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| Filipino Church in Italy |
Our church in Florida over the past nearly 15 years has sent our members to 176 nations preaching Jesus. We have not been discretionary in our sowing the seeds of the Word of God, but have allowed it to be strown everywhere and into All Nations, thus the name, "All Nations Outreach Ministry". However, not all soil is the same as explained in Matthew 13. There are lands where the hearts of men are like stone. Yet others lands, primarily in the developing world, where the people are ready to hear the gospel and whose hearts offer "good ground" to the sower. It would not likely surprise the reader that the majority of the 231k souls saved over the past years did not come from places like,
Germany, Albania, or France. These places are known more for Gnosticism and Evolution than for Spiritualism and Christianity. The dwellers in Europe are more likely to read the words of Charles Darwin than that of Jesus Christ.
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African accepting
Christ in Milan |
However, there are groups in Europe who still listen to the gospel and will saved. And surprising to some, they are not of Slavic or Nordic descent. All across a broad land known for its castles, monarchs, and the Reformers of 1517, there are those who still hunger to know eternal truth about the life that awaits each of us after death. These are not bound by Orthodoxy or Education, but have a sincere searching after Christ. They are not always in small numbers but in certain places can be found in great masses in an otherwise spiritually depraved society. They are the IMMIGRANTS. They are in this land bordering the Atlantic on one side and Asia on the other, but yet are considered strangers among Caucasians. The "whites" of Europe most often have neither the time nor the interest for God. However, these seekers come from the Philippines, India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, and sub-Sahara Africa. They typically are doing petty jobs for simple wages, or are entirely jobless due to being illegal in their migration status.
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| Nigerian pastor in Austria |
So, when we deplane in Europe after making our way across the Big Pond to preach the gospel, those from our church in Florida seek to find the brown and black community where to focus our evangelism. We want to be as efficient with our time and resources allotted to us by our Lord and our home church. Therefore, we do not squander our time too much with a people determined to bypass Christ at the expense of their own souls. We are in search of a good soil in the midst of the stony region we find ourselves. The presence of IMMIGRANTS make us want to be there and in time will cause our sowers to want to come back. We are not drawn to Europe as gazers of the mountains and historical landmarks which line its shores, but we are there for souls.
And the souls that are hungriest over this well-to-do continent are lodged in urban centers such as Amsterdam, Munich, London, amd Paris. They have come looking for the opportunity of a better life on earth. We search them out and offer them a better afterlife. We offer them the gospel of grace through faith. They think that they have come for a passage to Western Europe or the Americas, but when we find them, we can show them a greater and everlasting passage into God's Kingdom.
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| Immigrants saved in Luxembourg |
So to those missionary teams who travel at great cost to do God's work in Europe and to those longterm missionaries in the developed nations called the 1st or 2nd World, I admonish you not to be discouraged when you arrive and the sons of Japheth ignore your plea to be saved. Rather, turn to those who will hear. Turn to the IMMIGRANT and preach Christ. "He came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him..." Go to the IMMIGRANT!
