Persevere

What an incredible time to be alive! Over the last couple of years, we have had a pandemic that has forever impacted our “normal.” Along with the pandemic, there have been supply chain issues, increased cost of living and global unrest. Despite those things, the gospel continues to go out to those who have never heard it, and here at Ethnos360 Training, we have the privilege of training candidates to do just that: pierce the darkness with the light of the gospel.

For my wife and me, 2020 was a year that gave us great clarity or improved vision — or as we would say 2020 vision. As we had to change how we lived life during the pandemic, it gave us a fantastic opportunity to consider many things about our ministry. As we considered where we were, I realized that I was in danger of becoming stagnant in life and ministry, just going through the motions. I came to realize that I was buried in all I was doing and needed to get a new perspective. I determined that in some ways I had become like a hamster running on its wheel, running hard, yes, but not going anywhere. The reset that came with the change of life was very welcome and brought great clarity. I realized that I had become comfortable and needed to be stretched to further increase my dependence on God. I wonder if you can relate.

For me personally, with travel pretty much stopped, I was given another terrific opportunity to stay home, a very welcome change. As we moved into 2021, I was bemoaning the fact that travel was starting to open again and that I would need to travel again. I remember very clearly walking in from my garage complaining about this when my wife suggested we move to Ethnos360 Training in Missouri from our Home Office in Florida. That same day, our realtor was looking at our house, and we started the process of listing our home. My family and I moved here to Ethnos360 Training in May of 2021, and in August of 2021, I was asked to take on the role of Interim Director. What a privilege it is to serve here at our training center! 

I urge you to consider an evaluation like my wife and I did. This evaluation for us brought about incredible opportunities we would have missed had we not re-evaluated where we were. It is wise to be still before the Lord and to step back from the pressures of life and move toward what God would have for us next. 

It has been awesome to be surrounded by young people who are responding to God’s calling on their lives and are moving out in faith during a time of uncertainty that surrounds us. Young people going against the flow of our culture, walking away from security and the known, stepping into the unknown to consider how they may be used by our God in the Great Commission. Young people willing to sacrifice homes, careers and financial security, and leaving family behind to see people from every tribe, tongue and nation represented around the throne as we see in Revelation 5:9. Not only are they willing to make these sacrifices, but they are willing to follow the Lord’s leading into a humanly impossible task. Praise God that He tells us in II Corinthians 4:7 that the power to accomplish this task comes from Him, as we are just earthen vessels. Awesome candidates, each one unique, but also ordinary in that they too are unable to reach the lost on their own without the power of Christ.

Here at Ethnos360 Training, we equip our candidates with skills to learn culture and language. We equip them with skills to learn how to understand cultural mores and how that affects worldviews. We equip them to teach God’s Word to those who have never heard it and to translate the Scriptures into other languages. We equip our candidates with tools for literacy and church planting. We send our candidates out with the best training we can give them, but it is their dependence on God that will ensure the work gets done. 

Despite our candidates’ training, they will be faced with many opportunities to quit. This is no different than for anyone else actively living out the Christian life. I often tell the story of John Stephen Akhwari, a marathon runner at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City. John was there representing his country of Tanzania. Seventy-five runners would start the marathon that day, only 57 would finish. John Stephen Akhwari had a nasty fall around the halfway point of the race where he dislocated his knee and was advised not to continue by the medical team who arrived to help him. Despite their advice he finished the race that day over an hour behind the first-place finisher, in dead last among those who finished. As he came across the finish line, you could see his bandages dangling off him in the pictures taken. When asked why he finished, he simply said, “My country did not send me 5,000 miles to start this race. They sent me 5,000 miles to finish it.” Just as John Stephen Akhwari had many opportunities to quit and was encouraged to do so, the same is true for each of us. I urge you to consider the fact that the Lord did not leave us here on the earth to start the task of the Great Commission but to finish it. Consider how you might be more involved today in what the Lord is doing. 

If you are interested in ways that you could assist us here with our training or if you are considering training for yourself, please contact me at brian_coombs@ntm.org. We have many ways in which you can be involved, from prayer to giving to volunteering to going. We would love to have you as part of our team.