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Key Bible Verse: "What should I do with you," asks the Lord. "For your love vanishes like the morning mist" (Hosea 6:4). Bonus Reading: Luke 9:62; Matt. 21:28–31a

I met a student who'd attended the Urbana Missions Conference 11 months before. I asked him what its lasting impact was. He couldn't remember. "Wow," he said, "that was so long ago!"

A commentator reporting on the Iraq War declared, "The conflict drags into its fourth day." We're not a culture that would do well with "The 100 Years War." Today's multitaskers commit intensely to mission trips of three weeks or less, but are reluctant to commit long-term.

How effective will short-term oriented North Americans be in the world of Muslim evangelism or Bible translation?—ministries that often require several decades. Can a generation raised with remotes in their hands dedicate themselves to ministries that will take 20 or 30 years?

The answer is yes. But the young person is unlikely to go forward at a missions conference and make a life commitment. He'll usually make a progression of choices. A short-term mission trip leads to Urbana. A decision there leads to a longer mission trip or a relationship with an agency or taking a correspondence course. After two or three years of this, he may go for a four-year term.

—Paul Borthwick in EMQ

My Response: Am I open to a missions commitment extending beyond a couple of weeks?

Thought to Apply: A deep consciousness that I was not my own took possession of me. —J. Hudson Taylor (pioneer missionary from England to China)

Adapted from EMQ (Evangelical Missions Quarterly, 10/03) by permission.

Prayer for the Week

Lord, give me a feel for the world You sent Your Son to save. Show me how to become engaged.

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