Jon Gledhill
I went to Bible College and then worked in “full time missions”, with a sense of cross cultural calling for some time until, due to illness, I came back to the UK and rejoined my old company as an international sales manager. Over the last 2 years I have visited Singapore perhaps 12 times and this has been a life changing experience. Seeing the Singapore church and how clearly they see their mandate of bringing Christ into culture transformed my thinking.
It’s likely that I’ll be moving there for two years or so and I sense God is training me to "influence the influencers for Christ" in the Daniel mould, and to be trained by Singaporeans on the marketplace mandate which they have embraced so well in their churches. It has surprised and shocked me to see so clearly how we need to embrace the entire Kingdom of God. As one church leader said "most people do not get inspired by church work - but that’s all we give them".
God really brought this home to me one day when I was in Indonesia discussing with my boss in the UK whether the market in Vietnam was worth approaching. My boss’s view was "no-way - there's nothing in Vietnam"! Just as he finished speaking a large tender opportunity worth quite some value to us dropped into my inbox. When he stopped speaking I said "by the way - I've just forwarded a tender package for Vietnam to you". His reply was "there must be a God"! He's not a believer and he has never said anything like that since. We won that tender!
It does help me to see that God wants to demonstrate his power through us his children right here, right now, right in the culture!