Dear friends and family,

Thanks to you, I have reached 100% of the support I need to go to Mexico for a year! Thank you so very much! Even further good news is that I have a prospective departure date: October 20th.

Last week, Zacatecas Friends had a congregational meeting to discuss and discern when they would be ready to receive me as an intern. This morning, at the time of writing, they notified EFM of the decision they reached (the above date). Further, they are looking into two potential housing options for me: either a student apartment at the preparatory school where Pastor Omar and his family work; or an acquaintance’s casita for an affordable rent. Whichever option presents itself as the more convenient in the coming weeks, I am very happy that I will be seeing the Ramirez family again very, very soon. And also that I don’t have to live in the cupboard under the stairs, which is as much a possibility for missionaries as it is for wizards.

In other news, I took a short trip to Seattle this month to visit family I hadn’t seen in several years, including my paternal grandparents and several distant cousins. I felt like I should visit them before leaving the country for a year. One day, my cousin Blake drove up from George Fox University (where he is a senior) to visit me and our grandparents. As our grandma prepared dinner, we sat in the living room while our grandpa regaled us with tales of his childhood (and present) mischief, stories from his time as a Marine, and his adventures in carpentry and halibut fishing.

Our grandpa, like his dad and older brothers, took pride in working with his hands all his life. Many years ago, however, he was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, which has slowly sapped his strength each day to the present. He maintains a daily routine of walking and stretches to conserve his remaining physicality as long as possible. After gleefully recounting to us the accounts of a grumpy, old Norwegian man, Grandpa addressed us with a rare tenderness as he reflected on the course of his life.

“Sometimes life deals you a bad hand. Both of you know that, because you’ve both lost someone very early: Erik, your mom; and Blake, your brother. There really isn’t anything else to do but to play what you have the best you can, because you aren’t getting any more cards. I would not have chosen the hand dealt to me right now. But I have to ask Jesus for strength every day just to go on a walk around the block, and he is faithful to provide it. I want you guys to know that there isn’t anyone or anything else that could keep me going each day except him.”

Even youths grow tired and weary,
and young men stumble and fall;
but those who hope in the Lord
will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint.
Isaiah 40:30-31

Faithfully yours,
Erik

The post Erik Nilsen | September 2025 Update first appeared on FRIENDSMISSION.COM.

In the last month, so many of you have reached out to support this mission trip, that I have gone from 27% to 86% funded! I am humbled by your generosity and the many, many unexpected donors. Once we reach 100%, I will be able to go to Mexico for this one-year internship, which hopefully will be very soon!

Since my last update, I have gone to the Huntington Beach Pier several times with North County Project to engage in street evangelism. Nick and Ivan (the new NCP apprentice after me) have been experimenting with new methods of public engagement. Lately, they have been writing provocative questions on a whiteboard and have invited passers-by to mark their opinion on the board. Many of them stay to converse and elaborate on what they think. We have encountered belligerent Muslims, outspoken Italians, recovering addicts, fellow evangelists, a paranoid schizophrenic who claimed to be the Holy Spirit (and still knew the Bible more thoroughly than those evangelists), and curious people seeking for truth and open to hearing more about Jesus. We were surprised and encouraged by how many we encountered in that last group, especially in Orange County.

Moreover, I am so happy that NCP continues to invite me to join them on their mission field as I wait to be sent to another.

When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. (Mark 6:34a)

Dutifully yours,
Erik

I am currently looking for supporters to partner with me in my next steps with EFM. You can support me through prayer and financial giving. I need and appreciate both so that I can reach 100% in both areas at this stage of my journey with EFM. I currently have 239 prayer partners and my goal is to have 250. If you know anyone who would like to sign up to be a prayer partner, you can send them this link.

Would you pray and consider supporting me financially in this endeavor? There are four ways to partner with me:

• Online: Visit the Field Intern donation page by clicking the button below. Once there, scroll down to find my name and select your gift amount. You’ll have the opportunity to indicate whether you are giving monthly or as a one-time gift.
• Credit Card: This may be given online (as stated above) or by calling the EFM office (303) 421-8100 to give your information to a live person.
• Automatic Bank Transfer: Download the form here and email it to Debby McElroy (EFM Bookkeeper) at debby@friendsmission.com. Please note that ACH payments are processed on the 10th or 25th of the month.
• Check: Mail a check to EFM, P.O. Box 771139, Wichita, KS 67277. Please mark your check “Erik Nilsen Field Internship Support” and note if you will be giving on a recurring basis (monthly, quarterly, etc.). Pay to the order of “EFM.”

The post Erik Nilsen | August 2025 Update first appeared on FRIENDSMISSION.COM.

The question I’ve gotten the most is “When exactly are you going?” The simple answer is, when I am fully funded! As of right now, I am 27% toward the goal I need to meet before EFM can send me to Mexico. If you haven’t already, would you prayerfully consider giving toward my missions fund? And if you have, thank you so much for partnering with me in this missionary work! If you are so inclined, I particularly need monthly recurring gifts in order to meet monthly expenses, including food, housing, and travel.

In the meantime, EFM and I have been preparing the further training I will need on the field. Last month, I had a meeting with Carol Lewis, who will be my language coach over Zoom. While I currently display some proficiency in the Spanish language (“nerd Spanish,” as Marco Martinez of Haviland Friends has termed it), Carol will work with me to refine my language skills to communicate effectively as a minister of the gospel and the deep, nuanced, and intimate personal conversations that will entail.

As I continue to wait and prepare to be sent to Zacatecas, I have been attending the Spanish-language service at my home church, called Amigos Rose Drive. The congregation and Pastor Javier Marin have warmly welcomed and received me and my dad, who is also regularly attending with me. Javier, who is from Mexico City himself, has repeatedly expressed his excitement that I’ve been called to preach the gospel in his home country.

For me, it has been very touching to watch my dad enjoy immersing himself with me in a new culture while we continue to learn and practice the language. While the content of the songs and sermons aren’t that different from that in the English service, my dad has said that the Amigos service has been more engaging for him, since he has to concentrate more to listen and understand. During my first trip to Zacatecas earlier this year, my dad attended Amigos by himself every week, and he told me that the congregation would always eagerly ask him for updates about me.

I am very grateful for Amigos Rose Drive for how they are preparing me for life and ministry in Mexico, but I am especially happy to see my dad’s spirit reinvigorated by the same cross-cultural connections.

I will praise you, Lord, among the nations;
I will sing of you among the peoples.
For great is your love, reaching to the heavens;
your faithfulness reaches to the skies.

(Psalm 57:9-10, NIV)

Dutifully yours,

Erik

I am currently looking for supporters to partner with me in my next steps with EFM. You can support me through prayer and financial giving. I need and appreciate both so that I can reach 100% in both areas at this stage of my journey with EFM. I currently have 239 prayer partners and my goal is to have 250. If you know anyone who would like to sign up to be a prayer partner, you can send them this link. 

 Would you pray and consider supporting me financially in this endeavor? There are four ways to partner with me:

•  Online. Donate online here. Make sure to select “Field Intern | Erik Nilsen” at check out. You’ll be given the opportunity to indicate whether you are making a recurring or one-time gift.
• Credit Card. This may be given online (as stated above) or by calling the EFM office (303-421-8100) to give your information to a live person.
• Automatic Bank Transfer. Download the form here and email it to Debby McElroy (EFM Bookkeeper) at debby@friendsmission.com. Please note that ACH payments are processed on the 10th or 25th of the month.
• Check. Mail a check to EFM, P.O. Box 771139, Wichita, KS 67277. Make sure to mark your check “Erik Nilsen Field Internship Support” and note if you will be giving on a recurring basis (monthly, quarterly, etc.). Pay to the order of “EFM.”

The post Erik Nilsen July 2025 Fundraising Update first appeared on FRIENDSMISSION.COM.

In December 2019, I graduated from Barclay College in Haviland, Kansas, and returned to live with my family in Orange County, California. I had made plans to join the Teaching Abroad program, newly absorbed into Evangelical Friends Mission, to go to China to teach English to university students. I had long felt a call to international missions, but was attracted to the model of offering a tangible service for a stipend, room, and board from the school. By March 2020, however, it was very clear that I would not be going to Wuhan, China, anytime soon.

In the following months, EFM continued to contact me about their Luke 10 Initiative to open several new fields to send new missionaries by 2025 and asked if I was interested in any of the fields being explored. At first, I felt uncomfortable with the prospect of the more traditional missionary route, since it would require me to fundraise and ask for money, which had no guarantee of success. I continued to discuss the prospect with EFM while finishing a master’s degree and working several jobs in HVAC, plumbing, t-shirt printing, and real estate (to name a few), and volunteering in my church’s youth group (Rose Drive Friends Church). We narrowed our focus to my passion for biblical literacy and teaching, and my proficiency in the Spanish language.

By the end of the year, I felt the weight of an impending decision to step out in faith. All of the other opportunities I had pursued had closed: my business ventures, my HVAC career, and even my ministry as a youth volunteer. Moreover, I had been living with my grandma since college and really needed to move on in life. Would I let go of my plans and follow Jesus on an unknown path, trusting in God’s provision? I prayed for direction, and I asked (pestered) trusted mentors at church whom I should contact to prepare for the mission field. I was introduced to Alan Amavisca and Nick Ward of North County Project, who welcomed me with open arms and began teaching me their methodology.

In 2023, Edwin and Maria Giron invited me to join them on a Luke 10 Exploration Trip to Jalisco and Nayarit, Mexico, with a team of Friends Church members from both the United States and Mexico. There, I learned about Mexico Yearly Meeting’s goal, called Vision 32, to plant an evangelical church in all 32 states by the year 2032. I also got to meet several members of the Mexican Friends Church who were called to go evangelize and make disciples in communities far from home, including Pedro and Sandy Moscosa of Mexico State, and Sergio (Tyson) Contreras of Coahuila.

In 2024, EFM announced a partnership with NCP to train future missionaries for their new mission fields and invited me to train for ten months as one of the first wave of future missionary candidates in this new process. The experience was both hallowing and harrowing, and I was the only one to complete the program in its first year. Earlier this year, EFM sent me to visit Pastor Omar Ramirez and his family, who have been raising a new church body in Zacatecas, Mexico, with the purpose of getting to know the Ramirez family and their congregation in preparation for ministry with them.

After returning and debriefing with EFM, I am proud to announce that I have been accepted for a 12-month field training internship in Zacatecas, Mexico, in which I will be learning directly from Omar how to facilitate ministry and Christian discipleship in Mexico, assisting him in serving his growing congregation, and engaging in long-term cultural and language immersion. This opportunity is an enormous answer to prayer, and I am excited to follow God’s calling in my life to missions, and to partner with EFM and Mexico Yearly Meeting in reaching the weary and the discouraged in Mexico for Christ.

For those who have followed my journey up to this point, thank you so much for your constant love, prayers, and support, through good times and difficulties, as God has continued to transform me into the image of his son as much as the people to whom I minister. For those to whom my story is new, thank you for joining me in ministry and becoming part of this story—a small chapter of God’s greater story of the redemption of all the nations of the earth.

Dutifully yours,

Erik E. Nilsen, M.A.

Evangelical Friends Mission

eriknilsen1@gmail.com

620-349-9249

The post Erik Nilsen’s Internship in Mexico! first appeared on FRIENDSMISSION.COM.

Last month, I returned from a three-week mission trip to Mexico as another step in becoming a missionary with EFM. There I met and stayed with Pastor Omar Ramirez and his family, who have spent the last two years planting a Friends church in Zacatecas. I spent a lot of time shadowing Omar in his ministry and picking his brain about the state of evangelism in Mexico.

According to everyone I talked to, Mexico in general, and Zacatecas in particular, is very hard ground to plant an evangelical church. In many ways, the Mexican people feel, and are in fact, captive: to a corrupt government, to drug cartels, and to dark spiritual forces beyond human understanding. In such an environment, it is hardly surprising that people only nominally practice a superstitious, syncretic version of Roman Catholicism. Having a personal relationship with Jesus just seems like a lot of time and effort, which are better spent putting food on the table. Better to leave talking with God to the priest who’s paid to do it.

However, Mexico Yearly Meeting is convinced that the seed of the gospel will fall on good soil, even among the briars and boulders, and has sent Omar ahead, along with other evangelists, to plant a Friends church in all 32 states of Mexico by the year 2032. Zacatecas’ growing congregation of 18 testifies that there still is “a great people to be gathered,” even from the “harassed and helpless” (Matt. 9:36, NIV). While I spoke with Ana and Cuquita and learned their stories, I wish I had more time to get to know the rest of the congregation at Zacatecas better.

At the Yearly Meeting sessions in Aguascalientes, I announced my intention to come to Mexico as an EFM missionary to assist with evangelism and discipleship. The eight churches present, assembled from across Mexico, received me very warmly and expressed their enthusiasm for God’s work in my life through serving in their country.

Immediately upon returning from the Yearly Meeting, I fell extremely sick from a high fever and cough, which spread to the Ramirez family and several others who were also staying at their house. Omar, his wife Ariana, and Ariana’s visiting family showed me enormous love and hospitality while I took several more days to recover. Though a harrowing experience, “God’s gifts and his call are irrevocable.” If sickness cannot thwart his calling, neither should it thwart my obedience.

After recovering, I arrived home in the United States and debriefed with EFM. They were pleased with the report they received about me from the Ramirez family and my report of the experience. Accordingly, I am proud to announce that EFM has invited me back to Mexico for a year starting this summer to continue my cultural and linguistic immersion as I prepare for full-time ministry!

Please pray for EFM and for me as we complete the application process and discern the specific details for this year-long internship. Pray also for the Ramirez family: Omar, Ariana, Junior, Fabiola, and Jimena, as they continue to love and serve the Lord with their whole life in Zacatecas. Finally, pray for Mexico, that its people would feel their worth as beloved children of a compassionate Father, calling, “O sinner, come home.”

In Christ,

Erik

The post Erik Nilsen’s Summary of His Trip to Mexico! first appeared on FRIENDSMISSION.COM.

This will be a great opportunity to build relationships with evangelists and church planters in Mexico, as well as to become acquainted with the area and people I will be sent to serve long-term in the near future, God-willing.

Thank you for praying for me and encouraging me all year while I was preparing and seeking opportunities for international missions. I’m excited for what is next!

“The same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, for, ‘Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’

“How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”

Romans 10:12-15

Dutifully yours,

Erik

The post Erik Nilsen is Going on a Short-Term Trip to Mexico! first appeared on FRIENDSMISSION.COM.

This is my final ministry update for this program. My training soon draws to a close, but I am still an apprentice yet, with a long way to go.

Several weeks ago, Nick and I were meandering down Titan Walk at CSUF, as is our custom, when we crossed the table of Intervarsity Christian Fellowship. Knowing some of the students and leaders of that club, we stopped to greet them. As we did, a charming young woman approached us and asked if she could practice sharing the gospel with us. Happily, we obliged.

Kristy extended her arm to display a bracelet with five colored beads: gold, black, red, white, and green. I immediately recognized the pattern as the Wordless Book, a short method of explaining the gospel that I learned as a little child. Nick, however, was unfamiliar but intrigued.

Using the beads to represent successive points in the salvation story, Kristy described how Jesus’ sacrificial death atones for our sins, reconciling us to God the Father and empowering us to grow in a new life in Christ. We offered our feedback and encouragement, and prayed for Kristy as she prepared for a mission trip to Taiwan.

Afterward, Nick turned to me. “Erik, do you think you could teach this method to my daughter?”

Affirming that I could, we set a date to meet at my house with Izzy, his four-year-old, to teach her the Wordless Book. Izzy already unapologetically and unprompted tells everyone she meets about Jesus, as sweetly and earnestly as only a little child can. While it took a little coaxing to have her sit still to listen, she attentively learned and recited what each color represented, and was very gleeful to build her own bracelet.

Teaching Izzy reminded me of when I also taught the Wordless Book to the 1st-5th grade students at Haviland Friends Church while I was in college, and gave me the idea to propose the same to Glendora Friends Church, where I am currently an intern. (My Haviland readers should ask their kids if they still remember.) Though discipling adults has proved difficult this year due to busyness and apathy, I realized that the children I had met at GFC were especially hungry to learn more about God and to share Jesus with others. Who says a four-year-old can’t learn to make disciples?

Bethany Tobey, the children’s ministry director, graciously indulged me to teach Sunday school one morning to her peanut gallery, ages 3 through 8. Surprisingly, it went very well. The next Sunday, Adele (age 8) informed me that she used her bracelet to share the gospel with her class at school during show-and-tell. One parent, Erik, informed me that his daughter, Maddie (age 6), shared about her bracelet with him and her older brother immediately after church.

Erik, his wife Maria, and their family in particular have given me cause for joy this year. Erik is a substitute teacher and extremely well-read in philosophy and classical literature (probably even more than this Erik). Naturally, we greatly enjoy each other’s company and love to discuss a broad and inexhaustible variety of topics. After his wife started attending church regularly, Erik has developed a deep fascination with Christianity and is steadily reading through the Bible together with Maria (they have just finished the Old Testament).

I have been given the rare gift of witnessing firsthand the reaction of an extremely educated man reading the Sermon on the Mount for the first time and being wholly captivated by it.

“How profound, and yet how simple!” Erik exclaimed. “He’s the fulfillment to all the great philosophers, and a child can understand it! But there is still so much he says that is mysterious to me, and I want to understand more!”

One evening, desiring to try something new, I went to a local martial arts academy for a free introductory lesson in jiu-jitsu. After an hour of learning how to choke an opponent with his own collar—a useful skill in ministry—I began developing a vague awareness of just how pathetically little I knew. When the lesson concluded, I asked the instructor how long it took for one to master the art.

“There are five belts, each with its own color. Even with constant practice, it takes several years to earn the next belt. Though one may learn many different techniques and moves, he will not understand how they all fit together cohesively except by experience, trial, and error. One might take as long as 20 years before earning a black belt, and even then, there is no limit to attaining further mastery and understanding.”

It was then that I realized, though I had practiced under my Master for twenty-three years, I was still only a white-belt: no more distinguished than Erik, Maddie, or Izzy. I, like them, am still learning the fundamentals.

“Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”

Thank you, all of you, who have prayed for me and supported me financially these last ten months during this apprenticeship. Moving forward, EFM, NCP, and I are discussing long-term ministry assignments for next year, now that I have completed field experience as a missionary through this program. As soon as there is a decisive plan, I will share it publicly and invite you to partner with me in a new ministry opportunity. Please pray that God gives us direction soon on where to send me and that I do not have to wait in indefinite uncertainty.

Also, Nick and I have been teaching the Bible dialogue method to Patrick, a pastor in Kenya who discovered North County Project on the internet. Patrick has already led two individuals to Christ using Bible Dialogues and is excitedly teaching other pastors in his denomination how to use this method. What unexpected success from an unexpected place!

Dutifully yours,

Erik

The post Erik Nilsen: Final Apprenticeship Update first appeared on FRIENDSMISSION.COM.

August has been a most exciting and encouraging month to see God at work in Orange County. Though I am the last missionary apprentice from the original group, North County Project has since taken on three new apprentices: Noah, who serves on Cru at CSUF; Viany, from Friends Community Church Brea; and Ron, who had been an unofficial partner of NCP since last year. The four of us got to serve together waiting tables for NCP’s financial supporters at a “Thank You” dinner, and soon will start evangelizing together at CSUF this semester.

Previously, I had written how George, who is in the DMC I facilitate, had begun a Bible dialogue with two of his interested non-Christian coworkers. Not only have they already read and discussed the first five chapters of Mark, but George informs me that a third coworker has crashed their dialogue because he, too, wanted to hear the story of Jesus from the source. I often pray that the people God has me teach and disciple would surpass me, but I hadn’t expected such a quick response.

Finally, God used one of my many misadventures to share the gospel with a Jordanian Muslim.

Last weekend, I rode the bus to San Clemente with my bicycle to visit the beach, as I often had before. While I left in the evening instead of the morning, my previous bus trips indicated that the bus system still operates well into the night. Apparently, that is only partly true.

I stayed at the beach until 9:45 pm, at which time I checked my phone to see when the next bus would leave from the nearest bus stop.

5:30 am.

After some frantic searching, I found another bus stop that was active until 12:45 am, just down Pacific Coast Highway in Costa Mesa, twenty-three miles away. With no time to lose, I mounted my bicycle and pedaled nonstop for two hours until I took a short break in Laguna Beach. Charting my progress, I realized that I would miss the last bus by 30 minutes. Reluctantly, I ordered an Uber.

The driver arrived within minutes and graciously made space for my bike in the trunk of his sedan. Anees spoke with a heavy Arab accent, and I asked where he was from. Jordan, he answered. When I mentioned that my uncle was from Lebanon, Anees’ eyes immediately lit up, and we quickly established a jovial rapport (Thanks, Allyn!). He expressed his sorrow at the present conflict and violence in the Middle East and his wish for peace there.

Upon learning that I was a Christian, Anees asked what I thought of Muslims. I answered that, while I disagree with Muslims in many ways, I believe that Jesus died for all people: for me, and for people I may disagree with. Therefore, I must love and serve all people.

Anees, relieved at my response, confirmed he was Muslim himself and proceeded to inquire about what Christians believe. “I have heard some say that Jesus is the Son of God, and others that he is God. Which do you believe, and what does the Bible say?” I explained how Jesus was born of the virgin Mary as the Son of God and how Jesus forgave sins, which only God himself can do.

Intrigued, he continued to inquire. “Koran says that Jesus did not die, but what does the Bible say?” I explained the arrest, trial, crucifixion, resurrection, ascension, and future return of Christ.

“Wait—” he interrupted. “Jesus is from the Middle East, like me, right? Is he supposed to return there?”

“Yes,” I said, “and I think he cares about peace in that area quite a lot.” Anees smiled.

We arrived at my house at 1:00 am and exchanged phone numbers. “Please, call me whenever you need help again!” he said.

Pray for Anees, that God would bless him because of his kindness and generous accommodation when I was in need. Pray for his family in Jordan and America, that God would protect them from the violence of men. And of course, pray that they would receive Jesus as their Savior and Lord, that they would enter his peaceable kingdom.

Dutifully yours,

Erik

The post Erik Nilsen Apprenticeship Update: August 2024 first appeared on FRIENDSMISSION.COM.

This last month has been a busy one with lots of stories I could potentially share in this update, each worthy of a detailed report in its own right. Alas, there is space only for one, and I have been wracking my brain over which to choose. So, I’m going with this one.

At the time of writing, I have just returned from a vacation with my family to Rosarito Beach, Mexico, to celebrate my grandmother’s 81st birthday. Eight of her nine grandchildren were present, as well as both of my mother’s siblings: my aunt, Holly (with her husband Allyn), and my uncle, Jason. It was a refreshing time for us all, but I felt especially refreshed from many of the trials and anxieties I have experienced this year, only some of which I selectively share in these letters.

 In no small part have Holly, Allyn, and Jason directly inspired me to pursue a life in international ministry, each having travelled extensively as young adults and returning with trinkets and stories of their journeys when I was a child. Under World Vision International, Holly and Allyn served on peacekeeping teams in Jerusalem. Jason, with smaller organizations, taught English at schools in Costa Rica and South Korea. Most importantly, my mother consistently and unapologetically labored that her children would come to know Jesus as their Savior and their friend. While my missiology was developed more concretely at Rose Drive Friends Church and Barclay College, a love for travel and building cross-cultural relationships was imparted to me first by my family, who are among the strongest supporters of my work with EFM.

One day, when my family had walked down to the swimming pool that overlooked the vast crystal Pacific, Jason joined me in the jacuzzi and asked me about my apprenticeship with EFM and where I would be going. I shared that there is a good possibility that EFM would send me to central Mexico next year to serve with the Friends churches there, who are mobilizing to evangelize and plant churches in all 32 states of Mexico by 2032.

“Mexico is already a Catholic country, isn’t it? They already have Jesus and the Bible,” he replied. “What specifically do the Friends churches hope to accomplish by expanding their own influence?”

A fair question. Am I peddling a subjectively better version of Christianity to a saturated market, with 33% less genuflections than “Brand X”?

I firmly believe and can attest that many Catholics have authentic, personal relationships with Jesus Christ, including Joshua and George from our DMC. (George, in particular, is actively sharing the gospel with two of his coworkers, and they have already read through the first three chapters of Mark together.)

However, I have also personally observed nominal religious affiliation displacing genuine discipleship and allegiance to Jesus, serving instead as a rusty gilding over spiritual darkness and depravity. As I recorded during the EFM Luke 10 trip to Jalisco last year, this is especially the case in Mexico. I shared this with Jason, as well as my personal witness to the work of the Holy Spirit through Mexican Friends in reaching their neighbors for Jesus and the total transformation of lives it has wrought.

I further remarked that this merely nominal Christianity exists in America, too, especially within the political realm. (He concurred.) On this point, I elaborated.

“Many Christians, including my mom, understood ‘not taking the Lord’s name in vain’ to mean not to use God’s name as a cuss word. Indeed, we shouldn’t. But I suspect that the commandment really refers to appealing to religion as a rubber stamp for one’s own selfish ends. (‘God told me to do such-and-such!’, ‘God is on our side because he hates the Yanks, too!’, etc.)”

My uncle paused thoughtfully and said, “I see what you mean.”

Frequently, I need to take inventory of my own motivations for doing this, that I am not taking God’s name in vain myself. Am I following my master who bids me come and die, or am I content merely to be a career tourist?

May it always be the former, to the very end.

Please continue to pray for the DMC group and the other people I am currently discipling. Pray for Garry as he returns to Kansas to start work as a history teacher this week.

Faithfully yours,

Erik

The post Erik Nilsen Apprenticeship Update: July 2024 first appeared on FRIENDSMISSION.COM.

In more encouraging news, Nick, Garry, and I attended the EFM Future Missionary Conference at Quaker Ridge Camp near the end of May, where we reunited with old friends, active and retired missionaries, and other young adults pursuing international missions as a lifetime calling. In particular, I am especially grateful to Matt Macy, Bob Adhikary, and Edwin and Maria Giron for mentoring and praying for me through the week and helping me to discern where God may be calling me to serve after this year. The location ever returning to our conversations has been central Mexico, so we are exploring potential opportunities for me to make a visit to see about short-term service in that area in order to discern the next steps as I continue to explore long-term service with EFM.

Back in Orange County, two college students from CSUF whom I met during our Bible dialogue workshops in April independently told me that they were seeking a community for whole-life discipleship. This came to me as an answer to prayer, as I had been praying for an opportunity to practice what I have learned during this apprenticeship in facilitating such a group. Joshua and George met with me and Garry for the first time last week, and we plan to read through the Sermon on the Mount this summer and conspire how to specifically apply it to our daily lives, with Jesus’ help. George is also excited to begin leading a Bible dialogue through the Gospel of Mark with his coworkers, so please pray for him as he faithfully follows Jesus in sharing the good news!

Every month, I am encouraged and deeply moved by your prayers, your letters, and your gifts to support me as I follow this calling, even through difficulty and hardship. From the bottom of my heart, thank you. Please continue to pray for me, as well as my fellow apprentices Grace and Garry, that God would open new opportunities to complete their training and serve on the mission field. Perhaps God has another seven thousand EFM apprentices stashed away in a cave somewhere. He’s done it before, and he can do it again.

“The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”

Dutifully yours,

Erik

The post Erik Nilsen Apprenticeship Update: June 2024 first appeared on FRIENDSMISSION.COM.