Your kingdom come...

Something really awesome happened at church today. But before I get there, I need to back track in our church history.

A little over ten years ago, God really struck the heart of our pastor with His glory. Not simply just with the "to God be the glory" or "do everything for the glory of God," but with a passion that God's utmost passion is His own glory, thus our utmost passion should be God's glory. Since that time that vision of God's glory has driven our church. Our vision statement is

"Spreading a passion for God's glory for our homes to all peoples of the earth."

Part of spreading a passion for God's glory was to be a sending church, to have a missions focus, because isn't that really what God's kingdom is about? So, our church adopted an unreached people group named the Meitei's in a region in northern India called Manipur. That was ten years ago, since that time numerous teams have traveled to Manipur. This past fall we were blessed to no longer be able to call the Meitei's an unreached people group! They now have an established church that is sending natives to be missionaries to those that are still lost among their people. It's amazing!

Since our vision still stands to spread a passion for God's glory, our pastor and elders have been praying about what people group to adopt next. I was so excited when Pastor Joe started speaking this morning. He hadn't given a real hint that this was what was going to happen, but I leaned over to Joe and whispered, "We're getting a new people group!"

So, without further ado...New Hope Church has adopted TWO unreached people groups: the Oromo people of Ethopia and a people group in Turkmenistan. The Oromo , who make up about 40% of the country's population, live in S Ethiopia and are predominantly Muslim. There's more I'd love to say about them, because we had a pastor from Ethopia (a native) who in his years of ministry has planted more than a 1,000 churches in Ethopia. However, this area where the Oromo live have been off limits to an extent, because the Oromo are Muslim and have serverly perscuted the Ethopian Christians who have come to witness. Yet, when a group of Americans came on a missions trip the people came in hoards to see what they brought. Some even thanked them for bringing the Good News. It's interesting to see how God has blesses us to be Americans. He has opened a door for us to witness and be a part of His kingdom work by allowing us into this region when the natives can't even get in!

God has so blessed our church in being able to be involved in His missions work. We have families, individuals, and teams in our church who serve the Lord in Belize, Ukraine, Lithiunia, Jordan, Sudan, India, Azerbaijan, Ethopia, Uganda, and other countries in Central Asia.

I need to go to bed, but here are some verses that I wanted to leave you with:

Revelation 7:9-12

9 After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could count,

from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues,

standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, and palm branches were in their hands;
10 and they cry out with a loud voice, saying,

"Salvation to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb."
11 And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures; and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God,
12 saying, "Amen, blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might, be to our God forever and ever Amen."