For Ryan and Diane Zelhart, hospitality has always been a gift. They love gathering people, creating meaningful spaces, and curating memorable meals. But in the fall of 2024, they began to ask a deeper question: How could this gift serve something greater than themselves?
For six years, we have been running a community development project in Jia Jaan village, Northwestern Thailand. While the village had previous encounters with missionaries, it had remained resistant to the gospel. Yet, they welcomed our team, intrigued by our Christian-based programs.
At En Vivo, our Globalscope campus ministry in Valencia, Spain, Wednesday nights are sacred. We call them “Encounter” nights—weekly gatherings where students connect with God and one another through games, worship, scripture, and shared meals. During the spring semester, we hosted 12 of these special nights, each one inviting students to wrestle honestly with their faith through a series of talks. In one of these series, called “Yes, I believe, but...,” we opened scripture together, exploring stories of doubt and belief—like the desperate father in Mark 9 who cries out, “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!”
Tyler and Shalynn Crawford serve in the university city of Tübingen, Germany where they were originally part of our campus ministry there called Unterwegs. During those years working with college students, the Crawfords formed a ministry partnership with the Kreuzkirche, a local church in Tübingen. The church supports the work of Unterwegs and, in 2020, invited the Crawfords to expand their work beyond university students and into new age groups. Here Tyler shares about a recent live national broadcast from the church.
How do you determine if mission service is a good fit for you? Beyond that, how do you know if God might be calling you to mission service when there are so many options you could pursue? Abigail Haagen is serving with our Marketplace Ministries team in Mexico, and here she shares how God gifted her and led her to a work that is just the right fit for her.
Growing up, I loved attending church camp. We played silly games, chomped on candy from the snack shack, and gained best friends in half a day. In between splashing in the pool and completing scavenger hunts, I also learned valuable lessons about faith, life, and purpose. Therefore, I knew from a young age that I needed to serve God with the talents that He gave me.
So, in high school, when people started asking about colleges and careers, I made lists of my talents:
When college approached, I needed to choose a career that used those talents for God. But… how? By reading lots of books? By singing off key? Maybe I could become a detective….
And so, although I heavily considered forensic science to pursue the Nancy Drew dream, I decided to major in international business at a Christian university. International business is a flexible major, and I could use my talents of “is usually a hard worker,” “loves to excel,” and “wants to travel and explore cool cultures.” Perfect!
While studying, I prayed a lot; specifically that God would lead me exactly where He wanted me. This could mean shining His light in a corporation. Handling finances for a non-profit. Starting a coffeeshop. The options were endless! So which option was for me, God?
I waited. And waited. And waited. Before I knew it, senior year began, and people were asking about my future. But how could I make a 10-year plan if I didn’t know where God wanted me in 10 months?
October of my senior year, CMF came to visit campus and talk to classes. They did this every year. My parents had supported CMF missionaries since I was young, so I was familiar with the organization, and assumed it was nowhere near my career path. In fact, when I started college, people assumed I was going into missions since I was studying international business at a Christian university. International + Christian = missions, right? I laughed at them. How could I use a degree in business to do missions work? And so, when CMF came to talk to us that week, I skipped. It would be a waste of my time.
Then, in not one, but TWO of my international business classes, the director of CMF’s Marketplace Ministries presented. The classes were back-to-back; we literally walked to the second class together. He gave me a flyer for CMF’s Marketplace Ministries teams, explaining about how they used business to further God’s Kingdom here on earth.
Business in an international context.
Business to further God’s kingdom.
Teams that needed talented hard workers. Hard workers who wanted things done excellently. Who wanted to experience other cultures.
The signs seemed pretty obvious, right?
Alas, I was distracted that week. I stuffed the flyer into my backpack and forgot about it. A few weeks later, I cleaned out my backpack, glanced at the flyer, then made a note in my planner to pray about it in a few weeks, after I submitted those big assignments I was worrying about. And when that date came, I took the flyer out of my stack of papers and prayed. And realized this job was exactly what I’d been praying for.
Next, I had a Zoom call with the director.
Then I had a Zoom call with the team.
Then I officially applied, was interviewed, and accepted.
I raised support to be a business missionary in Mexico for 15 months.
And I’ve just decided to extend my term and am now raising support for the next 3 years.
I know God can use anybody anywhere. I’ve interned at non-profit community theaters, worked in healthcare administration, and even dished out fries at McDonald’s, and I know God used each of those jobs to glorify Him. I’ve seen friends who are CEOs, baristas, teachers, janitors, doctors, who all use their skills for God. And although I know God can use me and my talents in numerous ways, I’m grateful He’s placed me here in Mexico, being a business missionary for Him.
Last week was a significant one for CMF, as three impactful events converged in Indianapolis. We were blessed to witness veteran missionaries, aspiring missionaries, and future missionaries come together for a few incredible days of connection, reflection, and preparation.
One of our CMF staff members took a trip to South Asia recently with a group exploring the country and our ministries there and considering possibilities. This is a closed country where, because of political, social, and religious reasons, traditional missionary activity is not allowed, but where God is working in incredible ways. In this final entry in his journal, he continues to use nicknames for the people he interacts with.
Every half mile is different. Though you almost feel it couldn’t be.
For about 30 minutes on this lush hillside trail, you get used to things looking a certain shade a green, with the ubiquitous tea plants forming the foreground and the towering pines dotting the landscape with shade. A Buddhist stupa off in the distance belies the reality that this territory is populated mostly by Hindu people. A number of local Hindu women who roam up and down the hill picking tea leaves to stuff their burlap bags.
But then you turn a corner and the landscape becomes rocky, mountainous, and sunny. A while later it becomes windy, and then you find yourself passing a Hindu temple with a few lazy dogs napping out front and a smiling 3-year-old girl waving. Her mother, behind the house, kindly waves too as your group passes by.
The conversation also takes its different turns. For a time, you are leading the pack, talking with a young local guy whose English is very understandable as he shares about his challenges and how he found the Lord. Thirty minutes later, it’s rock climbing and photography at the back of the group with another expat. An hour later, you’re praying for a new friend and encouraging one another. The hike is engaging but allows for ample connection and interesting breaks - the tour guides pause here and there to tell us which trees produce pods giving out something like cotton, which leaves are good for cooking, and which fruits can be eaten. A scaly green, red, and orange lizard holds still long enough atop a stone to take several enviable pictures.
This almost 200-mile long trail winds through tea country. We hike only Stage 1, but there are dozens of stages. Afterwards, we will stop in the tea factory and see how tea is processed and eventually sold. But being here and seeing how it grows and especially WHO is harvesting it, and how they live, is the experience of a lifetime. Yet not all is what you might expect. 200 feet from the Hindu temple with the dogs, we pass between two buildings. Two of the doors on the left, front doors of homes, have a cross hanging on it. Believers live in this village. God is at work even here, a world away from anything recognizable for us.
Hospitality’s Queen, The Skipper and The Evangelist, The Musician, the Movie Star Preacher, Mr. Personality, and the others – it’s one thing to know their (nick)names but quite another to see their faces, to ride in the bed of the truck with them, and to hear their stories. But to get a sense for the landscape that surrounds them – physical and spiritual – so that we know how to pray for them – all of that is priceless.
On the last day, we brave traffic and make it to our hotel on the Indian Ocean. Wading out into the water, we laugh, play, and plan now, as before, but now we do so with the clarity of each of those faces and their situations in mind. Now when we pray for the Movie Star Preacher or The Entrepreneur, we will personally remember what it smells, sounds, and tastes like at their church or home; the kind, personal welcome of their church members; the feeling of spiritual oppression in the city and hill country; and the immense power of our friends’ prayers to the Lord.
And we will join them in prayer as often as we can. God has linked our hearts to his work in this part of the world now. That part of the journey has changed us now and will change what we see along our journey in the future.
A young Christian seeking God’s best for their life often begins to listen for His leading during university. That was true for me in the summer of 1985.
Northeast Christian Church (NECC) in Louisville, KY has long been committed to supporting global missions, but their partnership with Greg and Eli Klass in Chile has become a powerful example of how intentional investment can change lives. One such story is Alex’s.
There is a resilient little church plant called Maasha, located in a remote part of southern Ethiopia. The Maasha church has thrived despite fire, government persecution, local ridicule, and poverty.
