For Such A Time as This: A Testimony Of One Insignificant Man’s Journey And Involvement in God’s Very Intentional And Grace-Filled Plan to Transform Lives, Churches And Cities Around The World with His Scandalous Gospel

by Carl Most
June 1st, 2015
Repeated throughout Scripture is this prevailing thought: “For such a time as this.” By using this statement, I accept the risk of sounding a little prideful, arrogant, and very cliché in its use, but as I meditate on the last four years of my life, and see God’s hand and favor upon me throughout the process and completion of this program, I believe I can humbly say that I am where I am, and am doing what I am doing, only because of the overall plan of God that is leading to the well being and saving of many lives. Biblical characters such as Esther (Est. 4:14), Joseph (Gen. 50:19), and the Judges of Israel (Jud. 6:11-14), were also simply everyday folks, going about their everyday lives, when God intercepted them, and interrupted their plans and dreams, for the greater good of so many other people who had cried out to God and whose voices and pleas for redemption and freedom had been heard. From beginning to end, this program has been a miracle in the making. It first started with the post deadline acceptance from BGU, which allowed me to join the Randy White-led Overture class in Jamaica in November of 2011. Next, it was the very difficult off again, on again, decision of Bakke Graduate University to keep its doors open and continue with the training of grass roots leaders like myself, and others around the globe. Once I knew BGU was still open, I then needed to be accepted into the University’s master’s degree program under the “special student” category. This terminology had nothing to do with how special I was, of course, and everything to do with the fact that my formal education did not fit in any of the standard requirement boxes to get into this program. If all of that was not enough, it all still very much depended on the availability, viii commitment, and sacrifice that Dr. Joel Van Dyke had to make, to support me throughout the degree as my Professor of Record. With this being a combination degree offered through both Bakke Graduate University and the Center for Transforming Mission, not just anybody could have understood the intricacies and interwoveness that both institutions were trying to provide in this degree. Joel provided the perfect balance for this institutional inter-relatedness to be able to take place. For sake of time and space in this project, I will not go into further miraculous moments that make me believe that all this was divinely directed “for such a time as this.” I would like to say in closing however, that the past nine years of creating and implementing the Mission for Transformation Youth Leadership Training Program in Nicaragua, the last four years of studying this Global Urban Leadership (MAGUL) degree, and this past year’s invitation to take the fruit and testimony of this Nicaraguan program into Cuba, and see the seeds of truth from these courses already germinating and bearing much fruit in their needy Island, is nothing short of a miracle in my eyes. For these reasons, I can state with overwhelming joy, that this course is a testimony of one insignificant man’s journey and involvement in God’s very intentional, and grace-filled, plan to transform lives, churches, and cities around the world with “His Scandalous Gospel.'