Nine of us from Central Plains Church traveled to St Louis in July on a mission trip. “A mission’s trip to St. Louis?” you ask. But St. Louis is the 3rd largest immigrant city in America. India, Pakistan, Nigeria, Liberia, Bosnia; many nations are represented there. And we went to share the good news of Jesus Christ. He is the way, truth, and life.
“Missions” is when Christians go and talk about Jesus with others. We proclaim Christ crucified and risen to all the nations. Psalm 96 says, “Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous works among all the peoples! For great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised; he is to be feared above all gods.” Jesus gave the Great Commission in Matthew 28, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations.” All of humanity is in sin and apart from God, all of humanity is under His wrath, all of humanity needs to hear of Christ the Lord and Savior. So yes, St. Louis.
On the first day we visited Jubilee Church, where Pastor Andy has lived and ministered for 40 years in the inner city. They run a clinic for addiction recovery and recently purchased a 28-bed hospital to use in this effort. They run a job training program and also purchased a school to use for daycare and education services. They are transforming their city with the love of Christ. We visited a Muslim mosque, where 1,500 people attended afternoon prayers, and Mesa, a Syrian Muslim, shared her belief in the five pillars of Islam. It was informative but sad; she has no hope or assurance of knowing God apart from Christ. The next day we served lunch to 300 athletes as part of “Cup of Nations – St Louis,” a soccer ministry. 16 teams competed in the day’s events. We celebrated all the nations, built relationships, and showed the love of Jesus in a practical way. We supported and prayed for the full-time missionaries that live there, to build bridges and not barriers, to the good news of Jesus.
You could go overseas to share the gospel, or you could go to St. Louis, or you can start here in Chamberlain. There are many people without Christ in our city. Jesus said in John 3, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you must be born again. Unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.”