"Not Ashamed of the Gospel" was the theme for InterVarsity’s Staff Conference in January. 10 Link staff from Europe, Eurasia, the Middle East and E. Asia were able to come. 1 of those staff, currently serving in E. Asia, shared with the 1300 InterVarsity staff gathered about her struggle with God and herself as she faced loss and fear during her first year overseas. She gave a touching and powerful testimony to God’s faithfulness and transforming power at work in her life and in the lives of students as she released her fears and expectations to the Lord.
Another Link staff living in a Muslim country describes the success they’ve seen in student ministry this year. Students took the lead to get their Christian organization registered on campus and are now inviting their classmates to study the Bible with them and are eagerly sharing their faith with their peers. Link staff in this country have begun an internship program designed to prepare recent graduates to become staff who will pioneer student ministry in neighboring countries. Many of their student leaders are now considering full-time campus ministry. In a place where family and friends might disown or even kill you for deciding to follow Jesus, these students are not ashamed to choose – and to proclaim - Jesus because they have found hope and life in Him.
The Middle East is just one region where specific risks accompany a decision to follow Jesus. Many countries in East Asia and Eurasia, too, are high risk for missionaries and for students who want to respond to the good news about Christ. Link staff serving in these regions have chosen to give up what is familiar to risk living and sharing the gospel under difficult circumstances so that students who’ve never heard the good news can experience the power of God at work to save them and their families, too.
Caring for Link staff and their families living in high risk countries is an important part of what the
Link Supervisory & Service Team in Madison does. This team has experience and expertise that God is using for the benefit of Link staff and their families. This spring Jim (a Link Supervisor) and his wife, Diane, (both long-term missionaries in Africa) will visit Link staff in a few of these high risk countries. In one Eurasian country they’ll visit, there is always opposition to the gospel of Christ. Link staff there have seen the power of God at work despite the high personal cost they pay living far from home, under an oppressive government, in a language and culture that is very different from their own. Jim and Diane will also gather Link staff from remote areas of East Asia for the 2nd annual Link E. Asia retreat in May. As these staff pray, study Scripture, talk, rest and have fun together, they’ll be refreshed and ready to return to their cities to continue to proclaim and demonstrate the power of God to students, faculty, and university administrators, as well as to their neighbors and communities.
