Luke 10 is an amazing passage about Jesus sending out 72 messengers to proclaim good news about the kingdom of God. These were people who had followed Him, and presumably heard his message, but there is no indication that they had advanced training in evangelism. They were regular people commissioned by Jesus to do the extraordinary. What is most striking is that the instructions that Jesus gave them can be summarized in few sentences: Go with my message, and depend upon me for everything else.
Today we had a refresher course given by the Josiah Venture organization about how to be effective on our mission in the Czech Republic. There were great talks and activities around presenting gospel invitations, cultural awareness, relational ministry, how to teach English with excellence, rules, tips, and best practices. All of this was intended to remind us of the skills that we had already practiced prior to coming to camp. At the same time, It also underscored the same main point that Jesus emphasized with the 72: We don’t have all the answers. We need to rely on Jesus in all things. This is our call – to follow.
Tomorrow we move into the next phase of camp. In the afternoon we will meet with the remainder of the Czechs from Český Těšín (some of them came today), and we will begin working together to transform the hotel into a youth camp facility. This will also be the first time several of us have seen each other for a year. It will be a joyful reunion but also one of expectation. We are all looking forward to the arrival of the students on Saturday and what God has in store for the rest of the camp. My prayer is that as we recognize our dependence upon Jesus for success, that we will see God do things beyond our imagination at camp this year.
When the 72 returned from proclaiming the kingdom of God, they were amazed at how God displayed His power through their brief service. I have every bit of faith that our God is not done doing amazing things yet.
Please pray for Andrew Carson, who is traveling to the Czech Republic right now to meet up with us. We look forward to his arrival tomorrow.
Thank you for following along. I’ll see you in the next post tomorrow.