Gina Cattell, Chris Jones & Chris Cattell

Thursday 5th November 2009 at Elim International Centre, Malvern. It was for pastors, leaders, missions representatives, missions teams and anyone interested in short or long term missions work. Chris and I went as we feel we have a calling to mission both locally and internationally. We met Chris Jones the director and the team that works alongside him to meet the needs of Global Mission.

There were two highlights of the day for me, one was the key note talk from Chris Jones who set out some of the challenges facing World Mission in the 21^st Century. The vision to transform lives, transform communities and transform nations. He raised issues ;- How to respond to Islam’s manifesto for spreading globally “If we take Britain we will take Europe.” How do we go into the all the world, making Christ known to every “tribe”?

Reaching the cultural groups in our society eg chavs and hoodies means very different things. The facets of our country are multi-layered, the same being true in Africa and India. He proposed we needed to be strategic, recognising that 50% of the world’s population is under 20.

The other highlight was hearing from Steve Kempton who CTR met two years ago before he with his wife and two children went to Nepal and the Tibeten hills to bring the gospel to unreached people groups. He reminded us that there was no confusion over the purpose of our lives on earth; we were told by Jesus to “go” preaching the good news of his Kingdom coming. This mission being a matter of life and death. The question he asked me personally was “what is in your heart?” I couldn’t remember the last time someone asked that question and stood to listen to the answer. Tears rolled down my face as the desire to see the reality of God’s Kingdom and play my part in its establishment came to the surface. It was almost as if my heart was answering with tears because I could not find the words. The day for me meant standing afresh under a torrent of conviction, the power of God’s grace and the flames of desire for mission burning again. Watch this space as God shows us the way forward.