Sonia and I just returned from attending two powerful conferences where we were able to connect with so many wonderful ministry leaders and friends. We started our 11-day trip by attending our General Council meetings. The highlights of these days was Stephen serving on the General Presbytery representing the European missionary family, working together in the Europe missions booth greeting and welcoming others to explore missions with us in Europe and participating in memorable services with our greater Assemblies of God family. We couldn’t walk the halls of the Orlando Convention Center without meeting pastors who have faithfully supported our ministry and bumping into fellow missionaries colleagues serving around the world. It was a great week which culminated in a dinner with our New Jersey Ministry Network leaders and fellow NJ world missionaries with some great Italian food!
General Council is always a time of being renewed and refreshed, but to take part in our second conference made our trip all the more meaningful. After three years of planning, a holy convocation was made to ALL world missionaries to join together for a once-in-a-lifetime event called Together 19, or T19. For the firs time in AG history, about 1700 missionaries from around the world gathered in one place at the same time to experience a time of refreshing, refocusing and recommitment together... all for the sake of missions. Any time you get this many friends and global workers together, a greater sense of excitement and emotion naturally permeates our gatherings as we collectively share experiences and friendships built upon years of service together. But when such a gathering goes beyond these valuable goals and leads us to something greater, it truly is a Jordan river crossing moment.
Our purpose for gathering was to be refreshed in our heats, minds and bodies. Many experienced this as we worshiped together, prayed together and received a touch from heaven, many in their physical bodies.
We also gathered to be refocused in our mission. How easy it is to get side-tracked and lose our focus! We constantly need to be reminded of and challenged to maintain a focus on our mission, which is it reach all peoples, everywhere with the gospel. Through words spoken by our leaders and personal stories from fellow ministers, our mission to go to the ends of the earth once again became defined, focused and approachable.
Finally, we gathered to be recommitted. The Christian life, not just the missionary life, is one in which we renew our commitment to Christ daily. Paul underscores this all the more when he says, “I die daily”. It seems that when given the opportunity, most missionaries sense God constantly inviting us to respond “Yes” one more time to his call, to once again go and seek the lost, and again commit our hearts and lives to his mission. On our final day together we were given the privilege to once again say, “Yes, Lord, we will go”. 1700 of us did just that and it was our joy to be counted among them. [See our recommitment card in the photo below.]
These conferences were filled with many memorable moments and experiences but the greatest testimony is that they lead us to a place where we could be renewed, refocused and recommitted to Him and all for the sake of his mission to the lost.
Thank you for joining us on this journey and for standing with us to go to the ends of the earth!
So all can hear,
Stephen and Sonia
