Commission Week Thoughts
My wife & I were in Atlanta all week for meetings to learn more about all the things we need to get done before we go to Japan, & were also officially voted on & approved for missionary service in Japan. We are thrilled & humbled & I wanted to share some of the many jumbled thoughts in my mind from the week.
- WE ARE IN DESPERATE NEED OF PRAYER & HOLINESS. Our president of the organization we are going with shared that he'd been in over 90 trustee meetings in his 15 years as president, & in every single one of those 90 plus meetings they had to deal with the termination of a missionary due to moral failure. We need prayer warriors & we need a deep, abiding walk with Christ or Satan will have his way.
- WE ARE IN DESPERATE NEED OF PRAYER & HOLINESS. Our vice president shared how during the week we were there to get commissioned, they were dealing with 3 terminations based on moral failure. He reminded us how we've done nothing yet - we haven't spent a day on the field. He reminded us that those who are being terminated were once in our shoes, excited about glorifying God among lost peoples. Missionaries are not the cream of the crop Christians, we are simply fallen sinners trying to be obedient, therefore, we are all the more desperate for His Spirit to protect us from ourselves. Please pray for us.
- WE ARE IN DESPERATE NEED OF SUPPORT & ENCOURAGEMENT FROM YOU. Our head of member care shared how this year alone 4 career missionary units have resigned before the end of their very first year. Their reasons for leaving were burn out & culture shock. To think of being away for a period of time is possible to get through, but you are isolated, are quickly forgot about by your loved ones who are living busy American lives, your support shrinks, & you cave when you look at the long road ahead of you. These people too were once excited about going, were commissioned just like us. Please don't forget about us once we're gone.
- GO WEST YOUNG MAN! And north too. I don't know what percentage of Southern Baptist Churches are in the west & north, but I know it's small. And yet a solid percentage of both areas is represented among the missionaries I have spent a couple weeks with. And those folks are the cream of the crop! I can't tell you how impressed I am by them. And they're so refreshing because they are so not typical Southern Baptist & get spooked by the wild production type services we're so used to in the South. They just love Jesus & I am loving them! So if you live in the states, head West & North!
- I PRAISE GOD FOR THE COOPERATIVE PROGRAM & THE INTERNATIONAL MISSION BOARD. As a guy who is well aware that the SBC has major flaws, let me also state that I think the cooperative program & the IMB are the strengths of this convention as of now. I'm praying one day I can say it's doctrine & practice are what make the SBC so great, but stay tuned! After spending a summer with the board in a Muslim country, seeing the good, bad, & ugly on the field, to now going through every aspect of the approval process, with multiple meetings in group settings, one-on-one, several training sessions, & informational meetings, I am proud to be a part of this organization. It has in it a majority of godly, godly people with a heart for lifting up Christ & a love for the lost. I could write for hours on different people who make the organization "go" who are just blessings of God. Also, their strategy, doctrine, & practice is throughly biblical & doctrinally sound. Don't be arrogant if you know Southern Baptist life but have never gone through this process & think that you know what the IMB is all about. Don't have spent time on a short term trip & seem some flaws & think you have it all figured out & that you should just try & go with some other organization. Doctrinally & practically, you can be sent by any other cutting edge agency & I'd put my money on the IMB in terms of purity & practice of glorifying God on the field. That said, it's a huge entity made up of sinful people, so there will be exceptions, but overall, I am grateful to God for it & those in it.
And as I mentioned those from the north & the west earlier, they are probably for the most part in churches that are way too small for anyone to ever be sent & supported as a missionary overseas. The cooperative program is a beautiful thing. Thousands of churches pool together their resources to send & take care of those who are called. So I could be in a church of 12 in Podunk, North Dakota, & I can still get to the field & stay on the field to obey my calling through the loving support of others. It's an awesome arrangement. And to those who think it is less spiritual than raising your own support, try turning down money for your job or pastorate even surrounded by friends & families in the comfort of the US & see how effective or how long you last. God is our provider, but He appoints the means. Don't hate...appreciate! - And finally, YOU ACTUALLY CAN COUNT YOUR BLESSINGS. Jo, Matt, Tyler, Steve, Lois, Sam, John, Ilze, Larry, Nancy, Matthew, Christi, James, Ashley, Chris, David, Charlotte, Willie...18 blessings making their way from 2 states & 4 cities in the middle of the week to come lovingly support us - one staying with us all week to care for Luke, cooped up in a hotel room, making it possible for us to even get appointed. Others called & left messages who couldn't make it to express their desire to be there. One of the greatest joys of being in Christ is that your family expands & you share in a deeper united love made possible only through the blood of Christ & His Gospel. We are still counting our blessings.
