KALISPELL, Mont.–Sharing the message of Montana Christian College on a radio station in Kalispell, Montana, opened doors for the college in six states and one foreign country.
Through a lunch meeting arranged by MCC’s Vice President of Communications and Marketing Norm Miller, the college’s president Dr. Marvin Jones and Miller met with two leaders of Your Network of Praise last March: YNOP’s President and General Manager Roger Lonnquist and Earl Houck, ministry coordinator and announcer.
The four mission-minded men quickly gravitated toward how each ministry might serve the other.
“Missions opportunities for our students was already on my heart and mind,” Jones said, adding that the group’s confidence reflects “no doubt that the Lord crossed our paths for the goals of intentional and specific ministry.”
A few weeks prior, YNOP already had offered MCC free public service ads on more than 60 radio stations in six contiguous states. But when Lonnquist mentioned missions to the Maasai people of Africa, the scope of ministry for this small college in Montana’s mountains broadened on a global scale.
Lonnquist said that about 2 million members of the Maasai tribe live in a region that spans the border between Kenya and Tanzania, two-thirds of whom are illiterate. YNOP is making in-roads for the Gospel to the Maasai with a hand-held, solar powered MP3 player downloaded with the New Testament, Psalms, and Proverbs in the Masaai language.
The meeting concluded with a handshake commitment from both MCC and YNOP to seek ways to support each other’s ministries. That included an invitation for Lonnquist to preach in a chapel service at the college in August.
After Lonnquist’s sermon, MCC student Andrii Mykhailiuk — a native of Ukraine — spoke with Lonnquist and volunteered to take some MP3 players to Tanzania on a mission trip André already had planned.
To hear more details of how God prepared Mykhailiuk and MCC for ministry in Tanzania, check out this podcast, where Jones and André are interviewed at YNOP’s studio. During the podcast, Jones said that faculty and students also committed to raise $500 in support of YNOP’s efforts. But the tally more than doubled the goal.
“It is moving though not surprising to discover the orchestrations of God in reaching the world with the Gospel,” Jones said.
“From a mere lunch meeting, two ministries based in Kalispell God has blessed and expanded,” Jones said. “We are grateful to our YNOP friends Roger and Earl and are elated to partner with them to reach Africa with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.”
“Beyond these blessings, I am humbled that God has planted a vision for missions at the MCC among our students, especially. They are open to missions, and that’s a willingness God will reward.”
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