During the night Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia standing and begging him, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” After Paul had seen the vision, we got ready at once to leave for Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them. - Acts 16:9-10
Abraham Deng is the pastor of the Sudanese Ministry Bible Church which shares a building with Primera Iglesia Bautista in South Nashville. Abraham approached me this spring with a vision to host a Sudanese Youth Conference this summer. It had never been done before. He had the vision but needed the logistics and resources to see it through.
Abraham and I set up the conference at Linden Valley Baptist Conference Center in Middle Tennessee, and we were able to secure help with funding though the Tennessee Baptist Foundation. We were even able to line up a youth speaker for the weekend. Abraham had dreams of 100-150 Sudanese youth from around the states attending the conference. Like most American youth, they have the same struggles of living out their faith in a culture overwhelmed with addiction issues of sex, drugs, and social media. On top of that, these Sudanese youth are dealing with the third-cultural issues of living as an ethnic minority within the larger American culture.
Third-culture children are those born into one language and culture but raised in another. They often end up learning two languages. They can make friends quite easily but have trouble developing deep long-term relationships. These are common issues for refugee and immigrant children as well as children of our military and missionaries.
Things looked bleak when the speaker that we had lined up backed out the week before the conference. The numbers that we had hoped for were only going to be about half of what we expected. Abraham did not despair. The vision remained the same. Another speaker stepped up and drove from Florida. Over fifty youth did attend and had an amazing time. A group from Missouri drove down and joined the Sudanese from Tennessee, Florida, and Georgia. Lives were changed and several youths committed to a call to Christian ministry.
God gives us visions, but setbacks and problems cause us to doubt those visions. Only faith in the One that gave us the vision helps to see it through to the end. Please continue to pray for Abraham, the Sudanese Church, and the youth that came to the conference.
Brett Boesch, International Ministry Strategist