GOA Begins: A Year and a Half Later

On November 10, 2010, the youth group of Wellspring Mennonite Church announced the start of Gospel Outreach for Asia, which was to help raise awareness and funds concerning the lack of Bibles and gospel literature throughout Asia. In that one and a half years since this all began, it has been astounding to see how God has worked through this humble idea.

It all started when I realized what an incredible privilege to have constant access to Bible. And not just one Bible, but countless ones in all shapes and sizes, as well as seemingly limitless Bible study helps. This really hits home when we see billions throughout Asia who have never owned the Scriptures. This is most apparent in countries like China, India, and Tibet.

How can Christians living in the West not care about massive spiritual void across Asia? We have decided to change that. And since the Bible is critical to revival, we started there. It is amazing where it has taken us.

The plan was to raise thirty thousand dollars for Bibles all across southern Asia. Starting out, I’m not sure if we had any idea how large an undertaking this is. After all, thirty grand is not exactly pocket change. Looking back on it now, God seemed to have His hand in it all. Right after GOA started God began blessing our efforts in more ways than we know.

Often I would find a letter from someone I’d never met, with a large check enclosed. People began giving, doing their share in seeing ever person having access to God’s Word. Other times someone would randomly hand me a wad of bills, simply saying to “use it for Bibles in China.” Even people who had very little gave what they could.

Other times were more interesting. Recently I was in a bookstore, when for no reason an elderly lady approached me.

“I found you,” she said. “Here.”

In her hand was ten dollars. She said simply that “when I saw you in the parking lot, the Lord told me to give this to you.” And she walked away without another word. That money is now in the process of being sent to China, where it will produce six complete Bibles, which will be given to Christians who have none for their own.

More recently, the entire church has been involved. Last month we raise over a thousand dollars at a yard sale that Wellspring sponsored. Before that we set up a booth at a city wide festival, which greatly helped raise awareness of the needs in Asia, as well as provide dozens of Bible and hundreds of gospel tracts across India, Nepal, and other nations.

The next event on our list is the upcoming Gospel Outreach for Asia volleyball tournament, which will be hosted here in Athens on June 2. (For more information visit the Gospel Outreach for Asia Volleyball Tournament Facebook page.)

We are now nearing the halfway point of this fundraiser. One day, when we complete the project, that by no means implies that we have done our part and then will return to our normal lives without another thought. No; this is a need that must be fulfilled as soon as possible, because billions are still waiting for the Good News of the gospel. We cannot stop sharing the  Good News with the whole world, not as long as there is life and breath in our bodies.

A world is lost and dying without Christ, and God has given the Church the mission to preach His Name to all nations. Are you doing your part in global evangelization?

-Reagan Schrock, blog manager