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GLCC was founded 15 years ago with a dream - the dream that one in eight Gospeliters will serve in die mission field. This dream was modelled after the 18th century Moravian Church (whom we heard about in one of Pastor John Van Gelderen's camp messages). For over 100 years, the Moravians sent hundreds of willing servants of Christ to the uttermost parts of the earth, witnessing to diverse peoples such as the American Indians, the West Indians in the Caribbean, the Eskimos in the north etc. As for the ones who did not go out, they did not appoint missions co-ordinators among themselves to collect pledges for their missionaries, or disseminate regular reports and prayer requests by e-mail, and neither did they organise mission trips or Netcaster seminars. However, they DID haw an unbroken 24-hour prayer chain that continued for a hundred years, and the POWER OF PRAYER was behind the success of this church and their outreach efforts!
Enough about Moravians. Widest Evangelism is the Fifth Pillar of GLCC, and how wide do we mean by Wide? Well, the whole earth and even to the moon if there are people there who need the Gospel! Our first baby steps in the mission field began with a few survey trips to the great "unknown"; the Philippines, Northern Thailand & Cambodia in the early 1990s. Our 'pioneer' missionaries were several faithful girls from our Filipino Congregation; Raquel, Nonie. Rowena, Shirley, Mary, etc. who returned to their homeland for training and service. Our involvement with the Akha Tribal Outreach ministry and the Akha hostel project (Northern Thailand) started in 1994 and has just ended as it is now able to support itself. We are now focusing looking at funding a Cambodian Children’s ministry.
We have come a long, long way since the 1990s. 2000 was another watershed year in our short missions history. Nope, we didn't send another missionary out. Instead, the Lord led an American missionary couple to GLCC (guess who?) and they have been a tremendous blessing ever since! They introduced us to Netcasters. and many Gospeliters became avid fishers of men. Even more so, we were awakened to the reality that God In the Person of the Holy Spirit is the Builder of the church, and how we have neglected Him thus far! 2001 began with the introduction of Netcasters to our Filipino brethren in Iloilo), Dumaguete and Malaybalay, and even housewives and young Christians answered the call and turned missionaries for a week to train pastors in soul-winning, evangelism and Spirit-dependence. Little armies of Gospeliters from all walks of life have continued the 'missions trip invasions' in 2002, venturing into Indonesia, China, Vietnam, Kenya, Burma and Cambodia, and returning with law-dropping news that... the Holy Spirit is there and working, in rural China, in Muslim Java, even in communist Vietnam!
What do we do for missions in 2006 and beyond? With so many countries needing the gospel, where do we go from here? Wherever the Holy Spirit leads us, obviously! While we make our plans, we need to remember that the mission field, wherever it is, is a battlefield, where evil forces have a stranglehold upon so many diverse people groups for several hundred years. Our missionaries are but frail men and women, but we do not have them struggling alone, hoping against hope that they might achieve the impossible in these pagan lands. Our missionaries have the reality of the living God in the Person of the Holy Spirit with them and in them, and the reality is that the Victory has already been won!
Our original dream of having one in eight Gospeliters in the foreign mission field is neither wild nor far-fetched. It is clear that God has opened doors to new lands which we had never dreamt we could even set a toe in. He had called several fine young men and women to Himself, and they have in obedience surrendered to His will. GLCC is but a teenager, only 19 years old (and some may say. still in junior college / poly? Better stay home and quit dreaming of China or Indonesia, you have much to learn!) but with the Spirit as our teacher and guide, we can surely stride forth into our 20th year with confidence, much as the Moravian missionaries did a few centuries ago, an army of Gospeliters fulfilling the Great Commission in Spirit-empowered witnessing!
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