“For every 20,000 of us, Bible believing Christians, only one will take the Gospel to an unreached people group,” said Pioneers national director, Simon Longden in a seminar session at ReachOut Missions Conference in Katoomba, NSW.

Standing amongst the mission stalls at the conference, you wouldn’t believe that statistic. ReachOut Missions Conference is like a global careers fair for Christians.  Every major Australian missions agency is here, and everywhere you turn are eager Christians of all ages seeking guidance on whether a life of mission is God’s plan for their lives.

Some of the youngest conference delegates, Caitlin (16) and Matt (17) from the NSW Central Coast’s EV Church are in attendance for the first time, exploring what mission looks like and where the opportunities are.

Matt, who grew up in Ecuador with missionary parents says he has a passion for youth ministry and would be keen to see how that could play out overseas.

“I feel like I’ve grown a lot in the past two years in my own youth group, and I’d love to be able to help others learn about Jesus too, training people up to live for Christ,” says Matt.

“It’s something not a lot of people our age talk about,” says Caitlin.

Ten years further down that track is Amy Stephens, preparing to head off to Cordoba, Argentina as a CMS missionary in early 2013. For Amy, ReachOut formed an important part of her planning and preparation for a life of foreign mission.

“It’s been a long, long process for me to get to this point,” says Amy, whose first thoughts about becoming a missionary were at 10 years old.

A mission-focused church and a short term mission trip convinced Amy that long term mission was for her.

“I went to Bible college for three years to get some training under my belt, and heard from missionaries almost every week, what they were doing, the challenges they faced. It really opened the world of mission up to me, what people are doing in taking Jesus to the world. It was exciting, but I ended up really confused – where in the world do you start? Where do you go? How do you choose?”

“Coming to ReachOut during that time was really helpful – all the mission agencies were in one place, and I went around the stalls soaking up all the information I could.”

“I was reading Operation World and each day asking God – where should I go? Where do you want me to go?”

Amy met a CMS representative at ReachOut, and after a long, prayerful process, chose to serve in Argentina as a CMS missionary. She’ll be working in the local university in Cordoba, Argentina, helping to build a student ministry.

For other missionaries, the decision of where to go to serve God isn’t as arduous.

Jeff King from WEC has been serving in Mongolia since 2005. He says he felt called to the Great Commission, not to a specific country.

“All through Bible college I didn’t have a clear idea of where I would be going, just that I wanted to go somewhere. A couple of people mentioned Mongolia, so I made a call to WEC. Within a month, I’d reduced everything I owned to 20 kilos – sold it, chucked it or gave it away – I was ready to go.”

In his time in Mongolia, Jeff has learnt the language, been on an NGO visa, where he helped run a mobile library to Mongolia’s nomadic people and saw the set up of an ‘animal bank’, where downtrodden herdsmen who lost their herd in severe weather could take a number of sheep from the bank and pay it back within 5 years with sheep from their new herd.

Now that Jeff has a religious visa for Mongolia, he is “much more free to share the gospel”. He and his Mongolian wife have started a church on the outskirts of Mongolia’s capital city, Ulaanbaatar and plan to be there for the long haul.

“I can’t wait to get back to Mongolia,” says Jeff, back in Australia for a holiday and at ReachOut as a representative for WEC. “Some people would consider me poor, but I think I’m one of the richest people in the world. I’ve travelled to a different culture, and I’m seeing people come to Christ – what’s better than that?”

To find out more about ReachOut Missions Conference, check out the Conference Facebook page here.