For world outreach, passion.

Jan Comenius was a missionary pioneer born in in Moravia in 1592, one of the first to begin developing a world scope for missions. The following is a quote from a short biography, which challenged me.

In 1461 Comenius visited England in the hope of gaining support for one of his more idealistic scheme, an encyclopaedic 'pansophic' college. This would embrace all knowledge, including scientific knowledge and biblical, and would teach the peoples of all nations the truth which would bring an end to war and discord! His optimism knew no bounds though we may feel he was rather naive in his expectations! The programme as he envisaged it would start with Christian nations and go from there to Muslims, pagans, and finally to the Jews, who, as the apostle Paul hoped in His Letter to the Romans, would come to faith in Christ through jealousy, when they saw the gentiles enjoying God's blessings. As he says in The Way of Light:

The result of that light which is promised is the conversion of all peoples to the Church, so that Jehovah shall be king over all the earth... Then the Gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole circle of the world, for a witness to all the peoples, before the end shall come... Then the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of God as the sea is covered with waters... And then there will be universal peace over the whole world; hatred and causes of hatred will be done away, and all dissension between men. For there will be no ground for dissenting, when all men have the same Truths clearly presented to their eyes.

And he closes the book with the following paraphrase of the Lord's Prayer:

Our Father who art in heaven, may thy name be hallowed in the whole world! let Thy Kingdom come even now to the whole world! May Thy will be done even now in the whole earth as it is in whole Heaven! through the whole of Europe, of Asia, of Africa, of America, through the Magellanes [the southern parts of present-day Chile and Argentina], and through all the islands of the sea, may Thy kingdom come, may Thy will be done!... Raise up men to write Thy purpose in books, but books such as Thou Thyself mayest write in the hearts of men; make schools to be opened in all parts of the world to nurse Thy children! And do Thou raise up Thine own school in the hearts of all men in the whole world that they may ally themselves together for Thy praise; be Thou Thyself leader of the choir of Thine elect.

Whatever we may think about the viability of Comenius' hopes there is no doubt about his worldwide vision and missionary zeal.

From A Heart For Missions: Five Pioneer Thinkers
Ron Davies