexion like theirs. They gasp when He heals the sick, weep when He’s crucified, and cheer when He resurrects. He says He loves everyone so much that His death was to pay for their wrongdoings. If they worship Him as God, they can be in a relationship with Him that lasts…
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Liberia, 1989 — Torli shoots up from his bed at four in the morning, wide awake and in a cold sweat. He hears fists pound heavily onto his door and windows. Barely breathing, he sits still in the darkness as his heart nearly beats out of his chest. “Open up! Come out!” voices bellow from outside. “We see your car, and we know you’re in there!” A recent newspaper headline flashes in Torli’s mind: THREE REBELS DECAPITATED. They bang harder. “We’re coming inside if you don’t open!” Shaking with fear, Torli gets out of bed and opens his front door,…
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Lush, green trees envelope a small riverboat crossing the brown Amazon. Fish jump from the river and splash back down, possibly Arowana. A river dolphin peaks its long beak out of the water and in the distance, Elmer can see a large bird that looks like a stork or heron walking. But Elmer Terrazas isn’t looking for animals. He’s looking for souls to save in one of the most remote parts of the world. The Trip In Isaiah 49:6, God declares that He desires His salvation to reach the ends of the earth. For Elmer, this is literal. He’s a…
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Elizabeth Cernoia sighed. Her student had cancelled. Now she was at campus hours early for no reason. It wouldn’t make sense to go all the way back home and come back to Fitchburg State just a few hours later, so she’d just need to kill some time. She had some reading she needed to get done anyway. Unfortunately for Elizabeth, her unofficial office was in “The Hub”—a commuter lounge filled with students. As a campus minister, it was the perfect place to jump into the action of people’s lives. But as someone trying to get work done, it was less…
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Cambodia, 1973 – a young man wakes up in darkness. It’s three a.m. and he’s lying down on the hard floor of a semi-truck, enveloped by the pungent smell of raw fish. Radha Manickam is twenty-years old and was kicked out of his father’s home a few months ago. He could put up with Radha’s recent conversion to Christianity, but his baptism was the last straw. In his father’s eyes, he’s embraced the colonizers’ religion. Every night Radha sleeps here, and every day he works up early so the truck can be used for the fishermen’s work. Today, Radha is…
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Luis Magandi and his family live in Melchor, Guatemala—a village on the Belizean border. They run a small pizza shop to help support their church-planting ministry. Last week, a young man named Estuardo walked into their shop hoping to find work. As they talked, Estuardo revealed to Luis that he had just left his home 400 kilometers away, searching for somewhere safe to live. In his home town, he had been approached by a local gang who wanted him to join them. When he refused, they shot him…four times. It’s a miracle that he survived. Estuardo said he believes there…
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Edwin Colon is the co-founder and pastor of the Recovery House of Worship in Brooklyn, New York. He describes his church as a refuge for the marginalized and his congregation being filled with murderers, prostitutes, and drug addicts. But Edwin tells his church regularly that he’s the worst sinner of them all. Edwin’s downward spiral to addiction started when most children were still watching cartoons. At eleven, he began his relationship with alcohol, dropped out of school after 6th grade, and started using cocaine before he became an adult. When he turned eighteen, he qualified for a twelve-step program. It…
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The Great Commission is what spurs us to do indigenous ministry. Around the world, Christians are making disciples in their hometowns and bringing the gospel to their people. How will you be a part of that?