Global Action Atlas

From National Geographic comes another great tool: a global map of cultural, humanitarian and environmental projects available for involvement.

Global Action Atlas - You Can Change the World

Spring Break trip to Mexico

Many college and university students in the USA waste their money and their life during spring break. At Emmaus, instead, several students spent their time and money to take the Gospel to Mexico.

Social action and missions

The mission fields need a Gospel message which is timeless because it is eternal and boundless as the horizon of heaven. All of the missionary heroes, Judson, Carey, Livingstone, Martyn, Hudson Taylor, lived for eternity and preached eternity, a Gospel that was other-worldly. They went out to save the lost. Yet their social Gospel included works of mercy to all with whom they came in contact. They had their schools, hospitals and asylums; they were not unmindful of social evils and worked for social reforms. But they considered all these as means to an end. These were only scaffolding of the eternal palace. That consists of living stones, lives redeemed, character built up, souls won for glory.

-Thinking Missions with Christ, Samuel Zwemer

Our message

 

"We are sent . . . not to preach sociology but salvation; not economics but evangelism; not reform but redemption; not culture but conversion; not progress but pardon; not the new social order but the new birth; not revolution but regeneration; not renovation but revival; not resuscitation but resurrection; not a new organization but a new creation; not a democracy but the Gospel; not civilization but Christ. We are ambassadors not diplomats." 

-Hugh Thomson Kerr.

Tools of the trade: Duarte

Duarte's Five Rules PowerPoint has rendered obsolete all the PowerPoints I have ever made. They have ruined my streamlined approach to making a presentation. They kicked my designing skills so hard, these landed on a new level. Thanks DO-ART-e!

Want to take the file apart and see how it works? Download it from Microsoft here.

a growing interest in missions

My involvement in missions unfolded one step at a time. It started in childhood; my parents were missionaries, and seeing how they applied their talents and creativity to preach the gospel was inspiring. Dad, skilled in ventriloquy, kept children spellbound with a little formally-attired dummy he called "Jose Luis." Mom's accordion stirred enthusiastic voices, if at times monotone, singing the choruses of the faith. Rapt audiences grew quickly; children were saved. Children brought their parents. A church was eventually formed. Mom and dad's devotion to the Lord was inspiring.

There was a stretch during my preteen years when I read every missionary biography I could get my hands on. The voices of Carmichael, Brother Andrew, Bruchko, and Don Richardson challenged me to dream of a life of abandonment for God.

Commitment came during my college years. At Emmaus Bible College the Lord used professor Ken Fleming's enthusiastic challenges in class, student organizations, visiting speakers, a trip to the Urbana Conference, and an Emmaus summer trip to Peru to forge the conviction in my mind that someday God would use me also in missionary service. During these years I met an attractive young student who would elicit a different kind of commitment, one we've celebrated yearly for some 23 years now. Together, and a few steps later, we arrived on the mission field.

The moral of the story? involvement in missions does not happen by accident, or as result of a single event. Becoming a missionary is a multi-step process. The Lord will lead you through his word, through his Spirit, and often through many conversations, circumstances, and experiences.

So, take the opportunity to teach that Sunday School class. Take that short-term missions trip. read that missionary biography. But while you do, don't miss the larger picture: this may be one more step in God's overall direction for your life!

International Fair

An increasing number of international students are coming to our North American colleges, providing us with an invaluable opportunity to study their culture and reach out to them in meaningful ways.

International students of the Dubuque colleges got together for the first-ever Intercultural Fair in February of 2008; the community responded enthusiastically!