Welcome to the PMF Workshop for the week of November 23, 2020. I’m your host, T. M. Moore. Each week we provide teaching, encouragement, and resources to help you in working your Personal Mission Field. By adopting the perspectives and practicing the disciplines we present in the Workshop, you can become more consistent and effective in realizing the presence, promise, and power of God’s Kingdom in your daily life.

Today’s Workshop is entitled, “The Witness of Literature.” Our text is Isaiah 55.10, 11:

“For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven,
And do not return there,
But water the earth,
And make it bring forth and bud,
That it may give seed to the sower
And bread to the eater,
So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth;
It shall not return to Me void,
But it shall accomplish what I please,
And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.” Isaiah 55.10, 11

A little child shall lead them
Our 11-year old granddaughter, Reagan, understands Personal Mission Field. Not long ago, she was out biking in her neighborhood, when she met a new friend. They biked around together for a while, and ended up at Reagan’s house, chatting in the driveway.

The subject of books and reading came up, and Reagan asked her new friend if she liked to read. When she said that she did, Reagan said, “Wait right here.”

She ran inside and dug out a copy of the Gospel of John in her bedroom, brought it out, and gave it to her friend, encouraging her to read it, because it was all about Jesus.

Reagan understood two things here. First, she understood that God had all at once expanded her Personal Mission Field (she does know the concept and has mapped out her PMF); and second, she understood the power of the Word of God, and the promise that when it goes out, God will use it for His purposes.

Here’s a helpful insight to working our Personal Mission Fields: Use the written Word of God to encourage someone to read about Jesus.

The power of the Word
Over and over we read in Scripture about the power of the Word of God, and the importance of getting the Word before the eyes and minds of people. The promise given through Isaiah should encourage us all to consider ways of sowing the Word in our part of the world/field by using Bible excerpts, such as the Gospel of John.

The prophet Habakkuk was instructed to write down the revelation of God and make it plain, so that those who read it could run quickly to carry it out (Hab. 2.2). We remember also how Philip led the Ethiopian eunuch through a quick study of Scripture, beginning with Isaiah 53, and led him to faith in Christ (Acts 8.26-40).

The Word of God is living and powerful. When Martin Luther was asked about his approach to defending the Bible, he is reported to have said, “Defend it? I don’t defend the Bible; I unleash it.”

For many years now, the Gideon’s Society has understood the value of putting the Word of God in people’s hands without charge. Over the course of their ministry, they have distributed more than 2 billion copies of Scripture. They hand out 80 million copies a year, and more than 75 percent of those go to students in foreign countries. We’ve all heard stories of people who have come to the Lord by reading something from the Scriptures, distributed by the Gideons. You can get free Bibles from many different places.

It might be a good idea to consider how you, too, can add Scripture distribution to the work of your Personal Mission Field.

A little help from your friends
Perhaps you think a whole Bible, or even a book of the Bible, might be too much for the people in your Personal Mission Field. Then why not give them a copy of our brochure, The Explanation, which you can get on our website, by clicking here?

Here, in a colorful trifold brochure, we offer John 1.1-18, in a fresh translation set in blank verse, and a brief explanation of why Jesus is the Explanation for everything. All you have to do is download the brochure, then print it on two sides of a single sheet of paper. You may need to experiment with this a bit, to get both sides upright. Fold it into three panels, and you have a handsome tract to give to a friend, co-worker, or fellow student. It even has room on the back panel for you to write your name and email or phone number.

If printing the brochure seems a little daunting, take it to your local print shop (email or on a thumb drive) and ask them to print and fold it for you. Make as many as you want, and use them to sow the Good News of Jesus with all the people in your Personal Mission Field.

Adding Bible literature to the work of your Personal Mission Field can give you door-openers, conversation starters, and follow-up tools to help start and keep going conversations about Jesus. If a little child can do this, surely we can do it, too.

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Tell us about what’s going on in your Personal Mission Field. What challenges are you facing? How has the Lord been leading or using you? Email me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. with your Personal Mission Field stories, and we might be able to use them to encourage one another in the Personal Mission Field Workshop.

For the Fellowship of Ailbe, and for the Personal Mission Field Workshop, this has been T. M. Moore.

We ask the Lord to move and enable many more of our readers to provide for the needs of our ministry. Please seek Him in prayer concerning your part in supporting our work. You can contribute online by using the Contribute button at the website; or you can send a gift to The Fellowship of Ailbe, 360 Zephyr Road, Williston, VT 05495.

Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.