The Major Impact of Minor Actions

By Karl & Elaine Mosby

The “ripple effect” is a metaphor to describe how our actions or non-actions resonate throughout the tangible world, social world and on to eternity. Our choices matter and have consequences for ourselves and others.

As teenagers, we could never have predicted how our lives would turn out. We were married in the UK in 1981 and settled into our first home while pursuing our careers and starting a family. We enjoyed being active in our local church and were passionate about sharing the Gospel via our church and an Inner-City Mission. During those early years of marriage, we were exposed to the need of people around the world who had no access to God’s Word, either because they lived in remote areas or spoke languages that had never been written down. That changed the course of our lives. In 1985, we sold our home, resigned from secular employment and began our four years of “missionary training.” Our first 21 years in missionary service, we worked as church planters in PNG, then on staff, training missionary candidates in both Canada and Australia.

Since 2011, we have served with GoodSeed International, initially serving as Asian Translation Coordinators developing procedures, checks and balancing to guarantee accurate translations of the GoodSeed resources and effective distribution. After spending seven years in Northern Thailand, we returned to Australia in 2012, making our home in Far North Queensland. In 2018, we became Co-Directors of Global Translations.

GoodSeed provides tools and training to help Bible believers explain the gospel in a way that makes profound sense. Though the tools were originally designed for people who have absolutely no knowledge of the Bible, we have found that whether a person has been saved for three days or 33 years, the GoodSeed resources can be instrumental in building confidence in the Word of God and boldness in faith.

Our key tools are patterned after the message Jesus gave to the disciples on the road to Emmaus. He started at Creation and moved progressively through the Old Testament, laying foundations, so that when He came to the cross and tomb, they clearly understood who Jesus was and what He did on the Cross. All the key GoodSeed tools are built using this Creation to the Cross architecture.

Each tool is worldview sensitive, designed for people from Christianised, Islamic, Eastern or Secular backgrounds. We keep in mind learning preferences, ability, and age. You can give away the tools like a gospel tract or you can sit down and use them to guide a Bible study. The use of visual aids is a big part of our approach to communication. This is all for the purpose of explaining the gospel message clearly.

Over the years, as GoodSeed has been established, we have heard hundreds of testimonies from every continent. Following is one that reinforces that ripple effect.

Derek* was just a young associate pastor starting his first job at a church when he crossed paths with Nick. Derek's zeal for sharing the gospel had led him to hand out numerous tracts and speak to many people about God's love in sending Jesus to earth to die for them. His presentation of the gospel generally started with the cross. But with Nick, Derek suddenly found himself needing to shift gears in his approach. Here was a guy who literally knew nothing about the Bible. Nick didn't even know the difference between Jesus and Moses!

It was at this point that Derek realised that he would be unable to simply tell Nick about the cross and expect Nick to understand the gospel sufficiently to put his faith in Christ. So, as the two young men began meeting together at a restaurant, Derek began telling Nick the story of the Bible, starting in Genesis. As they progressed, Derek used napkins to draw illustrations of key concepts and events of the Old Testament.

“After several weeks, we finally arrived at Jesus,” Derek later wrote. The Sunday following the final meeting, Nick came to the office after church, because he was ready to trust Christ. “I'll never forget seeing him drop to his knees, confess his sin, and claim Christ as his sufficient substitute. When he stood, he looked me in the eyes and said, ‘The robes of Jesus’ righteousness have just been placed around my shoulders.’ I remember being so shocked at his level of knowledge. Here was a young guy who just a few weeks previous could not tell you anything about God, Jesus or the Bible, but who now could give one of the best testimonies of the gospel that I had ever heard.”

That was fourteen years ago. Derek continues to pastor and share the gospel, but what he observed in Nick transformed his approach to evangelism. He realised that Nick wasn't an isolated case. He was just one of the many biblically illiterate people who have no context for the story of Jesus Christ. We no longer live in a Christianised culture. People simply do not know who the God of the Bible is, let alone the repercussions of personal sin and the importance of Jesus Christ and His work on the cross. Derek says, “This experience with Nick convinced me that we needed to do evangelism differently. We needed to convey more of the story—to start back in Genesis in order to give people context for the important truths of the gospel.”

It was during that same period of time that Derek was introduced to The Stranger on the Road to Emmaus. He was amazed to see that there was a tool that utilized the same methodology that he had employed with Nick—telling the gospel story from Creation to Christ. It was at this point that Derek's church began to promote the use of The Stranger for leading people to Christ. Derek says, “The type of testimony I heard from Nick has now been repeated over and over again with the people who have completed The Stranger studies.” How exciting to hear again of the power of the gospel in the lives of those who hear and understand it.

*All names changed as per GoodSeed policy