Careful reading of the entire Bible from Genesis to Revelation reveals God’s heart for Mission to bring back His creation to fellowship with Him.

Eddy Ho, the evangelist says “God was the first ever missionary when in Genesis 3:8 he went out in search of two sinners who had rebelled against Him in order to bring them back into fellowship with Him.” He also says, “Since God is a missionary God, God’s people are a missionary people.”

The spirit of Christ is the spirit of missions. The nearer we get to Him, the more intensely missionary we become.” – Henry Martyn, missionary to India and Persia.

God is concerned about our whole being as it is clearly expressed when Jesus told about Christ’s mission to the disciples of John the Baptist in Luke 7:22 (ESV) “… Go and tell John what you have

seen and heard: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have good news preached to them.” Jesus reached out to the sinners, the sick, the hungry, the untouchables, those rejected by the society, the poor and the needy….. We too are called to actively address the challenges faced by our society.

Here is Kennedy Dhanabalan, the Executive Director of Evangelical Fellowship of India Commission On Relief. (EFICOR) sharing his calling and mission…..

“I accepted the Lord as my personal Savior through the work of Union of Evangelical Students of India (UESI). While growing in the Lord during my college days, I became ill and was hospitalized for 42 days. The doctors gave no hope. During that time I made a commitment to the Lord that if

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He gives me life then I will serve Him till the end of my life. I got my life and there was no turning back from that time onwards. But the clarity I needed was in where I should serve the Lord and how (what work) could I serve the Lord.

While praying in 1984, God gave me the burden to move to Bihar where I had gone to play Basketball representing my State in 1978. During that trip I met some of the tribal people and one Tamil person in that place who shared about the lives of the tribal people. That time I did not have any feelings. But when I prayed to the Lord to show me the place He reminded me of my trip to Bihar. So I started praying that the Lord will take me to Bihar. So ‘where to serve?’ was clear but the question remained was on ‘how should I serve the Lord?’

Recognizing my inadequateness, I went to Union Biblical Seminary (UBS) Pune to do my theological studies to equip myself with skills and knowledge required for the ministry. During my studies I came across Dr. Christopher Wright who taught me the Old Testament. He opened my eyes to

have a wholistic understanding on Mission.

I have received the clear mandate of saving the soul as mission from the teaching I have received from UESI staff and from missionaries of Friends Missionary Prayer Band (FMPB) laying the foundation from Matthew 28: 18 – 20. Dr. Wright had emphasized that the Lord is also concerned for the physical wellbeing of the people and especially for the poor.

In his teaching Dr. Wright taught us that God’s character would define His expectations on us on how we should lead our life and what we must do. If He is a loving God, He expects us to show love to all people. If He is a God who is Compassionate, He expects us to be compassionate. If He is a Caring God, then He expects us to care for others also. He is holy and He expects us to be holy. If He is a Just God, that means He wants to do things justly and bring justice. He emphasized that the God of justice expects us to be involved in acts of justice. (When we search for just/justice Bible gateway web portal shows 568 words present in the Bible).

He showed us caring for poor and needy is a just act and is