What Does "Making Disciples" Really Look Like?

Knock, knock, knock. There stood a woman with her four young children. This was a family that Emilio, our long-time Peruvian national partner, was reaching out to over several months. There in the middle of the night, the woman began to tell a common story. Her husband was drunk and had begun beating her and her four children. He was so angry he threatened to kill her. She did not know what to do or where to go, but she took her four kids and left the house. She came to Emilio’s family hoping to find a place to stay. 

Now in the Cusco culture, it is very rare that someone would allow another non-family member to stay at their house. But Emilio’s family was different. They had met Jesus. They brought the woman and her children into their house and gave them a place of refuge for the night. That evening Emilio told this woman that he was once just like her husband. He had been a drunkard and a violent man. He confessed that he used to beat his wife and kids. Emilio’s son, Raul, was also there. He shared that he and his mother would often run away from his father. Raul remembered the many times he would cry on the side of the road, looking for sanctuary, looking for a safe place for the night. He told them, “We were just like your family.”

But then his parents met a neighbor, a foreigner, who invited them into his house and talked to them about Jesus. Over time and after many meetings Raul saw the power of the gospel change his father Emilio. His anger went away. He stopped drinking. He was a different person because of Jesus. The gospel not only changed Emilio’s life, but also Raul’s.

Who were those foreigners who reached out to Emilio and his family? They were MTW missionaries serving in Peru. What were they doing? They were making disciples—followers of Jesus who were committed to making more followers of Jesus. What is our vision? It is to see the gospel of the kingdom advance throughout the world. We see this advance in Cusco.

The following morning, after taking in the woman and her four children, Emilio went to talk to the husband. He shared how Christ had changed his life—that he once beat his family as well, until he met Jesus.

MTW’s mission is to make disciples among all the nations. Would you pray for this family and for the pattern of kingdom discipleship to continue throughout all our mission fields?