“Give up your small ambitions!” That is what the great Jesuit missionary, Francis Xavier, wanted the youth of his day to know as he pioneered sharing the Gospel of Christ among the unreached peoples of Asia in the 16^th century. He wanted them to give up those lesser intentions that were in their minds for their lives in order to get involved in Jesus’ unique missions for them.

Not that our personal ambitions are small in our eyes, but compared to the ambitions God has for us they are very tiny and inconsequential. What is the main mission to which we are being called to give ourselves? The great Unfinished Task, the mission of the ages, the reason Jesus Christ, the Lord of the Universe and Eternity, came and gave Himself on that cross of torture, shame and death was that all people on earth would be blessed, rescued from darkness and futility in order to experience abundant life here and eternal life beyond the grave.

The Moravians were some of those through history that grasped that mission and laid hold of it with all their hearts in both prayer and action. Like the early church did before them. They became militant for the Lord and His purposes for their lives. When the Spirit of God came upon them in 1727, only about 200 of them took on the world of their time, first giving themselves to prayer and then many of them went to the ends of the earth to share Jesus with those who had never heard of His love and truth. They came to grasp that this was the highest of all callings—ongoing prayer connected with life-long mission.

The IPC has sought to maintain a strong focus through the years on this same awesome Unfinished Task, the mission of the ages. Jesus told His followers in the Great Commission, “Go and make disciples of all nations”.The word “nations” there is ethne in the original language. Therefore, it is better rendered “ethnic groups” or people groups defined by their unique cultures and languages that make up the political nations. For example, in Toronto, Canada, which means “meeting place” there are now about 400 ethnic groups from around the world. In the rest of Canada and North America there are many more. The Great Commission has not been accomplished till disciples have been made in all such groups.

Across the world, there are about 12,000 such people groups, some of which have heard the Gospel and developed movements to Christ; others have still not had that opportunity. About 5500 Unreached People Groups still do not have an indigenous movement of believers with numbers and resources to reach their groups (less than 5% Christian). An even more needy subset- 4700 “Frontier” or least reached people groups are less than 0.1% Christian.The Great Commission calling is still underway and incumbent upon us as His followers until each people group has heard theGospel in a way that makes sense within their culture and worldview. Throughout the history of the prayer and mission movements, such people groups have no intercessors or churches praying for them and no known missionary force engaging them. They are still unreached and unengaged. 1600 of these groups are Bibleless people groups that still need to have God’s Word translated into their own languages.

This map shows the progress of the Gospel by People Group and helps us to visualize where we are in finishing this Unfinished Task. The red areas are where the priority for prayer coupled with mission needs to be focused within the band of nations from northern Africa, through the Middle East to Central and South Asia, where false religious systems of Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism hold sway over the lives of most.

Asia itself, and especially South Asia, has over ¾ of the remaining Unreached and Frontier people groups needing to be reached. Who will go to share Jesus Christ with them? It will be challenging and costly, but also the most compelling and meaningful adventure of a lifetime and has to be accomplished. Are any of us ready to take it on? As Isaiah said, “Here I am, Lord, send me.”

Jesus said in John 4, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.” Food is the number one drive of us humans and who doesn’t enjoy it? It brings a sense of fulfillment, satiation, sustenance and delight. For Jesus and for us, accomplishing the will of the Father should be like food. Have we discovered that? He then asks his disciples to open their eyes and look at the fields that are ripe for harvest and says that they are called to play their part in sowing and reaping the harvest, a harvest of human beings for eternal life. God has been preparing this great harvest, through all the ups and downs and good and bad of human history. What happens to individuals as well as whole nations in one vast drama of the ages is being used by Him in consummate love and wisdom to prepare this great harvest so that we humans can become His companions for eternity. Wow! Jesusalso said there will be great rejoicing among the sowers and reapers. There is no greater joy than sharing this Gospel of abundant and eternal life with those still lost in spiritual and moral darkness.

Clearly, the central, overall mission God is calling all of us to is the Great Commission-- to do our unique part to bring in the Harvest of the Ages, whether as sowers or reapers, using our particular gifts and resources to advance this most holy and’ wonderful desire of the Lord for humanity. How then do we go about it?

• Surrender ourselves through prayer for the enabling of the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:4-8, 14) In Acts 1:4-8. Jesus tells His disciples to wait until they receive the gift of being baptized with the Holy Spirit through which they will receive the power to be His witnesses to Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria even to the ends of the earth. This word provoked them to seek God through intense prayer and through it they developed a culture of prayer and dependence upon God. “They all joined together constantly in prayer” (Acts 1:14). This is what readied them for the mighty outpouring of the Spirit on Pentecost and all the subsequent breakthroughs in mission throughout book of Acts. When God’s people have practiced the same culture, similar breakthroughs have happened through the history of the Church and missions since. Great revivals like that which visited the Moravians came about by seeking the face of God through non-stop availability to the Lord in prayer. This is still the same explosive recipe for both revival and mission breakthroughs in our time!

• Ask for the power and guidance of Holy Spirit because the mission of bringing in the Harvest is impossible without Him. In my own experience in university, I was a terribly shy person and so scared to be a witness for Christ. In spite of great trepidation, with the Spirit’s enabling, I spoke publicly to a group of other students and the power of God came upon me, emboldening me afterwards to serve as a campus evangelist, then go to Asia as a field missionary. Since that time over 50 years ago, the Lord has taken me to over 100 nations in mission and prayer initiatives. The Lord, the God of Miracles, has given provision, help, encouragement throughout. Nothing is more satisfying and fulfilling than serving Him among the peoples of earth. These years have been thrilling ones, thanks be to God!

As we pray and surrender selves, it opens the door for the Almighty Lord to bring about transformation within us as well as supernatural breakthroughs among the unreached justas happened in the book of Acts. Through united prayer with like-minded national Christian leaders, colleagues and I have repeatedly over many years witnessed the atmosphere of cities and nations change from war to peace and from resistance or apathy to the Gospel to great receptivity, resulting in many coming to Christ. For example, in Cambodia after a1994-95 national prayer initiative backed by the international prayer movement, Khmer Rouge terrorists who had massacred their countrymen for 20 years succumbed within three months, turning in their weapons to the government and surrenderingen masse. They even put their own leader, Pol Pot, on trial themselves for his war crimes. Spiritual darkness through mass bloodshed and idolatry gave way to10,000 believers in Christ becoming an estimated 500,000 over the next 20 years (50 times). In Bosnia, after a wartime prayer initiative, a peace agreement was signed as the prayer initiative finished, and with the restoration of peace, the believers were able to take the Gospel to every home. To the glory of the Lord and only through the power and guidance of the Holy Spirit, eight wars have been stopped in the same way,with other major transformations occurring that have catalyzedthe mission of Christ in those countries.

3) Prayer and effective mission go together,starting with maintaining a vital connection with the Lord in prayer first. “Apart from me you can do nothing,” Jesus said (John 15:5). Therefore, let us surrender ourselves to the Master of Mission Himself. None of us has any guarantee as to how long we will live.  Let us, therefore, let Christ give us His special vision for the part of the Harvest He wants each of us to engage with, so that our lives will bring forth 30, 60 or 100-fold for His global purposes, and so that we will hear Him say “Well done, good and faithful servant, enter the joy of your Lord.”

Let us invest ourselves in prayer and mission to reach the unreached. Doors will open as we pray and make ourselves available. Adopt an unreached group as your responsibility in prayer and see how He leads you. Your prayers will help multiply the harvesters. That may include you as well as you take that people group into your heart or you may play a vital role helping others go to reach them.

Attached you will find a prayer guide for the largest unreached groups that still do not have indigenous movements to Christ and need our prayers. Start by praying for one each day of the coming month and see if God would have you to adopt one of them for ongoing prayer and mission effort. Go deeper by doing some of your own research and see if there are any from this group in your region with whom you could develop relationships.

Another way you can get involved over the next two years is through the Go 2020 mission effort. It is an international campaign to mobilize 100 million believers to share Jesus Christ with one billion unreached people by May 2020. Increasing numbers of mission and prayer organizations are cooperating to enable this to happen. A description of how to get involved is atwww.go2020.world.

Some helpful resources:

1) 9 minute version of "The Spirit of the Moravians" 2) "The 31" prayer guide https://joshuaproject.net/assets/media/handouts/the31.pdf 3) Unfinished Task maps and Go 2020 information https://www.dropbox.com/sh/chmx8y349h785of/AACOFmQvSIlEaYhKVnNuavbJa?dl=0

John Robb, IPC Chairman
(Adapted from a message given to the UPRISING Canada in Toronto, August 10, 2018