Many Northland students have caught it in a variety of ways. Take Jeremy and Kylie
(Van Steenvoort) Barker, for instance. In May, Jeremy graduated from Northland Graduate
School and Kylie from Northland’s undergraduate program. Jeremy and Kylie
Barker are like many past Northland students who have crossed the platform at Commencement
with a passion to follow the calling of God in their lives. This passion for
the Barkers has resulted in a burden for a particular people group and area of
the world. Like many Northland graduates, they have a unique vision to fulfill.
What is Jeremy and Kylie’s vision? They desire to establish a work in the eastern
part of Central Asia. Their conception of this work began as an outreach to a
minority people group in Central Asia, but as they pursued this
ministry, they realized the shortage of resources, training, and means available to
those attempting to reach this specific area of the world. Their vision expanded
to also include plans for assisting and facilitating other believers who share a desire
for reaching similar people groups and locations.
Their
vision is the result of God’s working in their lives over the entirety of their
time at Northland, progressively leading them just a few steps at a time.
Jeremy, who desired to serve the Lord in ministry but was unsure how or
where, did not begin to sense God’s calling to missions until he had been at
Northland for a year. Within a period of several weeks, everything—classes, church services, chapel messages, and missions conference
sessions—seemed to propose to him the need for workers in Central
Asia. For Kylie, the process began even before she arrived at Northland with a
general desire to serve the Lord in missions, but the desire sharpened as she
was confronted with the powerful ministry of globalizing the Gospel. Both Jeremy and Kylie are
compelled by a vision for taking the task of the Great Commission back to the
Middle East.
During a
summer, Jeremy’s burden deepened while traveling with a Northland team on a trip to Central Asia. After playing a soccer game with some of his new friends, the people eagerly invited Jeremy back to their homes where he discovered a minority culture in desperate need of the Gospel. These people were interested in discussing religious matters because of the
prominence of the Islamic religion in their culture; however, they could not
see the importance of God’s message of redemption—the only way to salvation.
Reaching them would require extensive time and effort (essentially, a lifetime
ministry), but their location, situated between eastern and western cultures,
would provide a strategic launching point for global ministry.
Just a few months after graduating, Jeremy and Kylie will be on their way
toward fulfilling their vision. Sensing God’s will, they plan to begin an independent survey of the area, to learn the culture and
language, and to develop a long-term strategy they can implement over the
coming years. The plan is for this to be merely the first phase of a few: survey and strategize, prepare, and finally implement the strategy. Once they arrive in Central Asia, the Barkers will likely assist other workers in current outreaches by
following through with existing contacts as well as making some contacts on their own.
While the Barkers realize that they will face many challenges and uncertainties, they are
eager to leave now before settling into routine or developing ties here. They do not want to settle
for comfortable Christianity or American security regardless of where God’s
leading takes them. They simply want to go, recognizing the leading and calling of God. They are people with passion and vision.