Dear family and friends:

In the final scene of the film “Schindler's List,” Liam Neeson, as Schindler, laments how he could have saved more Jews from the Holocaust by selling things to buy them. “I could have got more... If I'd made more money.”
“I threw away so much money. You have no idea. This car… Why did I keep the car? Ten people, right there. Ten more people. This pen. Two people…”

Obviously, you can't live your whole life that way. I certainly don’t look at it as if every penny God gives me is to be spent for direct evangelism. But I was just thinking, as we've been doing a trial in the last 24 hours, pulling out the stops to see just how many we could reach for Christ if the “sky was the limit” for just one day.

For our team at GMO, it's academic, in a way. It inspires us and educates us. It helps us know what works best.
But as I look at our GreatCommission2020.com website right now, and I see yellow boxes indicating decisions for Christ in places like Peru… Indonesia… Vietnam… China… Libya… Kosovo… Uzbekistan… Russia… Turkey… Saudi Arabia… Senegal… I think, for that person in the Sudan, or that person in Jordan, that's not academic at all. It means eternity for them.

I have to think, if we only had enough to spend, couldn't this many be reached every day? With an average of at least two million people every day searching for God on the Internet, it's clear that God's Spirit is working -- he's bringing them. (Romans 3:11)

We ended the day with 65,340 indicated decisions for Christ! We had over half a million visits to our websites March 30, 2010--and 9,486 asked for follow up, giving us an e-mail address. Still less than a third of two million! Vast numbers of lost and hurting people need Jesus desperately.

As we think this week about the miracle of the Resurrection, it reminds me that each person is to be thought of as someone for whom Jesus died! (Rom. 14:15)

“Terri” is one such person. She wrote me yesterday,
“Thank you mike for caring, it brings tears to my eyes. The daily readings truly help. Daily I ask the Lord for forgiveness and to fill me with the Holy Spirit. I have been with my husband for 20 years and married before God for 16 years. I am in hiding from him because of domestic violence. I had to bring my children to a safe place but I couldn’t stay for safety reasons. It has been 6 heartbreaking months. We are on lists through the state but they are backed up. I have been on my knees ever since. I had no hope, but I have faith if I keep praying and reading the Bible, "God's Will" will present itself. God bless you and my babies.”

We have less than 5,000 volunteers to try to help people like Terri—so you can see that our trial didn’t only overspend our financial resources in one day, it also overspent our human resources. Having provided this vision, we need the Lord to provide in a balanced way: seekers, finances, staff, online missionaries, and churches to which we may send new believers. It’s an utterly faith-dependent ministry.

As the Israelites prepared to conquer the Promised Land, God told them why the conquest would be gradual; so they wouldn’t have more than they could handle. (Exodus 23:22-30) Finances often seem to be our biggest challenge in ministry. That tempts us to think that if God provided that all at once, we’d be all set. But we depend upon God to fulfill his vision in his balanced and perfect way.
We thank you again for your part in that—serious prayer and vital financial support are the what God uses to make our ministry possible every day! We praise Him for the privilege of participating in this historic continual outreach!

We pray for His blessings on your Resurrection Celebration! He is RISEN! Without that truth, we have nothing to declare! It means everything!

Love,

P.S. Please see our latest photos!

Mike and Cindy Skinner
“One day closer!” (Romans 13:11)