"First the Gospel Must Be Preached to the Nations"

In Mark 13:10, Jesus speaks of the signs that will come before the end--before Jesus returns to earth as a triumphant king instead of the humble baby of Christmas. Jesus says, "And the gospel must first be preached to the nations," giving purpose to the time between his ascension and his second coming. You could actually say, from a Christian perspective, the last 2,000 years of history have been granted to us by God for the purpose of mission--sharing the Gospel with those who have not heard it. Recently, Zach received permission from CRWM to begin a Ph.d. dissertation at the Free University of Amsterdam (see picture above of a street in the old city of Amsterdam). His goal will be to trace the development of mission in the New Testament as an explanation for the delay of Christ's second coming in several parables found in Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Undertaking this study has been an act of faith and obedience for us. The responsibilities of family and ministry have been very heavy the last six years and there honestly don't seem leave a lot of time for study. Also, there are no libraries for Zach to use in Haiti, which means that he will have to scan material and search for electronic resources before returning to Haiti in February. It will take at least three years (and several week-long trips to Amsterdam) to complete this study and we hope that it will better equip us to develop theological education programs for Haitian church leaders.