Today on the Evangelism Podcast, I interview David Ro. He has been leading a movement called Arise Asia that is having a massive impact on young people across Asia. We’ll hear all about this inspiring work and David’s vision for the future of Asian missions.
Learn more about Arise Asia: https://www.ariseasia.org/
Summary:
- Arise Asia is a movement that has brought together over 11,000 young people from 37 countries across Asia, challenging them to “go where there’s no gospel.” This has resulted in over 1,600 commitments from young people to long-term or one-year cross-cultural missions.
- The goal of Arise Asia is to “catalyze this generation, gen Z” and see the movement spread to other regions like the MENA region and Latin America. The aim is to give young people a “God’s heart for the nation” and a sense of purpose.
- Rather than “softening the gospel”, Arise Asia takes the approach of “lifting the bar high” and challenging young people to be willing to give their lives and potentially face martyrdom for Jesus.
- This bold approach has resonated with young people, with large numbers responding by committing to long-term missions, even to places with difficult or dangerous conditions.
Transcript:
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (00:00):
Welcome to the Evangelism Podcast. I’m Daniel King. I’m excited about telling people about Jesus today. I have a very special guest with me, David Ro. Yes. It’s wonderful to have you on the podcast. Thank you. Yes, nice to meet you, and great to be here. And so you have been leading a movement called a Rise Asia and having a massive impact with the young people here in Asia. Tell me about
David Ro – Arise Asia (00:23):
It. Yeah, so Arise Asia started about two and a half years ago. We brought together 1800 young people from 37 countries across Asia, and we challenged them with one message. We have one life, one challenge go where there’s no gospel. And it’s interesting, we’ve just seen young people respond. Hundreds came to the front, given their lives to long-term cross-cultural missions. We’ve seen now a 15% response rate to that. And now many are also given their lives to one year. And then we’ve seen now this movement continue from country to country, city to city. We’ve now been in 10 countries, 29 cities, close to 11,000. Young people have come to our events now and about 1600 commitments.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (01:08):
And what is your long-term hope for this movement? What would you like to see God do?
David Ro – Arise Asia (01:14):
So we want to catalyze this generation, gen Z, and we’re also hoping to see what happens in Asia could multiply into other regions of the world. We’re going into the MENA region. We’re going to start in the rise Latino, actually in January. And so hopefully one day it’ll be in all across the globe. But we’ll start with Asia just to get young people first excited for God. Revival is important, excited for God, but they want to do something for the Lord. They want to have a purpose in life. So we give them God’s heart for the nation.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (01:45):
This new generation faces some of the greatest challenges in history, but they also face some of the greatest opportunities. What do you feel are some of the keys to getting a younger generation involved in what God is doing?
David Ro – Arise Asia (02:02):
So most of the Gen Z ministries that we’ve heard in the past are more trying to soften the gospel, lowering the bar to get young people to come to church. We go the opposite way. We actually lift the bar high. We say give your life to go, and it would be a sacrifice or suffering and possibly martyrdom. So we’re asking young people to give their lives to die for something, which then they say, wow, there’s something worth dying for. So there must be something worth living for. And that’s the gospel. They’re a purpose driven generation, just like any generation, but especially this generation. They want to give their lives to something great.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (02:40):
Your ask is pretty intense. All we’re asking for you is be willing to give your life for Jesus,
David Ro – Arise Asia (02:46):
Be willing to die for Jesus. That’s the message we share. And we thought, well, maybe that’s a little bit too strong, but that’s the gospel message. John chapter 12, A seed must die in order for it, and they’re responding to that message. Of course, we have many speakers that give their lives. To show an example, we’ve given our life to an unreached people group. We myself, we gave our lives to China. And so we’re giving just many examples of people who have done that and they’re saying, wow, I want to give my life. And I’ve seen people doing it now and I want to do it in my generation.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (03:18):
Share with me a testimony. What have you seen God do in some of the young people who have come to these events?
David Ro – Arise Asia (03:24):
So I’ll just give you one example. We just did a Rice Sumatra, which is an island in Indonesia. I mentioned two American missionaries came in 1833. They were actually killed and cannibalize. They were eaten. But that tribe, the Batak people eventually became Christians. Now it’s 80, 90% Christian on that island. And that tribe now is getting ready to send. So when I preached and we shared the gospel message, they had many Anton who’s leading the conference, was actually from Botta. And then one of the younger ladies who was part of our rise movement in Rise, Indonesia a few months earlier, gave her life to serve in the border of Thailand and Laos. She came back to share. She said, I couldn’t speak much English, I couldn’t speak any Thai, but I just gave my life to serve. And young people responded to that message more than all the senior. They saw a young person responding to that message, actually going and serving people, coming back and sharing that you can do it too. And young people responded. Like I said, the response rate was out of 221, young people, 80, 90 young people gave their lives to long-term or one year commitment. That’s kind of like, do you remember that Mount Herman 100, the student volunteer movement started with 251 people and 100 people gave their lives to world missions. That’s what launched a student of volunteer movement. So we’re seeing that kind of response in Asia.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (04:51):
Wow, what a powerful testimony. If someone wants to find out more information about what you’re doing, what is a good website or way to get in touch with you?
David Ro – Arise Asia (05:01):
So we’re a rise asia.org. You can see. And then just click the movements. You’ll see all the dots in all the countries across and just see what’s heck happening. Philippines, we’ve done 13 events now, and so there’s also some countries that are more, we’re not putting online, but because of sensitivity, but the movement is taking off.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (05:23):
What a great blessing. Let’s finish by praying for the young people of Asia and the young people of the world. Would you lead us in a prayer for Gen X, gen alpha and everything that God wants to do through this
David Ro – Arise Asia (05:34):
Generation? Yes. Father, we just thank you God for a new movement of God among the Gen Zs who are really hungering for purpose in life. And Lord, as hundreds of them, thousands of them are coming and hearing the message that has been preached from the very beginning, go and make disciples of all nations. And Lord, we want to see not just the gospel in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, but to the ends of the earth. And with the spirit of what Paul said, I make it my ambition to go where Christ’s name is not known. Lord, we pray, God, this next generation would capture that God’s heart for the nations lay down their lives. They saw in the early church, they have seen in the missionaries today, but most importantly, they’ve seen an example of Jesus Christ who came down on earth, gave us an example of laying down his life for us. May this next generation follow in Jesus’s footsteps. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (06:29):
Amen. Brother David, thank you for being on the Evangelism Podcast. Thank
David Ro – Arise Asia (06:33):
You, brother.
