Imagine the scene. Jesus is about to leave his disciples to carry his mission on earth. They can’t picture what life will look like after all the excitement of being on the road and imagine they will simply go home and carry on where they left off. We have already seen Peter suggest a fishing trip to some of the other disciples. So what is Jesus going to say? “Stay safe”? Not at all! We all know his words:

“…go and make disciples of all nations…” (Matthew 28:19) and in Mark’s words “…Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation” (Mark 16:15).

Have we (His disciples) completed that mission? No! There are still many unreached ethnic groups in the world. We are living amongst several of them here in Niger. Did we get an email or WhatsApp message saying “Hi Guys…abort mission!”? Absolutely not! This is not to say that going into all the world doesn’t look a little different these days. Is there still a need for folk to cross culture and immerse themselves within a people group with the intent of proclaiming the gospel? Certainly, and in some cases, this will look like the old days of missionaries settling in a village, learning the language and culture and then downloading the gospel into that context. However these days there are many variations on that theme:

Imagine a group of people from all different nations settling into a small unreached village, learning the language and culture and working as a team to reach people.

Imagine a man from an unreached group (‘no known believers’ in the official classification) is befriended by a missionary and hears something of the gospel. When he becomes seriously ill the missionary sends him to a friend who is a missionary doctor at a Christian hospital in another town. He hears the gospel, is touched by the care he receives and believes! He returns to his family and they receive the gospel as well!

Imagine a missionary doctor who decides to lay aside medicine and spend all his time training a team in how to take the gospel to a village and then find those who are willing to teach others what they have learnt. Through this method many small churches are established in the area around the hospital.

Imagine a young man is ostracized in his country as he is a leper. He is unable to attend mosque, nor is there treatment available. A Christian group hear of his need and send him to a mission hospital in a nearby country. Here he finds healing, acceptance and hears and receives the gospel!

Imagine a missionary couple who work with their local church to spearhead a ministry in the local prison including sharing the gospel and literacy work.

Imagine multiple missionaries in a country who partner with the church in supporting their evangelists sent out into villages.

Imagine the training and technology that is shared freely by missionaries throughout the developing world.

Well, imagine, no longer! These are all a reality and not just in Niger, this is the reality of missions throughout the unreached world.

The underlying story of scripture is God reaching out to His world. This is a task given to the whole church. Now His disciples are from all over. So it involves His whole church. From everywhere to everywhere. What a blessing it is for us to have missionaries from other African nations on our team, especially from Nigeria where many know at least a little of the Hausa language. The team we are a part of consists of people from: Germany, Nigeria, Australia, America, France, Canada, Kenya and of course ourselves from New Zealand.

The question remains, is there still a role for Western missionaries? Or are they a waste of time (and money)? Apart from the reasons already observed such as training, technology, skills etc Western missionaries modeling mission can motivate the local church to wake up to the unfinished task. With less than 1% Christian in Niger there is plenty of room for anyone who wants to reach out to an unbeliever! I don’t think the question is either/or; but rather, how can we pursue partnerships with local believers?

The task of calling the nations to himself is absolutely unfinished. Are we wasting our time? No! Joining Christ in His call to reach the nations is absolutely the best way we can think of to spend our time!