Last Man Standing
I just got an email that broke my heart, and I'm sure grieved the Lords as well. It's not the first time that I've heard of this occuring either. I'll begin with a story from while I was in Zambia. The missionaires there were amazing, truly loving and reflective of the love of Christ, and the Lord was abundantly blessing their ministries which have been enduring for over 20 years! That's amazing to me, and I asked them what it had been like being seperated from the ones they loved so much for so long. They said the hardest part was enduring when a new missionary came to the field...because for the first few months they would get care packages en mass. But, as memory of them faded from back home, the care packages stopped coming...this is the source of my heartbreak!
Why can't we show love to our missionaries! They are the ones who have left all of their creature comforts behind to gracefully serve the Lord, and the church can't even remember them for more than a year! What is wrong with us!!! I'm sick of it, and if you were here, I would punch you in the face (yes that's how angry I am). I close with a quote:
"Dude, I am always glad to hear from you, as you are
the only one who contacts me regularly, thanks
bro. Love ya and say Hi to jess for me.
for life" - name withheld for confidentiality
Why can't we show love to our missionaries! They are the ones who have left all of their creature comforts behind to gracefully serve the Lord, and the church can't even remember them for more than a year! What is wrong with us!!! I'm sick of it, and if you were here, I would punch you in the face (yes that's how angry I am). I close with a quote:
"Dude, I am always glad to hear from you, as you are
the only one who contacts me regularly, thanks
bro. Love ya and say Hi to jess for me.
for life" - name withheld for confidentiality
posted by Nick & Jessie @ 2:18 PM
7 Comments:
At 5:25 AM,
Tony E said…
That's sad. Do you think that it is because they are southern baptist missionaries (assume that they are) becuase SBC's don't raise their support from individuals. If an individual is writting out a check each month maybe they would remember. I don't know, what do you think?
At 11:18 AM,
Nick & Jessie said…
Good thought Tony, and perhaps the first line of thought that has every made me even question whether or not the SBC doesn't have the best system. I agree that if a church has to write a check to an indivudial on an annual or monthly basis, you bet they would be a little more interested and commited. But, since they are sending to a cooperative fund, they lose focus on the individuals that are the recipients. But, to the contrary, there are many SBC missionaries who leave behind home churches who should be checking in on a regular basis, and they are not. There is really no excuse for that.
When I was in China a few summers ago, there was a whole church group that came, because they had adopted the particular people group and missionaries serving them. They held weekly prayer meetings (on Friday nights I might add) that were rained upon by the Holy Spirit, and I have no doubt that those meetings are why those missionaries were having such success in their ministry. This type of support should be present for all missionaries, short or long term, near or far.
Shame on me for not taking more action to be the one to start those prayer meetings and rally the troops stateside.
At 1:06 PM,
Nick & Jessie said…
Good thoughts Ward, and I agree that despite any shortcomings in the IMB organization, the cooperative program is a great program used by Christ to further the Great Commission. I don't think Tony or I would deny that at all.
It just breaks my heart that the local churches don't do as much as they could to demonstrate their support of any (and all) IMB missionaries that come from their church (home church). I don't think it's too much to ask to send a quarterly care package, or even to provide updates in service every week like you said your church does. I just know how much positive difference those little acts could make.
At 8:21 PM,
Tony E said…
My post wasn't meant to critize the IMB because I think that they are one of the better mission boards out there. I personally write support one missionary and I tend to keep up with him more then I would if I just wrote out a check to an institution. I think the major stregnth of the IMB is that missionaries don't have to sweat bullets about fund raising and running all over the country to find donors, which is a major credit to the members of the SBC.
At 9:53 PM,
Alex said…
I think, much like Andy said, that missionaries are forgotten because pastors are more concerned with topical ear candy on sunday morning that addressing the fact that despite the massive evangelical mission effort, less that 50% of the "language groups" of the world still have not heard the truth (13,000 of 27,000; and within some language groups there 6 or more commonly unintelligable dialects). For more info see davidsells.blogspot.com. :)
At 9:53 PM,
Alex said…
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
At 1:02 PM,
Alex said…
Ya, I did mispell it.. Whoops! davidsills.blogspot.com Thanks Andy!
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