SO THAT Missions Podcast | FBC Boerne
So that...God's ways may be known on Earth.
"So That" is an FBC Boerne podcast focused on what God is doing around the world with missions and through FBC Missions partners.
SO THAT Missions Podcast | FBC Boerne
Episode 60: Nicole Parks Mission Possible: Understanding God's Call to the Unreached
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
Join us for an inspiring conversation with Nicole Parks, who shares her heart for missions and the transformative experiences that shaped her calling. From rediscovering the meaning of short-term mission trips to understanding God's Great Commission, Nicole unpacks the complexity of mobilization. Her firsthand account from impactful trips to the West Bank of Israel and China demonstrates how personal experiences can ignite transformative faith.
Nicole highlights her books aimed at demystifying mission theology, making it approachable for anyone eager to understand their role in God’s mission. With an emphasis on the importance of partnerships and collaborative efforts within the church, she offers practical insights on how believers can actively participate in the work of evangelization. Explore the critical discussions surrounding Israel’s missional calling and how it relates to the church today, moving beyond traditional narratives to an inclusive understanding of God’s global mission.
As you listen, be inspired to join in the work already being done across the globe. We encourage your engagement—share your thoughts, subscribe, and leave a review. Together, let’s work to make God’s name known among the nations!
Check out Nicole's Ministry at: Cafe 1040
Visit our website at www.fbcboerne.org for more stories, information, and service times.
Welcome and Introduction
Speaker 1Hey everybody, so glad that you're joining us today on FBC Missions so that Podcast. Today we have one of our Perspectives Instructors, nicole Parks, with us and it's going to be awesome, so I hope you enjoy. Welcome to FBC Missions so that Podcast. This is an encouraging place to hear how God is working in and around us. We know that he blesses His people so that they can bless the world around them. Join us as we discuss how to join God in all that he is doing. Why is God working in our life, church and community? It's so that, through us, the world will know that he is near All right. So so glad that you're joining us today. We've got a great guest here with us. Her name is Nicole Parks. Welcome, nicole. How are you doing?
Speaker 2I'm great. Thanks so much for having me.
Speaker 1It's great to have you here with us. You did an awesome job with Perspectives this morning, lesson 7. And we're so glad just to get to know you a little bit, and so we've got a half hour here or so just to introduce you to our listening audience and we're excited to see how God's been using you and kind of where God's taken you. Now You've written a couple of books. That's really awesome, but let's just get started. So tell me, how did you get involved with Perspectives? That's always a great start.
Speaker 2Yeah, so there's a little bit of backstory that I have to share before I get into Perspectives. In 2014, I ended up on two short-term mission trips with my church One was to the West Bank of Israel and one was over to China and on those two trips God completely wrecked me, broke my heart for the unreached, and so when I came back from those trips, I was looking for a way to get involved with missions. How do I walk in what I feel like God is calling me to, when I knew I wasn't called to pack up and move overseas?
Speaker 1Well, maybe like that's how did you get to China? Though? Like, have you been a Christian your whole life? Like how do you get? Like we're going to start with, we got a half hour so we can't go all the way back. But you're like, listen, it wasn't perspectives, it was China. Okay, wait a second. How do you get to China?
Speaker 2Let me back up a little bit further, then I'll back up. Okay, so I was not raised in a Christian home. We'll start there.
Speaker 2I think I always wanted to have a relationship with the Lord, but I didn't know what that looked like, and so I didn't actually start walking with the Lord until after college, and at that point I ended up at a really big seeker-friendly mega church outside of Atlanta and really started to grow in my faith at that point. So my introduction to short-term mission trips was I thought that it was hey, you get to travel for free and do cool things for Jesus. I was like heck, yeah sign me up.
Speaker 1Literally the glorified vacation kind of idea like this is going to be great. Instagram summer Christian wanderlust you know whatever you want to call it.
Speaker 2That's what got me in, so ended up on those two trips in 2014 over the West Bank of Israel working with Palestinian Muslims, and then, four months later, serving at a medically fragile infant orphanage in China.
Speaker 1Oh man.
Speaker 2And so those two trips absolutely wrecked me. For the unreached, of course, I didn't know it was the unreached at the time.
Speaker 1Sure, sure, I mean those are huge trips in and of themselves. They're really not your normal level. One thrill seeker mission trip, you know that's a big deal. Those two places and interacting with those type needs really does bring you to the forefront of what we would call mission frontiers, like you're really right at the edge of where people are willing to even consider going and the needs are are dramatic. So so obviously that touched your life and it impacted your heart. Were you married at that time?
Speaker 2Yeah, At the time my husband and I had been married for uh, let's see, math is hard for probably eight or nine years.
Speaker 1Okay.
Speaker 2So we had two kids. We had a three year old and a one year old.
Speaker 1Okay, so yeah, had two kids. We had a three-year-old and a one-year-old. Okay, so yeah, it was hard to do. Were they going with you guys? No, no, no, definitely not.
Speaker 2My oldest was three, yeah, three and one. And so we went to the West Bank together, me and my husband.
Speaker 1Okay.
Speaker 2My mom is a saint and she comes and she takes care of the kids. Even to this day, she's watching the kids now.
Speaker 1That's awesome.
Speaker 2And she says her role in the Great Commission is to watch my kids so that I can go travel and do these things.
Speaker 1Listen, there are grandparent roles that are so desperately needed. In so many ways, yeah, it takes the whole church to reach the whole world, and this is one of those spaces.
Speaker 2So my husband, went with me on the first trip when we went over the West Bank.
Speaker 1But then I went to China without him. Okay.
Nicole Parks Joins the Conversation
Speaker 2And so through those two trips I knew that God was calling me to something, but I didn't really understand what it was because I didn't have any accurate biblical theology on the Great Commission at that time. I really just didn't know. And so I started looking at what would it look like to be involved in missions without just trying to go on short-term trips all the time and without packing up and moving overseas.
Speaker 1Sure.
Speaker 2So I started looking and I ended up finding a ministry called Cafe 1040. And so this is a mobilization ministry. We work with the next generation. Our heart is to see disciples of Jesus in every nation, tribe and tongue, and we do that by helping lead the next generation to tell the disciples of Jesus in every nation, tribe and tongue. And we do that by helping lead the next generation to tell the story of Jesus where it's never been told. So I joined their staff and I was able to do that stateside. So I was a mobilizer for a little while and I led our stateside team and it was because okay, going back to your original question, I've gone through my whole life story there when I joined the staff of Cafe 1040, they require all of their staff to take perspectives and I wasn't super excited about it, to be honest, because I had a three-year-old and a one-year-old and I was support raising for my new job.
Speaker 2I was trying to figure this whole new calling thing out and they're like, by the way, you're going to have to take this class. It's three hours a week for 15 weeks and the closest one to you is an hour away and I was just like you've got to be kidding me, Is it required? But I did it and it's so funny. The first lesson was so mind-blowing to me that I called my husband and I literally just regurgitated the whole thing on the hour drive home. And so today, lesson one is one of the ones I teach the most and I always talk about how that was probably the first time I taught lesson one.
Speaker 1It was when I told my husband the guinea pig on your lesson one.
Speaker 2Yeah, so then I took it in 2015. My husband took it in 2016. And then we coordinated a class together in 2017. That's when I started teaching.
Speaker 1Yeah, wow, that's like a shotgun blast into perspectives.
Speaker 2Yes, it was.
Speaker 1But it wasn't just for taking the class. It had some serious impacts on how you engage. So you've been with Cafe 1040 since then.
Speaker 2Yeah, so I've been involved with them for 10 years now, and when I first started the job kind of a funny story it wasn't funny at the time, but started my job and my son, who was two at the time, broke his femur one day and he ended up in a full-body cast for six weeks right.
Speaker 1Speak a cast. Yes, ask me how I know that? Because my daughter broke her femur as well.
Speaker 2Yes, oh, man, that's so funny that we have that in common.
Speaker 1So because, of that that happened on an Urbana year.
Speaker 2Okay, Urbana big missions conference happens every three years. This was like an all hands on deck, all staff thing for our ministry. I couldn't go because my son is in this massive cast. And so I stayed home and I was like well, I just got funded, I just started this job, I've got to do something. And so that's when I wrote my first book.
Speaker 1Okay, okay, and we got two books that you've written. So tell me how that process. You're just sitting at home taking care of your son. You're like I'm bored, I'm going to write a book, kind of yeah, okay, this is how I work.
Speaker 2So the first book was really birthed out of perspectives truly changed my life. One of the most life-changing things of my entire Christian journey was the perspectives course, sure, and I knew that anybody that took the course would love the course. The problem is getting people to do it. The only reason I did it is because I was required to.
Speaker 2I don't know that I would have committed to be honest. And so I started to think about God. How do we get this information in a smaller dose as like a lead in, like some people just need a stepping stone, and so I wrote this book. It's a seven part study on God's heart for the nations. It's the whole biblical basis for missions in a very digestible format, and so it's called For God so Loved, and it gets at the very end a little bit into the unreached and the state of the world. So it's really kind of a lesson one. Lesson nine here's why you should take perspectives.
Speaker 1I love it. I have looked very closely at your book. It's fantastic. It's available on the Cafe 1040 website. It's also on Amazon.
Speaker 2You can see it in lots of places. It's on my website, NicoleParksRightscom.
Speaker 1Yeah, check it out and it's really a great personal Bible study Got lots of really great tools. If you haven't taken Perspectives, this would be a really good intro to kind of get the concepts and the ideas. There are many people who have made efforts like that. We were looking at Jeff Lewis's God's Heart for the Nations just a few weeks ago and I've written one too. It's a seven-part series and it's similar in the concepts and it's just so neat to see kind of everybody feels the same thing Like if, if perspectives is going to only appeal eight to 10% of the population, if that then, what do I do with the other 90?
Speaker 1Like, how do I give them the same heart? Yeah, and it's super, super difficult to do and uh and so uh perspectives cringes every time they hear these conversations. It's not not a replacement, it's not at all.
The Impact of Short
Speaker 1It's a great introduction and it really we've been talking. I was a regional director for perspectives here in Texas from 2010 to about 2013. And in that time, even then, this is what, 12 years, 15 years ago, we're having conversations about perspectives light. How do we get this in the hands? It was just on and on and on, and the argument just never ends. Yeah, you know, you've got incredible writers that understand why all of this content has to be a part of this, or else it loses.
Speaker 2And they're kind of right. I mean the content is you lose.
Speaker 1You lose something, but, but you've got to give people somewhere to plug in. So I love it. It's really neat.
Speaker 2Today you taught Lesson 7, and it was the first time you've done Lesson 7. I would never have taught Lesson 7 if you hadn't asked me to come to Texas and teach Lesson 7.
Speaker 1I remember our conversation. You're like oh sorry. I'm like well, how would you feel about working on it? You're like well, let me think about that In all my free time. Yes, I'm so glad that you did. You did an excellent, excellent job. If you're not part of that perspective journey, you may not know that the first five lessons are biblically based. The second three or four lessons are really historically based and then you get to kind of cultural and strategic. But this historical section is. If you're a history buff like me, I love it. This stuff was like but my wife took the class. She was like this history part is driving me crazy. It's like this dragging. So sometimes you get stuck with all this information that people are not all that interested in.
Speaker 2Right.
Speaker 1And so trying to breathe in energy and life into lesson six and seven and eight is always challenging. So you did a great job. I want you to know that I've taught the lesson a bunch of times and I don't think I've ever taught it better than you did today. So it was really great to see you walking through it, and there's a couple of big takeaways in it.
Speaker 1You know defining that pioneer missionary. You know the idea that there's this level in which people go, they start, they partner, like there's this process all the way to the point where we get to be a part because they invite us to, and I think that process alone opens people's eyes to the reality of how often we seem to go and act like we're going to be there in charge forever, and Americans are not particularly well accustomed to handing off authority, backing away and even getting out of the way if you're not invited. But when you look at some of these historical lessons, some of these, there's some of them that are just overwhelming, are there any that stand out to you that just really pique your interest? The lessons.
Speaker 2Yeah, honestly, I enjoyed this one so much and I couldn't even remember what my takeaway was from this lesson when I took the class. But, preparing for it, I kind of had this sense of like this is one of the most understated lessons, I think, in all of perspectives like you said that today, that Ralph Whitaker said this is the most important lesson the key lesson in the course and. I loved, I loved lesson six when I took the class, the eras or the epochs yeah, the big epochs.
Speaker 2I remember that one, I love that one. I think what I understood better about this one this time that I just didn't get the first time around is the entire mentality shift that happened when Ralph Winters in 1974 shifted everybody's focus from geography to people groups. And I love the scriptures, I love diving deep into the scriptures and so to really get into that, this is when Pentatech all the nations was really understood and unleashed. And it's just, he gave this one talk and it changed the whole trajectory it did how we do mission.
Speaker 1It's funny because we heard becky lewis talk about it this summer and she said nobody listened, you know. And then she's like but five years later there begins to be this. So she's like, even at the address he gave it, luzon, it's not, it doesn't seem to be all that impacting. And then today we look at it. 50 years ago. The movement from the last 50 years has been so ridiculous they're calling it the greatest 50 years, right?
Speaker 2The great 50 years, which makes sense because you've got the right focus now.
Speaker 1Well, what's wild and maybe we can give like a really short synopsis here is you have the launch of William Carey 1792, what we would call the birth of the modern mission movement. Right, we could talk about the moravians and there's all those other people that were kind of on the periphery there, but but that really pushes us and really his, his writing, right the inquiry is really what set that.
Speaker 2Yeah, he basically just said get out of the walls of the church. What can we?
Speaker 1do? What means can we use to take heathens, the gospel and everyone's like we can't? That's God's job, we don't do that. He did it right after that. Really within a few years you've got Adoniram Judson. About 30 years later you have Hudson Taylor and you start to see these big shifts.
Speaker 1So the first era he talks about is to the coastlines right and you start to see these missions that are on the coast of India, on the coast of India, on the coast of Africa, on the coast of China. But that doesn't complete the work they thought it was. They thought if we can just get a beachhead, then that'll be the start, we don't have to do anything else. But that's not how it worked right.
Speaker 2Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 1All right, so we get to the next guy. Hudson Taylor kind of, is the key leader there and you've got the inlands. So you have China Inland Mission, africa Inland Mission, david Livingston and others, and Sudan Interior Mission. You talked about that as well and they thought, okay, now we've gotten everywhere right. There's churches planted on the coast, there's churches planted in the interior and, like you said, they were ready to start pulling missionaries off the field.
Speaker 2We have accomplished the mission. They're ready to start celebrating Global evangelization has taken place.
Speaker 2Yes, because they had this misunderstanding of the scriptures where it says all the nations. They thought it was geopolitical and so, like I shared today, they would have said oh look, there's some Christians in Pakistan, so we can check Pakistan off the list. Well, when we focus more on people groups than on geography, we see that Pakistan's only 1% Christian and that's a heavy load for that small percentage to have to evangelize. So there's still missions work needed in the country of Pakistan.
Speaker 1But if we focus on that geographical understanding of nations and we miss that, yeah, and you just really it's not a big jump, but you realize that third era that's Cameron Townsend and those guys, when they realize, listen, by having churches in one ethnic group, there's still major linguistic challenges, there's cultural barriers and they will never jump those barriers unless someone goes. So then it goes from 240 nations that need the gospel to now 17,000, probably 8,000 language groups, right 17,000 people groups.
Speaker 217,280 unique people groups. People groups yeah.
Speaker 1And really Ralph Winter in 74 is the one that finally said what about the hidden peoples, the places that no one else is? There's no one advocating for them At this meeting. No one is speaking up for them because there's no believers among them. How are we going to get the gospel to them? And man, in July we got to see what that progress looks like. We've gone from I think it was 40% of the world's people groups having access to the gospel in 74 to close to 80% today having access to the gospel 75, I think, was the chart they showed.
Speaker 2Yeah, so there's been amazing progress and, at the same time, there's still a lot to be done.
Speaker 1Still a lot of work to be done, but I also feel like the work to be done isn't.
Speaker 2It's not as daunting as it used to be. You know the evangelical church worldwide. We have the resources, we have the people and we have the knowledge to complete the Great Commission in our lifetime.
Speaker 1That's where you get to some of these big statistics coming up right when, like at Pentecost, you had one believer for every 300-something people groups right Now you have how many believers? 300 believers for every one people group. So it really is we're on the cusp and you kind of feel it. There's a momentum growing and it's really fun to be a part of, especially to see the global church stepping up into its role, and so most of the missionaries sent out today are from the global south, not from the global north.
Speaker 1Seems like we don't know that as Americans, but it's a really cool thing. But so it was so fun just kind of seeing people's hearts light up today, your energy your vision your ability to kind of walk through what sometimes can be tedious content was excellent. So tell me a little bit about your other book. So people were really interested. I think I don't know you have a few left for tonight.
Speaker 1I was afraid you weren't going to have any left for tonight. You got two small classes and we're going to sell out their books before tonight.
Speaker 2So I'm glad you have some in reserve. There are worse problems to have than selling out the books.
Speaker 1But yeah.
Speaker 2I feel like about eight years ago, god gave me this vision to write this book about Israel's missional calling, and this is a lot of what we talk about in perspectives, right. What was Israel set apart for and called for. They were called, they were blessed to be a blessing. They were called to be a light to the Gentiles.
Speaker 1I just want to tell the readers we have not had this conversation yet, so like I really don't know where we're going right now which is fun I'm excited. I think I know where you're going because I know the content well, but I haven't read your book yet. I have had it on my shelf. I got it a few weeks ago, but I'm excited to read it. I've never seen someone write from that perspective. You know, most American, even the any comparisons to the calling of Israel has quickly shifted to how it relates to the calling of God's people today the church right.
Speaker 1Yeah, and so tell me why did you stick on that? Is it really an Old Testament focus of God's people today, the church right, yes. So tell me, why did you stick on that? Is it really an Old Testament focus on God's mission for the nations?
Speaker 2I think it is trying to help people understand why exactly Israel is called the chosen people and what they were chosen for, and I think that the reason we haven't talked about it, the reason that there aren't more books, is because whenever you say the word Israel, people get like, oh you know, is this political?
Speaker 1It immediately brings political connotations, especially today. Right, yeah, gosh, it's the worst today.
Speaker 2I didn't want this book to have any political affiliation at all. This is strictly theology.
Speaker 1When did you write it?
Speaker 2I wrote it.
Speaker 1It didn't publish last month. I just want you to know.
Speaker 2this isn't since the yeah, no it published in December of last year, but I 2024.
Speaker 224, yes, and I wrote it Honestly. Okay, god gave me a vision to write this book eight years ago and I felt like at the time, I'm pretty sure I said this in prayer God, I am unqualified to do this. You need to pick somebody else. And over the last eight years I didn't even know, but he was preparing for me to write this book. So when it came time to finally actually sit down and write it, I wrote it in less than a month.
Speaker 1Awesome.
Speaker 2So it just kind of poured out of me and it's all the scripture, it's what we talk about in perspectives, it's what we've been teaching about with the biblical basis for missions and all of that, and so I think that people don't understand why Israel was called the chosen nation, is called the chosen nation. I think that a lot of people have this really superstitious misunderstanding of the Abrahamic covenant and how it actually affects the church today, and so, honestly, one of the biggest things with my book, the biggest perception, I guess, is that people will say, well, is this Zionist or is this replacement theology?
Speaker 1There's no. Either it's either, or it's either or.
Speaker 2People have this dichotomy of Zionism or replacement theology and I say it's neither. Literally it's neither, because both Zionism and replacement theology are based on the understanding that God has a favorite and that he picked a favorite arbitrarily.
Speaker 1Right At the expense of all the others.
Speaker 2Yes, the book is chosen for a reason. Yes, this nation was chosen for a purpose. That purpose now includes the church. It's not replacement theology.
Speaker 1We're not replacing.
Speaker 2Israel. It is a calling, it is a purpose. It's been God's heart since the beginning.
Speaker 1I imagine again, I haven't read it. I imagine there's some fun parallels through the writer of Hebrews and how he ties all of that together.
Speaker 2Yes, and Romans and Galatians.
Speaker 1I've taught through Hebrews a number of times and it's one of my favorite books. It's one of the last books of the New Testament as written, and so I love how it in some ways kind of encapsulates all of the arguments into one kind of space that puts Christ at the middle.
Speaker 1You know, he's the center of the whole thing. He is the ultimate Israelite, he is the ultimate descendant of Abraham, and in that we are grafted into, not replacing the ones who, but grafted into that chain. And then the Hebrews are right. It makes it really clear that those who were of Israel, who didn't know God, were not of Israel at all.
Speaker 2You know, like this whole this whole kind of the, the.
Speaker 1The nation of Israel represents God's people throughout history.
Speaker 2Yes.
Speaker 1And the nation or the church today represents God's people throughout history, since then, since Christ, and and it's both and and all in betweens and everyone else right. The nations that were the focus of the Abrahamic covenant are the same nations that are the focus of the great commission.
Speaker 2Absolutely, yeah, absolutely, and I think that some people will have a tension of well, how do I reconcile this with my eschatology?
Speaker 1my end times. It gets so messy.
Speaker 2It gets so messy the 144,000 and who they are and where they're going to come from, and so what I say in the book is like I I don't personally, I don't like eschatology, I don't think it. I just don't like to get into the weeds of all that. But here's what I highlight in the book there are really two times where Jesus is asked about end times where he actually answers. One of them is Matthew 24, 14.
Speaker 1Yeah.
Speaker 2And he says this gospel of the kingdom will be preached as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come. And so they were asking him how are we going to know when the end is coming and what are going to be the signs of this?
Speaker 1time.
Speaker 2And he says preach the gospel to all nations, and that's it. And so that is. He shifted their question from when and how to no, no, no, no, you just get back to worrying about the task at hand. Okay. Then the same thing happens in Acts, chapter one. They say are you now going to restore the kingdom to Israel? So they're still asking kind of the wrong questions and he says looking for the conqueror.
Speaker 2Yes, he says like instead of the question you're asking rather than what you're asking, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you and you'll be my witnesses in Jerusalem, judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth. So both times that Jesus actually responds to an end times question, he reshifts the conversation to the Great Commission, and so if that's the only thing you take away from my book, I will applaud and woohoo, Like that is a huge win, right there.
Speaker 1Well, here's the thing. I said this to a whole group of people just the other day. I said every single sermon leads you to one of two ends. One is either be faithful follow me right.
Speaker 1Abide in Christ. It's all about being faithful to who God's called us to be, understanding all of the different ways he wants to transform us, and we're moving from glory to glory. Everybody has a way to grow. There's no one without all that, one of those things that or be fruitful. I'll make you fishers of men.
Understanding the Great Commission
Speaker 1So it's either that you're growing in your faith in Christ and following him better, or you're engaging in the mission of God and working alongside him to accomplish his mission among the peoples of the earth, which could be your family, your neighbors, your classmates, your coworkers or maybe the people that live across the ocean that you go and visit as often as you can. But it's really one of those two things. Yeah, and that mission, when I I've taught through revelation a time or two and every single lesson ends with I don't know how this always is going to look. There's a lot of speculation and conjecture and there's a library full of books of everyone giving their opinions of what this might look like when that end comes. But until then, be faithful and be fruitful.
Speaker 2Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 1And those things are. So. That's the task, therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great crowd of witnesses right, let us throw off the sin that so easily entangles us, that hinders us, that holds us back.
Speaker 1And he says let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who, for the joy set before him, endured the cross and despised its shame, sat down at the right hand of God, the right hand of God, right. Then it says I'm going to lose this last verse, it's the whole point. He says so that you don't grow weary and lose heart.
Speaker 2Ah, yeah, right.
Speaker 1Don't grow weary. The whole point is that you don't lose sight of who he is and what he's done for us and the mission he's got us focused on, yes, of who he is and what he's done for us and the mission he's got us focused on.
Speaker 2Yes, and that's you know. I just taught on this, actually, at a Pakistani pastor's conference in Bahrain last month. I was teaching on end times and the return of Jesus, and I went into Matthew, chapter 24, and looked at. As I was looking about it and praying about how to teach this, I felt like the Lord was telling me what is in your control, and so I went through with these pastors and said what is in your control? What is Jesus saying in here that, during the end times, you need to be doing? And it's be faithful, don't be afraid.
Speaker 1Terrible Everything Heresy.
Speaker 2Yeah, yeah, and all he says.
Speaker 1Prosperity.
Speaker 2Like all those things. All these things are going to happen and all he says is don't be afraid, be courageous, stay strong in the faith and do the great commission do the work that's it and so it's like okay. Well, why are we going to sit here and argue eschatology instead of just doing the thing that will bring about the end times?
Speaker 1I love the perspective. All all together, I look forward to reading the book, nicole, and I expect that you will probably have other books in the future.
Speaker 2I've got a few in the works.
Speaker 1The Lord gives you a couple weeks to settle down. You might just rip out a new one and throw that out there. So that's super exciting we're coming down to the end. So what are ways that people can pray for you and how can they connect with you if they want to get to know you a little bit better? Obviously, the website.
Speaker 2Yeah, so I have my website, nicoleparksrightscom, but also I am in a new role now at Cafe 1040. So I'm the vice president of mobilization and strategic partnerships. So I'm learning this role. It's a new role to the ministry and so therefore it's a very new role to me. I'm trying to figure out what that looks like.
Speaker 2But we've we're seeing God move in a lot of powerful ways through Cafe 1040. And so people can get in touch with me through that, through the website there. We we have a podcast, also Cafe 1040 podcast, and you can follow me on Instagram. Nicole Parks writes. I'm pretty involved with our Cafe 1040 Instagram account there. But, yeah, I think that right now I'm in this really beautiful shift of season where I am probably going to be staying stateside a little bit more and really focused on growing the ministry that I love, that I'm a part of, through strategic partnerships and mobilization, and so we're working with different sending agencies, different churches, to form these deep partnerships and really focused on the unity and diversity of the body. Like we want to come together as a body of Christ. We can accomplish the great commission in our lifetime, but we can't do it if churches and ministries and people stay siloed. We've got to do it together.
Speaker 1And Jesus said those exact things right Like the better that we love each other, the stronger our witness will be to the world around us.
Speaker 1Well, Nicole, thank you so much for making the trek out here from Atlanta, Thank you for spending two full days with the San Antonio and Bernie classes, and I hope that you have a wonderful time tonight. For those of you who are listening, why do we do all this? What's the point? Why do we keep talking to people and having these conversations? It's to encourage your hearts. The podcast is called so that right. May God be gracious to us, make his face shine on us so that his name will be known among the nations, his salvation among the earth. And so everyone that's listening be a blessing to those who are around. God doesn't bless you just so that you'll get to go to heaven. That's a wonderful thing that he gives us, but he does it so that we can be a blessing to those around us. So be a blessing. Hope that you guys have enjoyed our podcast. Nicole, thank you for coming in.
Speaker 2Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1It was so fun Hope you have a wonderful day and those of you listening. If we can serve you in any way, if you have any comments or questions, we'd love to hear about it. We'd love to connect with you more. So reach out to us here at the church office or on our website, and we we are so thankful that you joined our podcast today. We would love to hear any feedback you may have for us. Remember, Psalm 67 says May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face shine on us, so that your ways may be known on earth and your salvation among all nations. Don't forget why the Lord blesses us it's so that we can be a blessing to those around us. Until next time, God bless.