 Globalization and rapid technological advancements have created a world where people can move across the globe more easily than ever before. The apostle Paul spoke to this reality in Acts 17:26-27: “From one man he has made every nationality to live over the whole earth and has determined their appointed times and the boundaries of where they live. He did this so that they might seek God, and perhaps they might reach out and find him, though he is not far from each one of us”(CSB). The least reached people of the world are now our neighbors, and this is no accident. The God of the universe has brought them to this place at this time for His purposes—so that they might seek Him. There are five primary ways people from unreached groups come to North America, each presenting unique challenges and opportunities. Understanding how and why they have arrived helps believers better demonstrate the love of Jesus and engage in meaningful gospel conversations. 1. Immigrants and Professionals Many people arrive through legal immigration channels. Some are professionals—doctors, engineers, and business leaders—filling essential roles. Others come through marriage to a citizen or through family sponsorship. These immigrants often choose to relocate and have the means to do so. They are our co-workers and doctors, frequently highly educated and financially stable. 2. International Students International students come to North America seeking education. Some participate in high school exchange programs, while many more attend universities, often staying for several years to complete degrees. Although many desire to remain in the country after graduation, fewer than half are able to do so. Those who stay typically enter the workforce, particularly in science and technology fields. Most, however, return to their home countries, carrying with them the experiences and relationships they formed while studying. Will they take the gospel with them? 3. Refugee Resettlement The U.S. refugee resettlement program, formally established in 1980, has welcomed over 3 million refugees. To receive refugee status, individuals must have a well-founded fear of persecution due to their race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or membership in a particular social group. Refugees do not choose to leave their homes but flee for safety. Many have endured persecution, trauma, and hardship. They often arrive with little and face socio-economic challenges, including language barriers and cultural adjustments. 4. Tourism and Seasonal Work Some people from unreached groups visit North America for a short time as tourists or seasonal workers. Tourists explore national landmarks, theme parks, and major cities. Others, particularly young people, arrive on temporary work visas to staff hotels, restaurants, and amusement parks during peak travel seasons. These individuals present a unique, time-sensitive opportunity for gospel engagement. 5. Undocumented Immigrants Some individuals from unreached groups arrive without legal status. Many come with temporary visas and overstay, while others cross borders seeking safety or economic opportunity. Though immigration policies are complex and often controversial, these individuals are now our neighbors. Many are fleeing difficult situations, seeking better lives for their families, or pursuing the American dream. Our Response Each of these groups has distinct cultural, economic, and educational realities. Some may need English classes and financial assistance, while others drive luxury cars and send their children to private schools. As believers, we must be discerning and intentional in learning about the people God has brought into our cities. We are called to serve, love, and share the gospel with them in ways that are relevant to their circumstances. Our Partners While God is bringing the unreached to North America, He is also sending Christian brothers and sisters through these same immigration pathways. Believers from around the world are relocating for work, education, or refuge. They have a unique ability to connect with and influence the unreached in ways that local believers may not. Partnering with these Christians can enhance outreach efforts and provide cultural insights for effective ministry. For Such a Time as This When Esther was taken into the king’s palace, Mordecai recognized that God was working through her situation. He told her: “If you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will come to the Jewish people from another place, but you and your father’s family will be destroyed. Who knows, perhaps you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?” (Esther 4:14) Immigration, especially undocumented immigration, is a complex and often contentious issue. Yet, the reality remains: people from unreached groups are moving into our cities and neighborhoods. Many come from places with little or no gospel witness. In their home countries, they may have lived hours away from the nearest Christian, but now they are surrounded by churches and believers. The church's lack of awareness of these realities is perhaps the greatest barrier to abundant harvest - a barrier I hope to disrupt with all that I write here at the Everywhere to Everywhere blog. Could it be that God has brought you to this moment to recognize the opportunity before you? Look around. The harvest is ripe, but the laborers are few. Resources Did you find this helpful? Share it with a friend
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 Last week, I introduced Google Maps as a tool for discovering the unreached people living in your city or region. However, finding the unreached around you is just the first step. We need to find ways to engage these communities with love and gospel witness. Today, I’d like to introduce four principles that will lead to loving engagement as you go out into the harvest—the places you’ve discovered using Google Maps. Four Principles for Gospel Engagement:
Learning As you go out into the community, be intentional about adopting a posture of learning. One of the greatest kindnesses we can show to new Americans—whether refugees, immigrants, or international students—is to take a genuine interest in their lives and cultures. To do this, you’ll need to reflect on your own preconceived stereotypes and be careful not to make assumptions about the people you meet. In Acts 17, the Apostle Paul spent time exploring Athens, learning about its people and beliefs. He discovered an altar to the “unknown god” and used that cultural reference as a bridge to share the gospel in a way the Athenians would understand. In the same way, we should become cultural detectives, searching for the fingerprints of God in different cultures to understand the deep beliefs, desires, and needs of those we encounter. Action Steps for Learning:
Love As you enter the community, approach every interaction with an attitude of love. Everyone you meet is an image bearer, known by God before they were born. Their differences do not change this truth. One of the top reasons former Muslims cite for leaving Islam and following Christ is the tangible love of a Christian in their lives. If you are wondering how to love well in cross-cultural relationships, consider 1 Corinthians 13:4-7: "Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres." This passage serves as a rubric for love. When unsure how to act or think in a relationship, return to this list and ask the Lord to help you embody these attitudes and actions. Action Steps for Loving:
Listening One of the best ways to both learn and love is to listen to people’s stories. Everyone has a story, and most long to be heard. I remember taking a pastor into a Somali-owned restaurant one day. After a wonderful meal and two cups of Somali tea, I asked the owner how he liked living in America. He lifted his shirt to reveal a scar on his belly—a gunshot wound. He then showed us another scar on his leg. He told us how Al-Shabab soldiers attacked his village, killing the adults and taking the young boys and men. He was shot twice and left for dead. But someone found him, cared for him, and helped him get to the Dadaab Refugee Camp in Kenya. Years later, he was granted refugee status and brought to the U.S. That had happened over twenty years ago. He went on to tell us about his oldest children, twins, who were in university, and about his businesses—a restaurant and a car dealership. With great emphasis, he told us, “I love America.” His story was far more powerful than I had anticipated when I asked, but it was his story to tell, and I was honored to hear it. Action Steps for Listening:
Discernment I once heard it said that evangelicals are often so eager to share the good news that we rarely take the time to hear a person's bad news first. Yet, when we listen, love well, and learn, we prepare ourselves to partner with the Holy Spirit in discerning how best to plant seeds and share the gospel. When we invest this time, we often find that when a person does come to faith, their discipleship journey has already begun organically. A friend once told me that in cross-cultural relationships, "It's not until the fifth tea that anything significant happens." He didn’t mean the fifth glass of tea but the fifth occasion of sitting down together over tea and conversation—the fifth time of listening, loving, and learning. The more we listen, love, and learn, the more we will see our prayers answered as natural opportunities to share the gospel arise. If we prayerfully persist in being present, God will show up. Action Steps for Discernment:
Crescent Project founder Fouad Masri once said, "90% of Muslim ministry is just showing up." So much of reaching the unreached in our cities is simply a ministry of presence. Step through the door. Say hello. Ask good questions. And then do it again and again and again. Resources Did you find this helpful? Share it with a friend  One of the simplest ways to discover the unreached in your area is by using Google Maps, along with resources like the Joshua Project, Unreached People Groups of North America and the Jesus Film App. These tools can help you identify the ethnic communities living in your region and understand their cultural and spiritual backgrounds. How to Get Started
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By intentionally seeking out and engaging with these communities, you can build relationships and share the love of Christ with those who have never heard the gospel. Let’s step out in faith and embrace this incredible mission opportunity—right in our own backyard. Resources Did you find this helpful? Share it with a friend  I have been enjoying facilitating a Sunday school class at our church, where we are reading through C.S. Lewis’ classic book, Mere Christianity. This week, our chapter ended with a gut-punch quote about generosity: "I do not believe one can settle how much we ought to give. I am afraid the only safe rule is to give more than we can spare. In other words, if our expenditure on comforts, luxuries, amusements, etc., is up to the standard common among those with the same income as our own, we are probably giving away too little. If our charities do not at all pinch or hamper us, I should say they are too small. There ought to be things we should like to do and cannot do because our charitable expenditure excludes them." Lewis' sharp intellect can make one feel as though they’re sitting in a philosophy lecture one moment, and then, with a crystal-clear metaphor or a piercing quote, he drives the point home. The quote above was one of those moments for me. I truly believe I live in one of the greatest countries in the history of mankind, yet I wonder if we who follow Christ in this modern age have allowed the American Dream to subtly infiltrate our faith in ways we struggle to recognize. When I read the Gospels, the book of Acts, and the epistles, I see radical generosity marking both the teachings of the New Testament and the example of the early believers. “They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need” is not a testimony I’ve ever heard in a North American church (Acts 2:45). Yet, it was a defining characteristic of the early church. When Paul first met the Apostles in Jerusalem, they extended the right hand of fellowship and emphasized one additional charge, as Paul recalls: “All they asked was that we should continue to remember the poor, the very thing I had been eager to do all along” (Galatians 2:10). This was not just a passing statement—Paul actively raised money from the churches he visited to help those suffering from famine in Jerusalem. Writing to the Corinthians, he highlights the extraordinary generosity of the Macedonians: “In the midst of a very severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity. For I testify that they gave as much as they were able, and even beyond their ability. Entirely on their own, they urgently pleaded with us for the privilege of sharing in this service to the Lord’s people. And they exceeded our expectations” (2 Corinthians 8:2-5). We, too, have brothers and sisters in Christ experiencing severe hardship. We, too, can respond as the early church did to meet their needs. We, too—even those of us who have little—can well up in rich generosity. Randy Alcorn, in his powerful little book The Treasure Principle, writes: “Five minutes after we die, we’ll know exactly how we should have lived. But God has given us His Word so that we don’t have to wait to die to find out. And He’s given us His Spirit to empower us to live that way now.” I’ve often thought that the moment I step into heaven, my first word will be “Wow!” and my second will most likely be “Oops,” as I realize all the ways I was so sure of myself but was wrong. One of those, I am increasingly convinced, will be the realization that I kept too much of God’s possessions for myself. Alcorn’s fifth principle in The Treasure Principle states: “Giving is the only antidote to materialism. Giving is a joyful surrender to a greater person and a greater agenda. It dethrones me and exalts Him.” Today, I want to give you opportunities to give. The organizations below are serving the very least of these—many of whom are our brothers and sisters in Christ around the world. Each of these organizations is a member of the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability, ensuring that your money reaches the intended projects. May we be a people who live out the radical generosity of the early church, giving beyond what is comfortable, and embracing the joy of surrendering to God’s greater plan Samaritan’s Purse
Compassion International Blood:Water Mission Further Reading
If you found this article helpful, share it with your friends. By Sonora L Myers  Malachi and I had sent mom and dad to enjoy a romantic meal for their anniversary which they had forgotten about until an hour ago. Left to buy dinner for ourselves, we decided to head back to the little döner restaurant with the scabby, stray cat that we’d eaten at the day before. We had stopped a moment outside of Starbucks when two small boys approached wanting to sell us cheap, blue, foam flower crowns. The city was so full of beggars and small children selling crafts and packets of kleenex that I had begun to grow insensitive to their presence. So when the small boys asked if we would like a flower crown, I quickly brushed the offer aside with a polite Turkish ‘tsk’ and said, “Biz iyiz” (we’re good). Surprised that we ‘foreigners’ could speak Turkish, they inquired about how two Americans knew their language. I was tired - emotionally, physically and mentally. This evening was our last day of our month-long sojourn in Europe and Turkey. After weeks of exerting my poor Turkish skills to their maximum communication and comprehension levels as we reunited with old friends, helped a church minister to many small villages in the earthquake zone and played with the kids on Gypsy Hill, I had little capacity for a chit chat with these two children. Shrinking back, I stood and zoned out as Malachi answered their probing questions. I was mindlessly waiting for them to leave us in peace so we could go and enjoy our dinner when, as I stood there, passive to anything but my own tired brain, one of the little boys broke from the conversation, approached me, and in one swift motion reached up and placed a foam flower crown on my head. His childish little face lit up in the sweetest smile as he said, “Bu senin için abla” (This is for you big sister). And just as quickly as they had appeared, they were gone, drifting around the corner and into the crowd. I stood stunned for a moment and then it was like I woke up from a long slumber to where I was - Kuşadası, Turkey, to the people rushing around us on all sides, to the beauty, to the need, to my utter desensitization to life. I stood in the insecurity I felt by my blundering attempts to communicate in a language I hadn’t spoken since I was six, in my feeling of vulnerability and fatigue and the need to remain dignified and not look foolish. I had built up walls around my heart, had taken up my home in a cold brick castle rather than humbly accepting the warm hospitality of the country and people of Turkey. I had allowed my own limitations to limit my heart. Rather than becoming personal, I withdrew and became private. I closed my eyes to my presence in a place full of people that God desperately wanted a relationship with. I didn’t put myself in the Lord’s hands, trusting that he would protect me and use my vulnerability but rather, I protected myself at the cost of losing sight of what mattered most. I choose security over generosity. I acted out of a place of scarcity rather than leaning into the rich abundance of God. I still have that flower crown. I keep it as a reminder to be generous, not just with my money but with everything; my time, my attention, my energy, myself. I keep it as a reminder to live out of humility in the security of the Lord rather than self-forged walls and a castle with closed gates. If you found this article helpful, pass it along to a friend who you think may benefit from reading it.  One of the great challenges we face as Christians in an increasingly globalized world is understanding how to share the love of Jesus and the good news of the gospel cross culturally. As if language barriers were not enough, deep cultural differences in worldview, in customs, in values and history all have the potential to create barriers to good communication and open up wide avenues for miscommunication. Debbie DiGennaro, in her book Acclicmated to Africa: Cultural Competence for Westerners, shares a humorous story that highlights this challenge: There was once a certain British man who went with his company to Nigeria. He immediately noticed about Nigerians that the men did not step back to allow ladies to enter a room ahead of them. This bothered him very much. As a proper gentleman, whenever he approached a doorway at the same time as a Nigerian woman, he courteously motioned for her to pass through the door ahead of him. It is not hard to imagine why, in a country where for thousands of years families most likely lived in grass huts with snakes being an ever present issue, the custom of how to enter buildings developed differently than it did in England. It's also not hard to imagine the looks of confusion and even disdain this British gentleman must have received from Nigerian women as he emphatically ushered them into their potential death by snake bite. This cultural nugget of difference is multiplied thousands of times with every new cultural context we enter. Some issues are minor while others can lead to tremendous damage to relationships and potential opportunities to share the gospel. As disciples of Jesus it is important to first realize that those differences, both the deep and the shallow, will always be present when we move into cross cultural settings. We then must do the hard work of trying to understand these differences to see where God is already at work and how we can join him there. This is hard work. Just when we think we’ve figured something out we’ll run into nuances that will confound us once again. If cross cultural ministry is something that you are or will be a part of then it is vitally important to do some homework. Cross cultural ministry can happen in varying degrees wherever you are. Crossing the ocean to engage with people from a different religious background that speak another language is of course more complex than a midwesterner traveling to New York City, but both are cross cultural ministry. Regardless of the complexity and depth of difference between cultures, we can train ourselves to do better at recognizing both the differences and the opportunities they present. Part of that training could be reading books like Foreign to Familiar by Sarah Lanier or Global Humility by Andy McCullough. Context specific books like the one shared above can be a next step. There are also great trainings for missionaries preparing to move overseas at places like Mission Training International and the Center for Intercultural Training. At Everywhere to Everywhere, we are dedicated to equipping and empowering the local church for cross-cultural ministry in their own communities. To support this mission, we’ve created a fun and interactive one-day training called the Cross-Cultural Scavenger Hunt Training Module. This engaging experience, which can be done in any city in about 5-6 hours, includes:
This training has been a powerful way to help local congregations move beyond fear and build relationships with their new American neighbors—many of whom come from Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, or Animistic backgrounds and have never had the opportunity to hear the gospel. The goal of the training is twofold: first, to raise awareness of the diverse cultures around us, and second, to provide a foundational understanding of cultural differences. By doing so, participants can learn to love well and share the gospel with greater confidence and effectiveness. If you’re interested in hosting your own Cross-Cultural Scavenger Hunt Training Module, you can find a full event description and all necessary resources by clicking the button below. Did you find this post helpful? Share it with a friend.  Before moving to Central Asia in 2008 I was fortunate to spend time at Mission Training International (MTI) in Colorado doing some pre-field training. This included two weeks of language training with Dwight and Barbara Gradin. We were not learning our target language but rather receiving training to be more effective and efficient language learners. That training set the stage for becoming a language coach and the writer behind The Everyday Language Learner. The goal was to help as many people as possible be successful language learners and in the process create a location independent business which would allow continued work throughout the Muslim world regardless of whether we lived there or not. When we returned to the states in 2012, my goal was to continue to grow this online business model. Traffic grew. Influence grew. But I lacked the business acumen to really make a go of things. And so in 2014, The Everyday Language Learner went away. I moved on and see now all that God was doing to prepare me through those years for the work I'm doing now to mobilize and train the church into the harvest. I want to share with you a few resources that were created during that season. The three resources below are ebooks that you can downloard for free. I hope that they will help you learn another language so that you can more effectively share the gospel. Enjoy and share them with others. Before You Move Overseas: This workbook is a blueprint for the weeks and months BEFORE you board the plane. In it you will find actions that, when implemented, will help you prepare for the language learning journey. This workbook is filled with the actions I wish someone had encouraged me to take in that year before moving. The bulk of this guide then is made up of ten actions you can take over the coming months before you move. [Read it Here] Activities and Strategies for Everyday Language Learners: This ebook is a collection of 56 articles from the Everyday Language Learner blog focusing primarily on practical, hands-on activities you can do in your personal study time, with a language helper or out in the community. This is a 243 page ebook! [Read it Here] The Everyday Language Learner's Guide to Getting Started: This is the most robust guide I wrote and in it I give all the information needed to be a self-directed, independent language learner. [You can download a zip file from the bottom right of the Resource Page] Most cross cultural work will require the learning of another language. It is essential to be able to effectively communicate the gospel. I hope that these resources will help you on the language learning journey.  Jesus instructed his followers - which includes us - to go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and teaching them to observe all that He had commanded. It was the last instruction that he gave to his first disciples and as they obeyed, the gospel quickly spread out from Judea and into all of the surrounding regions and it kept going. In the process of moving out, the disciples who carried the gospel, quickly began to cross linguistic and cultural barriers and they began to wrestle with how to communicate the gospel well. This has been an ongoing challenge for every generation of disciples as they strive to obey Jesus. It is a challenge for our generation as well. Doug Birdsall says that, "The Great Commission is for every church in every culture in every generation. There are no exclusions. But . . . every church in every culture in every generation must determine the way in which they respond to this responsibility -- in a way that is appropriate to time and context." Here are seven books that I think you will find helpful for learning how you should respond as you have opportunities to cross cultural barriers with the gospel. Getting Started
Digging Deeper
The Textbooks
 I've been thinking a lot about the different phases of the growth of the church. In a place like Turkey where the church is small - well less than 1% of the population are followers of Jesus - the church looks different than it looks in a place like Europe or the United States - places where the church has been established for hundreds, even thousands of years. When I came across the video below, I found it helpful as I struggle with some of the realities of my context in the U.S. where the church has largely been institutionalized and professionalized and is quickly moving into a post Christian reality. It was helpful as well as I thought about the many works we are helping to support in unreached areas of our world - places like Turkey. There are some good lessons to be drawn from Ray Vaughn's explanation. Church historians will undoubtedly find flaws in the explanation, but I found it helpful to think about. As we consider the different contexts where we seek to be faithful to proclaim the good news and make disciples, there are lessons that we need to learn and apply. This teaching is 30 minutes long. It is a basic overview of what missiologists have observed in each of the phases of the growth, expansion and decline of the church throughout history and throughout the world. It is descriptive not prescriptive, a backwards glance at what has happened, not theoretical thinking about what we should do. I'd encourage you to find some time to watch it with a few questions in mind.
 So you are going on a short term missions trip and you're beginning to ask the question, "Should I work at learning the language before I go?" It is a question everyone seems to ask for which there is but one answer . . . . YES! Yes you should!
But . . .
The missionary anthropologist Charles H. Kraft was recently asked, "How much time should one who goes to serve as a two month short-term missionary spend in language learning?" Charles Kraft holds a high value on learning the local language. Learning the local language is often seen as little more than a means to an end. The end for most followers of Jesus is the proclamation of the gospel. And yes, this is essential! This is why we go. But it too often reduces to the local language to nothing more than a tool. This is unfortunate because language is always so much more than just a tool. Language is the carrier of culture and worldviews, of relationships, of love and joy and pain and fear and hope. When we reduce language to merely a tool, we often come to the conclusion that we need not bother learning any of that language when we travel as part of a short term mission trip. This is unfortunate for a number of reasons. Practically speaking, language is important to survive. At the very least we can all understand just how important it might be to be able to say, "Do you know where the bathroom is?" Learning 10 - 20 survival phrases will go along way to saving you from the embarrassment of being lost or unable to find the nearest bathroom. Relationally speaking, our efforts to posture ourselves as learners of the language and culture communicate fundamentally important respect and honor for the people to whom we have gone to serve. Nothing says that you actually care about the person in front of you quite as powerfully as stepping into the humble place of a language learner. In doing so, by taking on the role of the learner, of the one without the power, you invite your host to in effect, take you by the hand lead you. This is an act of kindness. This is laying down our rights. This is love. I want to encourage you to take a few minutes to read a four page essay written by Thomas and Elizabeth Brewster. They were at the forefront of helping generations of missionaries learn the languages of the people they were going to serve. The Charles Kraft quote above comes from this powerful essay. You can read it here: Language Learning is Communication -- Is Ministry Getting Started So you have a trip on the horizon. You are a few weeks away from departure or perhaps you have many months to prepare. Regardless of how much time you have, here are a few things you can do to begin learning the language. These are the things I'm doing to learn French for an upcoming trip to West Africa. Sign up for Duolingo: Ten minutes a day will give you a beginning in the language and get you started with a foundation of vocabulary and basic grammar structures. You can find it on the app store for your smart phone or you can access it on your computer. (learn more here) Begin Listening to Worship Music: For the past month or so I've had a French worship mix from Hilllsong playing in the background while I work during the day. In a way, what I am doing is training my ear to hear and distinguish sounds, intonation and rhythms of the French language. You can find worship music by searching for it on Youtube. For example, by searching on Youtube for "French Worship", I found this mix of French worship songs. Listen to a Gospel: Chose one of the gospels and begin listening to a chapter or two every day. When you finish, start over from the beginning. You'll be surprised how much you begin to understand. You can find many languages available on the Youversion app or the Bible.is app. Memorize Phrases: Find and memorize 10 - 20 important phrases in the language. Make sure that one of those phrases is, "Can you help me learn your language?" Here are 25 phrases I'll be starting to learn in French. Keep Learning: While in the country take every opportunity to practice with your local hosts. Keep learning. Ask questions. Boldly step into the role of being the town clown! Yes, people will be entertained by your language foibles, but it is worth it! A language mentor of mine used to say that "it takes a million mistakes to learn another language --- So get started!" Don't Miss Out Investing as much time and energy as you can in learning the language will do much to make your trip more meaningful and transformational. We all have different capacities and time constraints but we can all do something. It is what you'd want someone to do for you if they were coming to visit you. Jesus tells us to "do to others as you'd have them do to you." Learning the language then is an act of obedience to Jesus. Don't miss out. Click here for Free Language Learning Resources From E2E My Language Learning Story In a past iteration of life, I was a language coach, helping everyday, ordinary people be more effective, more efficient and have more fun with the language learning journey. I created a number of resources that I'd love to be able to pass on to you if you would find them helpful. I have a number of ebooks as well as a series of videos. You can watch the language learning tips videos HERE. If you would like to have any of the ebooks, leave a comment below. Below is one of those language learning tip videos. Enjoy! |
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