Looking Ahead

by Richard Haney, Executive Director

The dawn of a new year offers a natural hinge moment to reflect on the events of the previous one and consider the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead. Several of us ended the year in St. Louis at Urbana 18, where we had the opportunity to connect with a number of students and ministry workers. It was energizing to witness students’ interest in frontier mission and hear their insightful questions. I’m encouraged to see new generations of women and men who are committed to creating avenues of access to the Gospel for those who’ve never heard it.

This year we’re preparing to launch our new Frontier Leadership Formation Group for ages 22–30. We’re partnering with Fuller Seminary to offer a program of spiritual formation, study, mentoring and intercultural/ interfaith bridge building, facilitated online and through quarterly retreats. The program’s home base in Houston, one of the most diverse cities in the US, will provide unique cross-cultural experiences and learning opportunities. We’re excited to be a part of the process of helping young adults discover how God is at work in the world and discern how He invites them to join Him.

After a second trip to Mongolia in 2018 to connect with Campus Crusade workers I met in 2017, I’m eager to return this year with hopes to further deepen relationships. These leaders are engaged in burgeoning campus, church and nomad ministries with a vision to train frontier mission workers. We’re continuing to develop relationships with ministry friends serving Buddhists elsewhere in Asia and are praying about possible exploratory trips in 2019. As we consider new opportunities and partnerships, we’re asking God to grow our staff to help us mobilize more churches, college students, individuals and families.

More than two billion people lack access to the Gospel—they have no church, no Bible in their language and no one to share with them the hope Jesus offers. We take seriously our calling to help the global Church care about the world’s ethnolinguistic groups that are still waiting to hear the Good News of His Kingdom. And we pray for and work toward the characteristics of this coming Kingdom, investing holistically in communities because we believe the Gospel restores and revitalizes every aspect of life.

We ended 2018 with our Advent devotional, Behold, which invited us to notice and respond to the ways God is making all things new in the world around us. In this new year, we pray for many more people to gain opportunities to behold Jesus for the first time and begin to taste the life abundant He generously extends to us.