You are not ready to move to the end of the earth in order to share the Good New to an unknown tribe, are you? That’s ok. It will not prevent a Christian from being active in the fulfillment of the Great Commission. Invite missionaries to your home! Give them a welcome party, have fellowship in a small group with a cup of tea, get to know them better in an informal setting, become friends, start praying, and begin to take care of your missionary friends.
It is for this purpose that we do our best for the guests of our annual missionary conference in Rivne to stay at homes of members of local churches and not at a hotel or church building. In this way the whole family is able to get to know the minister, to ask any questions, and to hear a detailed testimony. During the conference week, we spend two nights for Bible small groups, involving the missionaries. We encourage Christians to open their homes and invite ministers for lunch and dinner. If a church member is limited in his housing conditions, such a sister or brother can join a home group or invite a missionary to the restaurant to find an opportunity to share conversation and a nice meal with a God’s person.
Even if there is very plain food on the table, all the participants will be enriched by a precious fellowship in Christ. Perhaps it is not as easy from the organizational point, because one has to make a schedule for each guest, to take care of the transportation to take a guest to a right house on a right day. But a personal contact of churches’ members with a missionary is worth it! Meeting like that will never be forgotten. After such a meeting, people do not only remember a dot on a map, but they see brother’s or sister’s eyes, his dreams, needs, his personality. It is very important.
Tatyana Arterchuk
