The gospel is the gift that changes lives forever.
Although I grew up in a mainline church, I do not recall ever hearing or comprehending the gospel of Jesus Christ until the summer before my senior year of high school. At that point, I thought I was a Christian, but I was not. That all changed at a Young Life camp in the mountains of North Carolina.
There, in August 1972, I recall clearly hearing and understanding the gospel for the very first time. My life was eternally altered when I repented from my sins and trusted Christ alone as my Savior and Lord.
That decision led me on a medical mission trip to West Africa six years later. On a flight across the country, I noticed the houses scattered throughout the landscape and asked our pilot, “Is it possible that the people who live in these homes have never heard the gospel of Jesus Christ?”
I wasn’t prepared for his response, “It is very doubtful that these people know who Jesus is.”
I remember to this day the feeling that came across me as I realized that there were people in this world who had never been given the opportunity to hear the redeeming message of Jesus Christ. I was stunned, overwhelmed, and convicted to spend my life doing something about it—solely because I knew, without a doubt, that Jesus changes everything.
While I had set out on this mission trip to provide medical treatment, God used it to open my eyes to the reality of lostness that exists in our world, sparking a deep passion for what I have the great privilege of doing now—multiplying disciples of Jesus in the spiritually darkest areas of our world.
In the same way that God captured my heart for the lost more than 40 years ago, the heartbeat of East-West over the past three decades has also been motivated by the urgency to reach a lost world with the gift of God’s grace in Jesus Christ. This Christmas season, you can participate in this divine endeavor.
The gospel changed my life. It changed yours, too. And it holds the saving power to do the same among the unreached.
You have the opportunity to give the greatest gift—the gospel—and participate in taking the joy of Christmas to someone in an unreached part of the world. The Lord has given you time, treasures, and talents to make His name known among the nations. What will you do with these gifts?
Together, let’s spread hope and be the light to those living in darkness!
“The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned.” –Isaiah 9:2