1 Attentiveness 3 Authentic Relationships
A core starting point for Global Interaction’s ministry is
the belief that God is already there and actively at work.
God has called us to these places, not to ‘take’ Him, but
to partner with Him in the work He is already doing. This
means that the first step in the path towards vibrant faith
communities, is being attentive to where God is moving. Relationships are at the heart of Global Interaction’s
ministry. It is likely that a person in a least-reached
people group will have no close friends or family who
identify as a follower of Jesus. We believe, that it is in an
environment of a mutual trust that people will be most
open to exploring Jesus and questions of faith.
In Cambodia, a major obstacle for Khmer people
to meet Jesus is that they do not feel they can
find Him within their culture. They believe to
follow Him would be a betrayal of their family as
it would take them out of their culture. Particularly in the city, the Ethnic Thai are very suspicious
of Christians and their perceived ulterior motives. Muana
and Villy, cross-cultural workers in Thailand, recognise
this and seek to demonstrate the genuine care and
interest they have in their Ethnic Thai friends’ lives, and
only share stories from the Bible as the Spirit opens
opportunities.
Deb, cross-cultural worker in Cambodia, is attentive to
where God is already at work among her Khmer friends
and seeks ways to connect God’s stories with aspects of
their culture. Over time, she began to recognise the value
Khmer people place on water and this prompted her to
share about Jesus as the ‘Living Water’.
2 Cultural Competence
Our cross-cultural teams are committed to life-long
learning, but particularly in the first years of ministry,
significant time is dedicated to culture and language
learning. At a basic level, there is only so far a friendship
can develop without a common language. More deeply
though, the act of learning another person’s language
and seeking to understand their culture and what’s
important to them, works to break down barriers. The
experience of making mistakes and initially struggling to
communicate in even the simplest language is humbling
and demonstrates to the local language nurturer the
value that the cross-cultural worker places on the local
language and culture.
In the Silk Road Area, there is an undercurrent of
superiority of the R people. In response to this, the
K people hold strongly to the identity of being K people
and not R people. As the majority of R people are
Orthodox Christian, it is culturally important for K people
to separate themselves from this and identify as Muslim.
4 The Gospel
As authentic relationships develop, it is only natural
that our cross-cultural workers share the Good News
with their friends. It is an underlying belief of Global
Interaction, that the Gospel starts at Genesis and
encompasses God’s whole story. The pinnacle of Jesus’
death and resurrection is a core part of the Gospel, but it
is not the whole.
As our cross-cultural teams live among communities, they
share hope through being, doing and saying the Gospel.
Through their being, they exude character traits that
reflect Jesus’ heart. In response to their friends’ practical
needs, they demonstrate Jesus’ love by what they do
and by what they say, they ground it all through sharing
God’s stories.
Please be praying with us, for our teams to be attentive
to where God is already at work, be growing authentic
friendships and be open to Hi s leading as He uses them to
build His Kingdom.
If you’re excited by God’s activity among the
least-reached, then get in touch with your State Office
team. We would love to keep the conversation going!
As the team on the Silk Road live and serve
within this culture, they are intentional about
being known as ‘followers of Jesus’ rather than
the label of ‘Christian’ as they know this will be
a cultural barrier for their K friends.
VISION WINTER 2018
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