Rededication - to the Mission Call! Remember WHY Brothers & Sisters!

We all need a reminder of why we serve in mission. It's all about passion for the worship of Jesus among the nations. I pray this stirs your heart as it did mine. Onward to the task brothers & sisters. You are doing what matters most- spreading worship!



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Africa Can Do ! Africa Can’t do! – What is Our Point Of View?

Glen Schwartz says he meets two kinds of people in Africa.

“In Nairobi I spoke with a driver at the guesthouse where I was staying. As we chatted, I learned that in addition to working as a driver, he is a church planter. (He was actually working as a driver on two twelve hour shifts back to back at the time we met.) His business card indicated that his title is “bishop”. He said he had twenty-three pastors in his care with churches throughout the Nairobi area. His business card also had something on it about a “rehabilitation center.” When I asked about that, he said that their churches minister to needy people in the poorer areas of Nairobi. He said, “You know, street children.”

I asked where the support comes from for the pastors, the congregations and the rehabilitation center. “It comes from local resources,” he said. When I asked how much help comes from overseas, he dismissed the idea of getting assistance from outside Africa.

I went from Nairobi to Lusaka, Zambia and was met at the airport by a well-dressed businessman in a suit and tie. As we chatted on the way into town he told me about a congregation he and his wife started in their home several years ago. They outgrew the living room, then the garage, and now they are meeting in a tent beside the house. The walls of a permanent building are being built around the tent. (The tent will be removed eventually which I found to be creative.) The congregation now has 200 people in attendance, and they have hired their own full-time pastor and pay him completely from local resources. When I asked how much comes from overseas he also scoffed and said, “None, of course.”

I mentioned that there are two kinds of people in Africa. Back at the guesthouse in Nairobi I spoke with several North Americans who were in East Africa on short-term missions. Several said they brought along resources for the projects on which they were working. One woman said she had several suitcases of used clothing to give away in a poor part of the city. Ironically, it was the same community where the bishop’s rehabilitation center is located. She also said she brought along some money “just to give away” (her words). I wish I could have introduced her to the Kenyan bishop and the Zambian businessman mentioned above. ……….Think about it. Some people believe Africa can do it with local resources and others do not. Both may be looking at or working in the same communities. What strikes me is that it is most often local people who believe that Africa can manage without outside assistance.

(“I meet Two Kinds of People In Africa”, Glen Schwartz. “Mission Frontiers”, September –October 2007, 29:5, Page 25)

Blood of Tribalism Runs Thicker than The Waters of Baptism? Does Gospel Alone Really Transform Society?

“Some of the states in northeast India, such as Nagaland, are held up as outstanding examples of the success of late- nineteenth- and early twentieth-century evangelism. Whole tribes were converted. The state is recorded to be around 90 percent Christian. Yet it has now become one of the most corrupt states in the Indian Union and is riddled with problems of gambling and drugs among the younger generation. Naga students at the Union Biblical Seminary, where I taught in the 198Os, would tell me this as proof of the fact that merely successful evangelism does not always result in lasting social transformation. Others will point with desperate and baffled sadness at the tragic irony of Rwanda—one of the most Christianized nations on earth and birthplace of the East African Revival….. The blood of tribalism, it was said, was thicker than the water of baptism.”

(“The Mission of God”, Christopher J,H. Wright. “Mission Frontiers”, September –October 2007, 29:5, Page 21)

A Warrior Kills Steve's Dad, Becomes Beleiver Trained by Steve!

"After Mincaye pulled the hurting woman’s abscessed tooth, he gently held her head in his hands and prayed that God would heal her heart. I had been holding the woman’s jaw in hopes that my added support would help Mincaye keep from breaking her jaw. When Mincaye held her face to pray, his hands were covering my own.

I looked at those gentle hands and realized that those were the same hands that once drove spears into my precious Dad’s body. I love those hands transformed, like my own, by the touch of the Master Surgeon’s hands." (Mincaye, a Waodani Warrior - killed Steve’s Dad. He became a Christian and was taught by Steve to do dental missions)A Warrior Kills Steve's Dad, Becomes Beleiver Trained by Steve!

(“Social Action & Evangelism Don’t Compete, They Complement”, Steve Saint “Mission Frontiers”, September –October 2007, 29:5, Page 18)

28 Million Modern Slaves- Some in our own Backyard - How do Missionaries Respond?

Twenty-seven million slaves exist in our world today.’ Girls and boys, women and men of all ages are forced to toil in the rug loom sheds of Nepal, sell their bodies in the brothels of Rome, break rocks in the quarries of Pakistan, and fight wars in the jungles of Africa.

Go behind the facade in any major town or city in the world today and you are likely to find a thriving commerce in human beings. You may even find slavery in your own backyard.

For several years, my wife and I dined regularly at an Indian Restaurant near our home in the San Francisco Bay Area. Unbeknownst to us, the staff at Pasand Madras Indian Cuisine who cooked our curries, delivered them to our table, and washed our dishes were slaves. It took a tragic accident to expose the slave trafficking ring.

(“Finding Slavery in My Own Backyard”, By David Batstone. “Missions Frontiers”, September-October 2007 29:5, pg 12)

Modern Slavery & Missions

"The most upsetting feature of all of this, brilliantly displayed in one book I would recommend, entitled “Not for Sale”…, simply points out that there are more slaves in the world today than were bartered and bought during a 400 year period of North Atlantic slavery in the past. That is very hard to believe, but the statistics really back that up. The often quoted nearly 30 million slaves in the world today are a very unavoidable reality …The reason I bring this up here, however, is that this is not simply a world problem to be prayed about. It’s something that Evangelicals have got to do something about and in fact are doing something about, but perhaps not as prominently as they could he or should be”

(Editorial Comment, Ralph D. Winter. "Mission Frontiers" , September-October 2007 29:5 pg 4)

Should Danger & Suffering Stop Missionaries?

“Even after the Basel Mission had lost eight of its first ten missionaries in nine years, the heroic Andreas Riis wrote back from the Gold Coast in Africa, “Let us press on. All Africa must be won for Christ. Though a thousand missionaries die, send more.”

("The Bridges of God”, Donald A. McGavran. “Perspectives on the world Christian Movement", 1999, William Carey Library, Pasadena California . Pg 328)

Missions is Not Sacrifice- so says David Livingston?

"When David Livingstone visited Cambridge University on December 4, 1857, he made an earnest appeal for that continent (Africa), which was then almost wholly an unoccupied field. His words, which were in a sense his last will and testament for college men, as regards Africa, may well close this book:

"For my own part, I have never ceased to rejoice that God has appointed me to such an office. People talk of the sacrifice I have made in spending so much of my life in Africa. Can that be called a sacrifice which is simply paid back as a small part of a great debt owing to our God, which we can never repay? Is that a sacrifice which brings its own blest reward in healthful activity the consciousness of doing good, peace of mind, and a bright hope of a glorious destiny hereafter? Away with the word in such a view, and with such a thought! It is emphatically no sacrifice. Say rather it is a privilege. Anxiety, sickness, suffering, or danger, now and then, with a foregoing of the common conveniences and charities of this life, may make us pause, arid cause the spirit to waver, and the soul to sink, but let this only be for a moment. All these are nothing when compared with the glory which shall hereafter be revealed in and for us. I never made a sacrifice."

("The Glory of the Impossible”, Samuel Zwemer. “Perspectives on the world Christian Movement", 1999, William Carey Library, Pasadena California . Pg 315)

Adventurous Young Men & Women -Test Your Salt in Pioneer Missions!

“An adventure of some proportions is not uncommonly all that a young man needs to determine and fix his manhood’s powers.” Is there a more heroic test for the powers of manhood than pioneer work in the mission field? Here is opportunity for those who at home may never find elbow-room for their latent capacities, who may never find adequate scope elsewhere for all the powers of their minds and their souls........Bishop Phillips Brooks once threw down the challenge of a big task in these words: “Do not pray for easy lives; pray to be stronger men. Do not pray for tasks equal to your powers; pray for powers equal to your tasks. Then the doing of your work shall be no miracle, but you shall be a miracle.”"

("The Glory of the Impossible”, Samuel Zwemer. “Perspectives on the world Christian Movement", 1999, William Carey Library, Pasadena California . Pg 315)

In Missions - The Prospects are as Bright as the Promises!

"But the pioneer husbandman must have long patience. When Judson was lying loaded with chains in a Burmese dungeon, a fellow prisoner asked with a sneer about the prospect for the conversion of the heathen. Judson calmly answered, “The prospects are as bright as are the promises of God.”

("The Glory of the Impossible”, Samuel Zwemer. “Perspectives on the world Christian Movement", 1999, William Carey Library, Pasadena California . Pg 314)

Some Good Old Faithful Tenacity Needed In Missions!

“The challenge of the unoccupied fields of the world is one to great faith and, the to great sacrifice. Our willingness to sacrifice for an enterprise is always in proportion to our faith in that enterprise. Faith has the genius of transforming the barely possible into actuality. Once men are dominated by the conviction that a thing must be done, they will stop at nothing until it is accomplished…. Opposition is a stimulus to greater activity….Does it really matter how many the or how much money we spend in opening closed doors, and in occupying the different fields, if we really believe that missions are warfare and that the King’s glory is at stake? ….The unoccupied fields of the world must have their Calvary before they can have their Pentecost. …. The unoccupied fields of the world await those who are willing to be lonely for the sake of Christ.”

("The Glory of the Impossible”, Samuel Zwemer. “Perspectives on the world Christian Movement", 1999, William Carey Library, Pasadena California . Pg 311-312)

How Much Do We Really Need To Go?------ A Wiser Miser?

"I learned, however, that the Congregational minister of my native town possessed a copy of Medhurst’s China, and I called upon him to ask a loan of the book. This he kindly granted, asking me why I wished to read it. I told him that God had called me to spend my life in missionary service in that land. “And how do you propose to go there?” he inquired. I answered that I did not at all know; that it seemed to me probable that I should need to do as the Twelve and the Seventy had done in Judea—go without purse or scrip, relying on Him who had called me to supply all my need. Kindly placing his hand upon my shoulder, the minister replied, “Ah, my boy, as you grow older you will get wiser than that. Such an idea would do very well in the days when Christ Himself was on earth, but not now.”

I have grown older since then, but not wiser. I am more than ever convinced that if we were to take the direction of our Master and the assurances He gave to His first disciples more fully as our guide, we should find them to be just as suited to our times as to those in which they were originally given."

("The Call to Service”, J. Hudson Taylor. “Perspectives on the world Christian Movement", 1999, William Carey Library, Pasadena California . Pg 301)

A 16 Year Old Teens Desire to Serve! - Hudson Taylor!

“Not many months after my conversion, having a leisure afternoon, I retired to my own chamber to spend it largely in communion with God. Well do I remember that occasion. How in the gladness of my heart I poured out my soul before God; and again and again confessing my grateful love to Him who had done everything for me—who had saved me when I had given up all hope and even desire for salvation—I besought Him to give me some work to do for Him, as an outlet for love and gratitude; some self-denying service, no matter what it might be, however trying or however trivial; something with which He would be pleased, and that I might do for Him who had done so much for me." (He was 16 years Old at the time)

("The Call to Service”, J. Hudson Taylor. “Perspectives on the world Christian Movement", 1999, William Carey Library, Pasadena California . Pg 300)

A Prayer meeting in A Haystrack Answered - Send Missionsries!

The Haystack Prayer Meeting

In 1806, Mills enrolled in Williams College, Massachusetts. This school had been profoundly affected by the religious awakening of those years, and devout students on campus had a deep concern for the spiritual welfare of their fellow students. Mills joined with them in their desire to help others.It was Mills’ custom to spend Wednesday and Saturday afternoons in prayer with other students on the banks of the Hoosack River or in a valley near the college. In August, 1806, Mills and four others were caught in a thunderstorm while returning from their usual meeting. Seeking refuge under a haystack, they waited out the storm and gave them selves to prayer. Their special focus of prayer that day was for the awakening of foreign missionary interest among students. Mills directed their discussion and prayer to their own missionary obligation. He exhorted his companions with the words that later became a watch word for them, “We can do this if we will.”

("Student Power In World Missions”, David M. Howard" Perspectives on the world Christian Movement", 1999, William Carey Library, Pasadena California . Pg 280)

Is Prosperous Society Producing “Softer” Men and Women?”

“The words of a verse from a hymn written by one of the first Greenland missionaries expresses something of the fibre of their attitude

‘to through ice and snow, one poor lost soul for Christ to gain; Glad, we bear want and distress to set forth the Lamb once slain.”

The Moravians resolutely tackled new languages without many of the modem aids, and numbers of them went on to become outstandingly fluent and proficient in them. This was the stuff, then, of which these men were made. We may face a different pattern of demands today, but the need for a like measure of God-given courage remains the same. Is our easy-going, prosperous society producing “softer” men and women?”

("Europe’s Moravians: A pioneer Missionary Church. Colin A. Grant. "Perspectives on the world Christian Movement", 1999, William Carey Library, Pasadena California . Pg 276)

Missionaries - Be an example of Hard Work, even dirty sweaty work!

(This principle is very important in places like Africa where "Pastor" is often seen as power and a refusal to get hands dirty anymore with manual work.)

“…..missionary named Monate helped to build a corn mill in the early days of his work in the Eastern Province of South Africa, cutting the two heavy sandstones himself. In so doing, he not only amazed the Kaffirs among whom he was working, but was enabled to “chat” the gospel to them as he worked!

("Europe’s Moravians: A pioneer Missionary Church", Colin A. Grant. "Perspectives on the world Christian Movement", 1999, William Carey Library, Pasadena California . Pg 275)

The Gospel Should Lead to Social Transformation! Two Villages Compared – Interesting!

(I submit this as it makes me think more seriously about this issue)

"Many lesser known missionaries have demonstrated great concern for the totality of human need. One of them was Willis Banks, an obscure Presbyterian evangelist who worked in a backward area of southern Brazil. He built the areas first brickyard, brought children to live with his family, taught them to read, and then sent them back to teach others. Using a home medical guide, he treated infections, tuberculosis, malaria, worms, and malnutrition.
(Village #1)
Banks introduced better methods of agriculture and care of livestock. He build the first sawmill in the area and constructed machinery to cut silage. An anthropologist who visited the area 20 years after Banks’ death gave a striking illustration of the resulting community development. He visited two isolated villages, both situated in virtually identical circumstances, with inhabitants of the same racial and cultural back grounds. The village of Volta Grande was Presbyterian and had benefited from Banks’ evangelism and leadership. The people lived in houses of brick and wood, used water filters and in some cases had home produced electricity. They owned canoes and motor launches for travel to a nearby city and cultivated vegetables along with the traditional rice, beans, corn, manioc, and bananas. They had two herds of dairy cattle and produced and consumed milk, cheese, and butter. They received and read newspapers, had the Bible and other books readily available, and all were literate. The community had pooled its resources to build a school and donated it to the State with the stipulation that a teacher be provided and paid. Consequently there was an excellent primary school there and many of its graduates continued their studies in the city Religious services were held three times a week even though the pastor could visit only once a month.
(Village #2)
The inhabitants of Jipovura, the other village, lived in daub and wattle houses with no furniture. They engaged only in marginal agriculture, and did not boil or filter their water. They had no canoes, used tiny kerosene lamps for light, and were mostly illiterate. A school had been donated to the community by a few Japanese families who had once lived in the area, but the people showed no interest in maintaining it and had ruined the building by stealing its doors and windows. Leisure time was filled by playing cards and drinking the local sugarcane rum. Alcoholism was common."

Virtually all missionary movements in history have been concerned about social transformation in one way or another. It has been seen as part of the ministry of communicating and living out the gospel. Major emphasis has been placed on education, health care, agriculture, and ministries of social uplift for girls, women, and other neglected and op pressed members of society.

("A History of Transformation”, Paul Pierson. "Perspectives on the world Christian Movement", 1999, William Carey Library, Pasadena California . Pg 266)

Short-Term Results of Short Term?

(I highly recommend you read the whole article as the author has excellent follow up tips to help maximize the mission’s experience for the short-termer. The Article is not at all negative, though I tend to be a bit about this subject. However, I always appreciate people who are honest in confessing that the fruit resulting from the missions trips needs to be questioned by all who go.)

“The last twenty years have seer’ all explosion of mission trips. Some estimate that a minimum of one million Americans go on mission trips annually at a cost of one billion dollars (p 312)…… The primary result of most trips is more trips….. I have never heard anyone say that their church’s regular missions bud get (outside of giving for mission trips) has grown because of their mission trips. It is clear, however, that an Increasing proportion of many missions budgets is going to help support the trips. One of my friends told me that their church had notified a long-supported missionary couple that they wouldn’t be able to support them any longer because they needed the funds for more missions trips. While most new missionaries have taken short-term mission trips, there is little evidence of a surge of new long-term missionaries.” (p312)

(“Six Challenges for the Church in Missions” , by David Mays. EMQ July 2006 Vol 42,No.3. page 312-313)

Is Mission Children's Education The Real Deciding Factor?

Something to think about! It seems the "Lord's leading" leads us to where international schools are??????


"The most important question is: “Since when do the perceived schooling needs for our children take precedence over sewing Cod to the best of our ability?”(p293)

"As a church planting missionary I have made a remarkable observation. Lost people, without Christ and without hope in this world, have a much better chance of hearing the gospel of saving grace from a missionary if they live near an international school. This is true on a macro-level; countries which have good international schools are more likely to have missionaries than other countries. This is true on the meso-level; within a country, a high proportion of missionaries live in cities with international schools. And this is true on a micro-level; in big cities, many missionaries are found in close proximity to the international schools. ………But Church planting missionaries are called to honestly assess where their pioneer ministry can make the most difference. Often that will not be close to an international school. Are we allowing the Holy Spirit to point us in that direction? Or do we confine his leading to within driving distance of our preferred schooling option?" (p292)

(“Education is Not That Important”, by Martin Visser. EMQ July 2006 Vol 42,No.3. page 292-293)