Dear Reader,
Following the InterVarsity conference in Lausanne, Bob headed to the Youth for Christ World Congress on Evangelism in Beatenberg. He wrote home to praying friends and supporters about the powerful work of God.
…Leaving the German fellows I came to the YOUTH FOR CHRIST WORLD CONGRESS at Beatenberg. God the Holy Spirit has moved in here and taken over. By God’s grace we are going to evangelize the world in our generation. Pastors, evangelists, and missionaries from all over the world are here. When we leave here we will go out all over the world to preach the gospel in mass meetings. I will go to France, England, to Italy if God permits. After that some brothers in Christ in Egypt want me to come there to spend some time speaking for the meetings conducted by the Christian students at the University in Cairo. Then Hubert Mitchell of India wants me to go there to speak at the student conference in October. He will not be able to go as he must go on to the United States from here. He insists that it is imperative I go to take his place and in faith I have told him that he can count on me, trusting God to provide the means. I hope you will be faithful in prayer about this because India is a needy and difficult land. After this Calvin Chao wants me to come to China and spend some time speaking in the Chinese Universities.
How was the world going to be evangelized in his generation? A month later, Finley would write from Cardiff, Wales, to Stacey Woods and two others at InterVarsity Christian Fellowship with some observations that would hint at his vision for reaching foreign visitors at home and supporting indigenous missions in the decades to come:
…As you know, my first love in recent months has been the ministry of the Word among foreign students from foreign countries who are studying in English speaking universities. This appeals to me as the most effective means of evangelizing anti-Christian, anti-Protestant and anti-American countries to-day. Two years ago, I planned definitely to establish residence in a far eastern country to carry on missionary work. But two things have convinced me that this is not the will of God. One was my experience living in International House [at the University of Chicago] and the other was re-reading the New Testament. It seems to me that the apostle Paul operated on a different basis. When he went into Asia he was accompanied by a small circle of men: Sopater, Gaius, Timotheus, Luke, and others. He spent days and weeks working with these men, and then left them in strategic places to carry on for Christ. Why should not we do the same sort of thing to-day? If we could concentrate on a few fellows from the Orient who are studying in America, and get them really grounded in the Word, they could go home to do more in a few years than an American missionary could do in a lifetime, trying to overcome nationalistic prejudice and language barriers.
What about you? Is there a foreign neighbor, co-worker or classmate the Lord has given you with whom to share the love of Christ?
Next week, we’ll hear about Bob’s time in India where what he encountered would affect him for the rest of his life. . .
See you then!
Sincerely,
https://robertvfinley.com/
Charlottesville, Virginia.
