Missions from Everywhere to Everywhere

Have you have ever heard the phrase "missions is from everywhere-to everywhere?" One of our missionaries Stuart Foster is representing southern Africa at  SIM (Serving in Mission) International Council meeting in Peru this month. Some 80 leaders will be gathering for a once-every-three-years event.  Please keep him in prayer. He writes:

SIM (Serving in Mission) is becoming more and more an everywhere-to-everywhere mission, sending people from 40 countries so far to over 50 countries, and there are many complex questions associated with this, from personnel to financial accounting. The underlying questions are of governance and structure: How does a big organization (with 1600 missionaries), born in another era,  be flexible and grow without fragmenting? 

Pray for the Lord to bless the logistics of these meetings and to give His spirit of wisdom and peace to each delegate. Pray for outreach to new peoples, helpful policies, and great understanding to result.

Stuart Foster is missionary in Mozambique with SIM

Jesus our Forerunner

The second servant song of Isaiah, in chapter 49:1-6, has been a favorite passage of mine for the last 15 years. In particular I have reflected often on verse 4, in which the servant says, “I have labored in vain; I have spent my strength for nothing at all.” Taking these words as a response from Jesus to God the Father, I have reflected on how Jesus felt discouraged during his earthly ministry—especially perhaps as he was hanging on the cross. From a human perspective, his time on earth ended in ignominy, pain, and defeat. Yet his seeming defeat on the cross won eternal salvation for the entire world. This has comforted me when thinking about my seeming failures. The values of the kingdom are not the same as the values of our culture. Even though some of my work and effort seem to have no tangible results, God can use them in ways I cannot foresee or imagine. As well, I was reminded that Jesus identifies with all my struggles, including the struggle of working without visible fruit.  Jesus’ cry of despair in this servant song showed me the truth of these verses in Hebrews: For this reason he had to be made like his brothers and sisters in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people. Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted (Hebrews 2:17-18).

Jesus was also tempted to think that his labor in the Lord had been in vain, although in the second part of Isaiah 49:4 he shows us how we should respond to such a situation: “Yet what is due me is in the Lord’s hand, and my reward is with my God”.

Recently I have been studying this passage again and have been concentrating more on verse 6: The Lord says, “It is too small a thing for you to be my servant to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I have kept. I will also make you a light to the Gentiles that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.”

In Jesus’ earthly ministry he concentrated on preaching to his fellow Jews. Though a band of twelve disciples followed him, not many other Jews accepted his message. The statistics of his preaching ministry were not impressive. Still, the Lord does not rebuke him for this but says he will give him an even greater ministry, to be a light to the nations.

Jesus becomes a light to the Gentiles through his disciples. It was their task to spread out from Jerusalem and preach the gospel to the surrounding countries. He continues to be a light to all the nations as we in the present day are willing to go out and be his witnesses. So even in the servant songs of Isaiah we can see the development of God’s plan for cross-cultural missions. God’s plan from the start was for Jesus to train others and send them out to bring the kingdom to others.

During our year at home in Boston, many people have asked us to explain our work to them. I always feel apologetic when I explain that we are not actually translating the Bible into a minority language ourselves. We are helping other people to translate into their own language; training them to do it. This sounds so much less impressive! This servant song has made clear in a new way that God gave Jesus the commission to bring his light to the Gentiles, but this was a commission that Jesus could only fulfill by entrusting it to his disciples on earth, through the agency of the Holy Spirit. If this was impressive enough for Jesus, it is certainly impressive enough for me.

Paula is a Bible Translator in Southeast Asia

Its Not Okay to Give Up

Tom & Michelle,
Josh, Leo

It’s not okay that we often give up too soon.  Society today wants everything instantaneously and is not willing to wait on God.   We have found that when reaching out to normal working families that it takes time to build the relationship and see them open their hearts to the gospel.  It’s not okay that Satan frequently gets the best of us as we give up.

Recently we started a Family Life Homebuilders group.   The content focuses on strengthening the marriage relationship and tackles some of the common sources of problems in marriage.  It is a desperate need where we live.   Many people give up on marriage.  In our group two young men are already on their second marriage and are hoping things go better this time.  The group is designed for seekers and gradually introduces bible verses.  We had wanted to start such a group for a long time but it had never worked out (people moved away, an approaching major event, sickness, etc.)   One of the couples who joined our group we have known for several years and have made repeated attempts to invite them to explore the person of Jesus.   We first met them through an Executive Training Series we were conducting at the time.  We invited them to some holiday outreaches for Easter and Christmas.  Later we met and shared the gospel but there was something holding him back.   We invited them to church and several times they said they were coming but never showed up.   We tried to maintain contact from time to time but eventually lost touch.    We reconnected when a Park Street short term team came to teach a business seminar.  Then they disappeared again for a while.   During a listening prayer time, God placed them on Michelle’s heart but it did not work out to connect with them right then.  Then a few months later, we received a phone call out of the blue.  They wanted to visit our church.  Wow!  It was them initiating this and not us.  They came a couple of times and stopped.  We thought about inviting them to Story of the Soul outreach but then thought it might be better to invite new people.    A while later, we get another phone call out of the blue inviting us to her 30^th birthday.  We met family members on both sides and the relationship was rekindled.  We invited them to the next Story of the Soul and the wife’s heart was greatly touched.  Michelle began doing some basic discipleship lessons with her and she was eating it up.  Michelle could clearly see the Spirit working in her heart.  Then things cooled off a little bit.  When we started this group, they became active engaged participants.  It’s not okay when we don’t heed God’s promptings.  However, we are thankful that He gives us second chances.

Another couple that has joined the group stems from a relationship that Tom has developed over the years.  They first met at a conference and Tom began meeting him regularly for life coaching.  They talked about Jesus as the life source that can bring real and lasting change but something was holding him back from completely giving his life to Christ.  They met several times and then became busy with other things and quit meeting regularly.   Then Tom received a phone call out of the blue inviting Tom to his birthday party to teach his friends how to play poker.  That evening Tom met a number of his friends who had also studied abroad.   Later we were invited to the wedding of one of those friends.  Now our friend is talking about inviting some of those friends to a similar homebuilders group.  He is very close to opening his heart to Jesus.

Many more examples abound of almost giving up.  It’s not okay when we don’t swallow our pride and keep initiating.  We had tried for a while to partner with the campus ministry but things had never worked out.  We were ready to give up and just move on but last year we had an opportunity to teach leadership classes to students and we brought in some campus staff to help.  As a result, one young man came to faith who now wants to join staff and work with students when he graduates.  That would not have happened if we had given up.

We may never know how many times we gave up too soon with a family member, a colleague, a distant relative.  When we stop and ask God to put people on our hearts and then wait for His reply, we might be amazed at what He does through us.  It’s not okay to start believing that it’s too late for God to use us.

Tom and Michelle are business people in Central Asia