Before the First Sip: The Faces Behind the Map

☕ BEFORE THE FIRST SIP 🌍

Season Two: Until All Have Heard

Episode 3: The Faces Behind the Map

“Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations…”
Matthew 28:19 NKJV

For the past two Mondays, we have looked at the world through the words of Romans 10. We asked how people will hear the Gospel, and then we considered what happens when God sends someone to tell them.

Today, after returning from Togo, West Africa, I want to take you beyond the map.

🌍 When we talk about missions, it is easy to speak in terms of countries, continents, statistics, and people groups. We point to Africa on a globe, highlight a country like Togo, and begin talking about the Great Commission as though we are discussing geography.

But missions has taught me something that a map never could.

The nations have faces.

They are the child who reaches for your hand, the pastor faithfully serving a congregation most of the world will never know exists, the family who welcomes you despite having little to offer, and the person who sits across from you and listens as you explain who Jesus is.

That is when Matthew 28:19 begins to look different.

When Jesus said, “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations,” He wasn’t sending His Church toward colored shapes on a map. He was sending us toward people, because behind every border are men, women, and children created in the image of God.

And once you have looked into someone’s eyes, learned their name, heard their story, prayed with them, laughed with them, or shared the Gospel with them, that place on the map never looks quite the same again.

🙏 Maybe that is part of what God wants to change in us through this season of Before the First Sip. Perhaps He wants us to stop seeing the world merely as places we may never visit and begin seeing people for whom we can pray.

So before your first sip this morning, find Togo on the map.

Then don’t just pray for Togo.

Pray for the people who live there, for the churches proclaiming Christ there, for believers faithfully serving their communities, and for those who still need an opportunity to hear the Gospel clearly.

Because the Great Commission may take us across an ocean, but its destination has always been people.

☕ Brew your coffee. Open your Bible. Find the nation. And before the first sip, pray.

🌍 Until All Have Heard.

Coffee is the invitation. Jesus is the destination.

Fueling hope, one cup at a time.