BY Mark Giacobbe, Teaching Pastor at Citylight Church
Back in April, a team of eight from Citylight Philly traveled to an aXcess location in Central Asia for a ten-day missions trip. Our team hit the ground running ready to serve–and serve they did!
The trip had a lot of moving parts. The first task was to provide a retreat for the international workers. Long-term workers in hard-to-reach places like Central Asia benefit abundantly from rest and spiritual refreshment, yet they can’t easily get away to get it. Over the course of several days, the Citylight crew sang, taught, prayed, played, and cared for these workers and their children in a gorgeous lakeside setting. As a pastor, what an honor it was to see the gifts of our team fanned into flame (and sometimes stretched!) to serve others in Jesus’ name.
Next, we split up into two smaller teams. Team A (The A Team?) embarked on several days of ESL instruction and strategic prayer walking. This group got to kick-start a brand-new ESL ministry, engaging in direct ESL outreach while modeling how to do this well for some eager local believers. This led to some divine appointments, and reports are that the fruit continues from these days of “small beginnings.”
On one particular day, Team A caravaned to a dark, Satan-bound city with hardly any known believers. Picture a dust-baked, sprawling valley, tipped with soaring, snow-capped peaks in the distance that are hardly distinguishable from clouds. (One thinks of Aslan’s country in the Narnia books.) Our team lifted holy hands, praying for the light of Christ to shine brilliantly and for blessings to flow from the mountain of His holiness onto this dry and barren land.
Meanwhile, Team B did something truly unique. In this country, there is a budding movement to write worship songs in the local language. One of our team members had prior experience doing this very thing, which is how the whole trip came about. This team spent several days with local musicians, poets, and songwriters, encouraging these sold-out Jesus-followers to write anointed, gospel-centered songs to bless the church and point others to Jesus. Disunity is a big problem in this country, but God used this special gathering to bring believers together from many different churches. A few of them who had been estranged from one another even wrote a song together!
Did I mention that the trip happened during the last week of Ramadan? One night, known as the “night of power,” our team had the unforgettable experience of worshiping and praying with a group of local believers, crying out to God to bless the nation and make himself known to those seeking His face. And then, when “Eid” started (the end of Ramadan - it’s kind of like Christmas), we even got to spend the night in local village homes, experiencing sumptuous Central Asian hospitality while sharing stories about Jesus from the Holy Book.
Only our God could arrange a trip like this! Though we were exhausted by the end, we saw God’s hand every step of the way. In fact, God even arranged it so that our flight home got delayed, giving us two extra days at no additional cost–and boy did we need them!
Central Asia is home to 300 million people and hundreds of people groups, all of which are completely unreached with the gospel. While we were privileged to be a small part of what God is doing through the Alliance to reach them with the good news, we are sobered by the immensity of the task remaining. We look forward to continuing this partnership with our Alliance brothers and sisters and pray that many others will join in the work to complete the Great Commission.
Interested in planning a mission trip? Contact Alan Rathbun for resources.