댄 해리슨 Dan Harrison

Dan Harrison is Vice President of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship and Director of InterVarsity Missions and the URBANA Student Mission Convention. Born to missionary parents in China, Dan served with Wycliffe Bible Translators in Papua New Guinea.

Dan Harrison is Vice President of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship and Director of InterVarsity Missions and the URBANA Student Mission Convention. Born to missionary parents in China, Dan servI’m delighted to talk to this group of persons who love Jesus and want to make a difference for him. Some say about your generation that you are slackers and that you are uncommitted. I say that your generation is doing some of the finest mission work I have ever seen. I was speaking to a group of missionaries and one of them spoke to me after and said, I was an exhibitor at an Urbana convention. The delegates asked me all sorts of questions like What's the retirement program your mission offers? And What's the pay? And May I take my refrigerator to the field? and etc. And then

with a twinkle in his eye, he said, I suppose you wonder what convention that was. I said, Yes I do. He said, 1946. Actually I’ve never been asked a trivial question by an Xer.

Morse Tan was at Urbana 93 and filled out the World Evangelization Decision Card, came back to Wheaton College, and as a freshman incorporated a non-profit organization to do evangelism through the world wide web. Numerous persons have become Christians as the result of the witness of Moses and his friends in that new ministry.

Some people don't expect much of your generation, especially in missions. I expect a great deal. Perhaps you wonder why? In 1989, my wife and I made our first trip into the Soviet Union. The Berlin wall was still up and he Soviet Union was still in existence. In 1990, there were 13 persons who committed their hearts to Christ in our summer project in Kiev- 10 students, 2 faculty, and one pro-rector of a university. Today the Ukraine is the second fastest growing student movement in the world, staffed mostly by Ukrainians and governed by a Ukrainian board. The work among students has spread from the Ukraine to 13 of the 15 countries that used to be in the Soviet Union. The missionary work done in the Soviet Union through InterVarsity and its sister movements in the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students has been largely done by Xers. Sure there have been a few older folk, including me, that have been involved in some ways. But most of the missionary work has been done by Xers. Outstanding missionary work.

Another person that I believe in you is that students loved me into the kingdom when I was a very pagan college student. I came from a broken background where I experienced sexual abuse by a leader in the church when I was 9. At 14, I borrowed money from my dad and took a bus trip down to Florida to meet my older brother. While I was there, I got a letter from Dad reminding me of the debt I owed him, asking me how I was going to pay it bad and reminding me of the principle of responsibility, and he signed the letter, "Love, Dad•, Dad loved me. That was the first time, and perhaps the last that Dad ever used those words with me. I didn't know my dad loved me. At age 15, I purchased an automobile with money I had earned. My dad warned me not to drive and if I did I would get in trouble and if I got in trouble not to call him. Well I didn't follow his advice or direction, and sure enough I was stopped, arrested, and put in jail. The jail cell door clanged behind me. I turned around, and there was my older brother. What a family reunion.

I was allowed one telephone call and naturally I called home. My father refused to speak to me, just as he said he would, and he wouldn’t allow my mother to do so either. I quit school five or six times. I found it virtually impossible to please my missionary father. It was students like you who loved me into the kingdom. Students have always provided leadership for older adults around them. Most of the revolutions that have taken place in recent history have been started or significantly influenced by students.

In Romania, for example, a 14-year-old daughter of a pastor shamed her father into taking a stand against the evil regime, a courageous one that could have cost him his career and might have cost him his life. That began the revolution. In Bulgaria, one of the students in our summer program, who eventually became a Christian, was actually the student who led others in a demonstration on his university campus that spilled out into the streets, was joined by workers, and brought down the evil regime in that country.

The whole modem missions movement was substantially contributed to by students. Over 20,000 students committed themselves to missions through the Student Volunteer Movement. Out of the last five Urbana student mission conventions, 67,891 delegates have turned in decision cards indication their commitment to world missions. The revivals that have taken place in various places around the world have often begun with students. When I was a missionary teacher in Papua New Guinea, high school students came to me and asked me to teach them to pray. We began praying together early in the morning. The group grew, and eventually it burst out into a chapel at the high school.

We spent all one day and most of the night, and it spread out into the missionary community. There has been a revival among Christian campuses and some universities in the 50s and 60s that resulted in a wave of missionaries. Recently I spoke at the Wheaton Christian Fellowship, which was running upward of 600 every Sunday night. They had just had their missions emphasis week, and George Verwer, one or our speakers at Urbana 96, was the featured speaker. Whereas normally they have 70 response cards indication commitments to missions, they had this year well over 700 responses. The prayer goal of the students in the World Christian Fellowship is that half the student body at Wheaton will attend Urbana 96.

Another reason I expect a great deal from your generation is that students can go anywhere. A group of students was welcomed in North African Islamic country of Tunisia. They were housed in the homes of their Tunisian student hosts. They spent the summer with these Tunisians. One of the Americans was a convert from Islam. Her host family spent the summer tenaciously t:tying to convert her back to Islam. You know what she talked about- her saving faith in Jesus Christ.

Students and other young adults are doing excellent mission work 1 have said. Your generation is more or less color-blind. Our summer teams are 25% or more minority students. One team was in a small Ukrainian town called Nizhyn. This was the first group of Americans to come to their community. The hosts spent the day with our students. At the end of the day they had a press conference, which meant that anyone in the community could ask an American a question.

A man stood up and asked, “I’m curious; I’ve got to ask this question. I’ve noticed that you people are different from one another, and yet you seem to like on another. You might even love one another. You have fun together; you socialize together; this is truly remarkable. In our country, we have differences and we hate one another. We never associate one another. Don't you have any radical prejudice in the United States?" One of the students got up to answer. She said, 'Yes, we have racial prejudice in the United States. I grew up in the projects in Atlanta, and people tried to convince me that we blacks were inferior to whites. I hated whites. But if you see a difference in our group, it is because we are followers of the Lord Jesus Christ and we’re attempting to live in accordance with his teaching. Don't let me mislead you. It's not always easy. But this is why we're different."

Three students from Central Asia were invited to MOSOJW for one of our summer mission projects. They were matched up with Americans, roomed together, had their meals together, traveled together, had classes together, worshiped together, studied the Bible together, etc. Dan and Ishmael were roommates. Whereas they started off on the wrong foot in their relationship, they ended the summer as fast friends. They were sad to see one another go. Before they parted, one said to the other, "we can't both be right about our faith. I’ll study your religious book if you study my religious book, until one of us converts." They both made this covenant together. Eight months later, Ishmael set aside his Islamic faith. He came back for a second summer and once again roomed with an American. He asked all sorts of questions, but by the end of the summer he committed his heart to Christ. He began insisting that we bring one of our Global Projects to his university.

His university invited our student group in spite of the fact that they knew that their prize student, who was a religious Muslim, had become a Christian as a result of spending time with the InterVarsity students. Dan took a team of 10 Americans to the country. The first summer, there were 6 conversions. By December, there were 35 and the fellowship has gotten up to 75 in number. Who did that missionary work? A group of Xers.

In 1991, the government on Ukraine gave me the highest civilian award ever given in their country, and never before or since given to a foreigner. It’s the Makarencko medal, and it was given to me for InterVarsity's contribution to the moral education for the Ukraine.

Last Thanksgiving, my family hosted three officials from a Central Asian country. They spent several days in our home, along with our extended family. One of the officials was recently the Minister of Education in that country. He told me that when he first became Minister, the President of the country called him into his office. He was handed a “for your eyes only” file and the content of the file had been prepared by the KGB general and was an investigation of InterVarsity. It said that InterVarsity was a dangerous organization corrupting the morals of the youth of that country and that we dangerous organization corrupting the morals of the youth of that country and that we should immediately be expelled. This Minister of Education courageously stood up against the KGB general and said to his president. "Mr. President this is not the InterVarsity that I know.

The personnel from InterVarsity are quality people that are making an important contribution to our country and are badly needed by our youth. I recommend that an independent investigation be done and that we report back to you: The investigation was done and the president of the country wrote a letter countering the KGB recommendation, and defending InterVarsity and supporting our continuation there. That same Minister then became the president of a university, and has subsequently asked us to help him establish an international business college.

Students and young Xers are pursuing a tent-making strategy among unreached peoples in the 10/40window- the countries of the world that are the least reached, that are the most needy. Your generation cares. Many of you love Jesus and want to make a difference in your life. Because of that 1 want to ask the following question. If you were to walk up to a situation where there were 10 people attempting to lift a very heavy log and nine of them were at one end of the log, and one was at the other, where would you go to try to be helpful?

Did you know that in the United States There is one full-time vocational Christian. pastor, youth leader, etc. For every 300 in the population. You may not know that in the Islamic world, there is one missionary per one million in the population. Furthermore, 90% of the Christian workers in the world are in places where the Church already exists.

Furthermore, most of the missionary work being done is focused on adults, in spite of the fact that of all the conversions that take place in the United States or all over the world for that matter, roughly 85% of them take place between the ages of 4 and 14. And furthermore, the world that you and I live in, the world of the 90s, is getting younger and younger. By the year 2000, median age will be 17. Most countries in the world have a younger and younger population. It’s only in North America and some western European countries that the population is graying.

One of the reasons that 1 expect so much of your generation is that groups of Xers are at work doing wonderful missionary work here in North American cities and in various places all around world quite like the team I mentioned in Central Asia. I mentioned George Verwer, the founder of Operation Mobilization. who when he was a student met on a regular basis for prayer groups, George and a group of other students went off to Mexico to do mission work.

They formed a team and went out to do the work of God. I' m thinking of some other students, including a man by the mane of Paul Leary, who was involved in an InterVarsity chapter in North Carolina. He went on a summer mission project along with some of his friends. They went together on this project. They had a tremendous experience. Then they went off the Urbana and felt a real sense of call to the world mission of the Church. They committed themselves together to form into a team go reach an unreached people group with the gospel of Jesus Christ They did that as undergraduate students, and they stayed together. They finished their undergraduate work. They met annually for prayer and for fellowship and for fun. They began to identify gifts. Paul Leary was identified as the team leader. A couple people were sent off into medical school. A couple of others were sent to train in linguistics under Wycliffe Bible Translators, and so forth. Paul was sent into InterVarsity to go on staff and then to become a staff director in order to learn how to lead.

Over a period of several years, they continued in their commitment to one another and to approach and reach an unreached people group together as a team. Today Paul Leary and his team work in an unreached people group in Uganda. Let me challenge you to from a team right in this missions conference this week. Prayerfully look for persons of like mind to tackle one of the unreached people groups in the world. There are HXX> students at this conference and 2000 more at the sister conference next door. I wonder how many teams God could raise up right out of these two conferences this week?

What does Scripture say about world evangelization? Scripture declares that the gospel must be proclaimed throughout the earth. In Revelation 5:9 it says, "The elders sang a new song. Worthy is the Lamb, because he with his blood purchased saints for God from every ethnos, every language and people and nation" And then in verse 11, "Then the angels sang." And in verse 13, "And every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and the sea." Noted British Bible teacher John Scott has said that the gospel is not the gospel unless it is proclaimed. What does that mean? That means that when you and I share the Good News, it becomes the gospel. We can breathe life into the words. And by the Holy Spirit's power they become the gospel in another's life.

When is world evangelization completed and how will we know? When the Lord returns. The Scripture says that only the Father knows when Jesus will return. The proclamation of the gospel is the overriding theme of Scripture. In Genesis 12:1, Abraham is the first character who stands out as a person who first of all hears God' s voice and secondly understands God' s direction and thirdly ordered his ways according to God' s will In verse 1 of chapter 12, God calls Abram first to leave his country. He was to leave Ur of the Chaldeans. He was to leave his father, his people, his father's household, and to go where? To the land that I will show you, the Scripture says.

He took his nephew and his wife Sarah. And then in verse 2, we see enumerated God's promises. One, to make you a great nation to bless you, to give you a great name, to make you a blessing to bless those that bless you, curse those that curse you, and that all the peoples of the earth will be blessed through you. Now that was a promise to Abraham. But in fact, you and I have been grafted into the line, the lineage of Abraham. And it is through us and through other Christians that we will be the instruments of God's blessing to all the peoples of the earth. Another verse of Scripture also says to all the families of the earth. Really Abraham and you and I as Christians are called to renounce the certainties of the past and to accept the uncertainties of the future.

The world-wide proclamation of the gospel is the responsibility of every believer. In Luke 24 starting with verse 44-47, this is made clear. In verse 44 it says, "All things written of Christ must be fulfilled." Jesus validates the Old Testament accounts, including of course Genesis 12. In verse 47 it says "Repentance for forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his (Jesus) name to all the nations, all the ethnos, all the languages, beginning in Jerusalem. And then in Acts chapter 1 verse 8 it says that you and I will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon us and that we will be witnesses both in Jerusalem, in all Judea, all Samaria and even to the remotest part of the earth. How long will this go on? Matt 28:19 says "even to the end of the age." That's of course when Jesus returns. In Luke 1()-.2 it says that the harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few; therefore beseech the Lord of the Harvest, pray to the Lord of the Harvest, to send out laborers into the harvest field God is a God of history, his plan being worked out a spiritual lineage including you and me. God is a covenant-making God; he makes and keeps his promises.

God is a God of blessing, especially salvation And God is a God of mercy. Revelation 7:9 says a whole multitude will join you and me who are believers at the marriage feast of the Lamb. And Scripture also teaches lostness and Christ's uniqueness. That is without knowledge of Jesus, without confessing Jesus as Lord, a person is destined to a Christ-less eternity, separated from God Jesus said of himself that I am the way, the truth and the life and no person comes to the Father except through me," through Jesus. God is a God of mission. All the families of the earth will be blessed if we take the good news to them.

Again John Stott said, We need to become global Christians with a global vision for God is a global God.

Perhaps you think that you don't qualify to be a messenger of the gospel grafted into Abraham' s lineage and be a source of blessing to the nations, to the ethnos, to the peoples of the earth. Perhaps you think that your brokenness or the fact that your family is dysfunctional or less than perfect disqualifies you. I wrote a book entitled Strongest in the Broken Places in which I convey the biblical truth that God delights in taking our weakness and turning it into strength. In fact, God finds it difficult to use people who think they are strong.

I was born in China and in the village where we lived there was a tinkerman This is a person who had a little bell and whenever you heard it you knew who he was and you would bring to him your broken items. He would glue them back together, and the places where they were glued together were actually stronger than the original pottery.

One day in Papua New Guinea, my wife Shelby and I were having an argument. Shelby was sweeping the floor and got quite angry at me, turned around quickly and inadvertently the broomstick knocked her prize teapot, a souvenir of our honeymoon knocked it off the shelf, it fell to the floor and broke into hundreds of pieces. Needless to say we stopped arguing and I attempted to gather up all the pieces. Thinking about that tinkerman. I though possibly I could glue it back together. The more pieces I picked up, the less I thought it was possible. Well I was able to glue the pot back together, and here it is. But the pot doesn't hold tea. I don't have the skill that the tinkennan had. It looks nice, and at a distance you can’t tell that it doesn't hold water.

You know, God isn't finished with me. Fortunately I didn't have to wait until I was all put together in order to be used by him as an instrument of his peace and love and transmission of the gospel to the nations of the earth. God delights in using me in my weakness and turning that weakness into strength. He' II do the same for you.

Summertime this year is time for the Olympics. Do you know that over 10,000 people paid $3,000 to carry the torch six tenths of a mile? All types of people. It must have been a thrill to be one of those persons who carried the torch forward. A fire from that eternal flame that lights the flame at the current site for the Olympics. I had that feeling when I worshiped in the church in England where John Wycliffe walked the morning star of the reformation. John Wycliffe preceded Martin Luther. John Wycliffe was responsible for translating the Scriptures into English. The first time that the Scriptures had ever been available in the vernacular since New Testament days. John Wycliffe lit the torch for Bible Translation. And then William Cameron Townsend, the founder of Wycliffe Bible Translators, caught that torch.

In 1984. Wycliffe sent out translators to its thousandth language group. Recently they completed their 400th New Testament. The Bible translation torch passed to my wife Shelby and me in 1964, as we finished our studies at Cornell and went off to study linguistics. The Bible translation torch has been passed to national Bible translators all over the world. It was passed to Ken and Bobbie Williams, who worked among the Chuf tribe in Guatemala Two thousand in village churches there sent out 9 missionaries. How does God pass the torch for missions? In Isaiah chapter 6 God got Isaiah's attention with a vision God uses various means to get our attention. How has he gotten your attention? Are you listening to him?

Secondly, God enlarges our vision to test our availability. God wants to use every one of his children to complete the task of world evangelization. Ksaisa, in that sixth chapter, responded to the vision from God by saying. "Here am I, Lord, send me.”

Uncle Cam, the founder of Wycliffe, went to Guatemala to sell Spanish Bibles at the age of 19. He was out in the countryside and was confronted by a Quichua Indian, who said to him in broken Spanish, •Senor, if your God is so great, why doesn't he speak my language?" Mr. Townsend quit selling Bibles and decided to give God another language, and twelve years later had translated the New Testament into Quichua. God had used uncle Cam to raise up a church, he had built a school system, he had established a hospital and he moved on from there, eventually to found the Wycliffe Bible Translators.

Thirdly, God levels with us and teaches us to listen. The missionary call is not where can I go to be successful? It is what do you want me to do, Lord? Leave the results to him. The torch of missions is not passed to us. It's passing to the Xer generation. Your generation is uniquely qualified to complete the task of world evangelization. There's a lot of Bible translation to do. There's great deal of work to be done in the 10/40 window, countries where the gospel has never been communicated.

God did not call you so the world would know your name. God called you and me so the whole world know Jesus' name. Last November I had the privilege of traveling to Xinjiang province in northwest China, at the very end of the silk road, just a few miles from Kyrgyzstan and Pakistan. I was with an Islamic leader. Not very far away, there was a sign advertising Coca Cola. There we were having a Coke together. I asked do you know Jesus? Have you heard about him?

Do you know who he is? N. Here we are at the end of the silk road, and Coca Cola is already there. Not only are they advertising Coke, but people are buying it and drinking it, but they have never heard of Jesus. They don't know about him. Did you know that Coke has a goal of putting a can of Coke in the hand of every person on earth by the year 2000? They are of course thinking of financial profit

A Papua New Guinea grandfather asked me the questions. How long have you known Jesus? I said, Quite a few years. He said, Did your father know about Jesus? I said Yes, my father knew about Jesus. He said, "Did your grandfather know about Jesus?" I said yes, my grandfather became a Christian when he was an adult. He said, "Why has it taken so long to bring the good new about Jesus to us? You know, we've had the gospel for about 2000." D.L Moody, just about a hundred years ago, said, ~ task of world evangelization can be done, must be done, will be done.8

And I would add, Why not in this generation. I believe that your generation can do it David Beatty came to Urbana 93 because some missionary invited him. He told me that in fact the reason he came was because his girlfriend was nearby and he wanted to go see her. But, while he was there God got hold of him. He wrote me afterwards and said, ~ world doesn't need any more ballistic missile engineers. What the world needs is persons who are available to Him to share the gospel where it has not been proclaimed." David is currently preparing himself to go into the Islamic world to share the gospel

Since you love Jesus and want to make a difference, let me challenge you to make a commitment to be available to you Lord to do whatever he wants you to do.

When Shelby and I were students, we became interested in missions. Most of our interest was focused on helping other people become involved. But along came some missionaries who shared with us about their work in Bible translation in Papua New Guinea. They told us about some needs there for teachers and teachers of missionaries' children. So we began to explore it. We went before our Lord and said, “Lord, we don't know what you want from us. We want to be available to you. And we’re going to move forward toward these needs in Papua New Guinea. We ask that you either close the door or confirm that this is correct."

We went to my father, with whom I had become reconciled, and asked his opinion and blessing. Normally, he would pray and reflect about a question like that, but in this case, with a great big smile, he threw his arms around both of us and affirmed the direction we were going and gave us his blessing, and prayed God's blessing on us.

I trust that this evening you will make a commitment to the world mission of the church. Say, "yes, God, r m willing to do what you want me to do. r m willing to go where you want me to go."

ed with Wycliffe Bible Translators in Papua New Guinea.