Jonatan and Anna

http://lkjennings.blogspot.com/

Learning about other cultures and what approach they take on sharing the Gospel has always been a big interest of mine. Jonatan and Anna helped challenge me in ways that grew my desire to spread the loving Word of salvation through Jesus Christ. It was very apparent that they both have one desire and that is to make the love of Jesus known wherever they are.

They make sharing the Gospel seem so simple to do. When talking about cultural differences, they said they do a lot of preparing before they embark on their missions trips. They learn about the history of the culture, and different norms that they have. They learn about challenges the cultures face and about different things they lack. For instance: when Anna went to Bulgaria, she knew that the religion there was predominantly Muslim. In that knowledge, she said, “The main key with them, is to preach about the love of God” since they are only taught judgment and discipline. I love how simple they made this look! It’s something that I (and probably most American Christians) struggle with. After I heard their approach to breaking cultural divisions, something in me was very inspired to explore new ways to practice doing it. The motivation behind their passion for this ministry though, is loving God and responding to His calling to love people.

I noticed that the way they love people and really desire them to know Christ is very uplifting and presented another new challenge for me personally. Loving people takes a lot of effort, patience, compassion and discipline. This is one of the many convictions that God has been putting on my heart since I became serious about pursuing His calling. How can we effectively serve God, and His children if we don’t actually love them? It isn’t hard to miss the fact that Anna and Jonatan do a wonderful job of this.

May we grasp the importance of understanding what compassion and love really is. May God give us the grace to practice it in our weakness and may we learn from the example of Jonatan and Anna to really think twice about loving those who are “unlovable’.