WORLD MISSIONS: "It's All Hands on Deck Right Now"

VOMRadio

The Voice of the Martyrs

Religion & Spirituality, Christianity

4.9 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 9 May 2026

⏱️ 25 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

How do you discern God's calling to be a missionary?

John Easter, Executive Director of Assemblies of God World Missions (AGWM), says the first question might be: if God did call you to serve overseas, would you say yes?

Before accepting his current role John and his wife served the church in Africa, providing theological training to pastors and leaders. In an effort to develop more leaders for the growing church, they oversaw 380+ schools with 25,000+ students.

Serving on missions frontlines brought many challenges. They faced an abduction, medical issues, hijacking and other criminal activity while in Africa. Yet the Lord surrounded them with community and resources as they learned how to abide in Christ and rely on the Holy Spirit during every hardship.

Today, John is focused on vision casting, fundraising and care for missionaries and missionary kids as they work to spread the gospel in unreached areas. You'll hear John share why the church in northern India is growing rapidly and what the Lord is instilling in His people in Nigeria—despite intense and violent Christian persecution in both nations.

Even the reality of death is not enough for these followers of Christ to turn back, John says.

Hear John suggest next steps for those the Lord may be calling to overseas missions, and ways you can pray specifically for AGWM and for missionaries sent out from your church.

You're invited! Be a part of The Voice of the Martyrs' 2026 From the Field National Conference this September in Bartlesville, Oklahoma. Gather with fellow believers and hear firsthand stories from persecuted Christians in restricted nations and hostile areas where VOM serves. Seating is limited, so register soon to join this inspiring event.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Dr. John Easter says there's no greater time than now to get involved in sharing the gospel with the entire world.
0:08.3	It's all hands on deck right now. It's going to be all of us together. And it's a wonderful moment.
0:15.1	I don't know if we have ever had a greater opportunity in the history of the church for global impact that we do today.
0:26.6	Jesus never promised his followers an easy path. In fact, he told his disciples that the world would hate them.
0:32.6	He sent them out as sheep among wolves. Jesus' words came true in the life of the apostles, and they're
0:39.2	still coming true today in the lives of his followers around the world. Join host Todd Nettleton,
0:44.5	as we hear their inspiring stories and learn how we can help right now on the Voice of the Martyrs
0:49.5	Radio Network. Welcome again to the Voice of the Martyrs Radio. My name is Todd Nettleton, and we are in our studio today in Bartlesville, Oklahoma with Dr. John Easter. He is the executive director of Assemblies of God World Mission. So he is the top leader in the mission sending effort of the Assemblies of God. Dr. John, welcome to the Voice of the Martyrs Radio. Oh, thank you. It's wonderful to be here.
1:12.7	Tell me a little bit about, kind of introduce yourself to our audience, and especially I'm
1:16.7	interested to hear how God got a hold of you for missions, for going outside of your home country
1:22.9	and taking the gospel to other nations. My wife and I, we ended up pastoring a church, a lead church, and we ended up having a strong call for
1:33.0	seminary work, ended up during that pastoral ministry, going down a pathway towards an academic
1:40.4	journey.
1:40.9	I thought that's probably where I would end up is in an academic institution,
1:45.9	teaching in seminary. It was a passion and love, but kind of a spiritual mentor and father
1:52.0	had come down with leukemia and ended up having a conversation with my wife and me
1:57.9	about opportunities in Africa.
2:01.6	And even though there was a different trajectory,
2:04.6	and I was well moving towards my doctorate in a different field,
2:07.6	all of a sudden the Lord began to just use that conversation.
2:11.6	And there was just a complete redirection.
2:14.6	Within a year of being on the ground in Africa, we knew we had made a great choice. And even though it wasn't always easy to live, and there were certainly challenges that always come with life and ministry no matter where we are, we just knew that there was a real affirmation in our hearts that this is where God had called us, and this is where we would spend the rest of our life is committing ourselves to the advancement of the gospel and in the work of cross-cultural missions.
	...

Transcript will be available on the free plan in 2 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Voice of the Martyrs, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of The Voice of the Martyrs and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.