The Journey

My 4^th grade teacher gave the class a writing assignment – Who do you want to be when you grow up?  I began my paper with, “I want too be a missunairy when I gro up.”  A few weeks earlier, a missionary had spoken at our church.  As a 10 year old child, something stirred in my heart as I listened to him describe the challenges and opportunities of ministering in a foreign land.  

During my last year of high school, I remember listening to a missionary from the Philippines share about her experiences during her first few weeks of living in a remote town in the southern island of Mindanao.  Once again, my heart stirred.  God was calling.  Interestingly, I arrived in that very town five years later as a single adult and began my own ministry there for one year.  I remember the hot and humid day when I shared the gospel to a group of farmers who had gathered in a dirt floored bamboo hut.  I told God that if this is what He wanted me to do for the rest of my life, I was willing.

Five years later, Jan and I had been married for two years and she was pregnant with David.  We had just been accepted by the Foreign Mission Board.  Now we gathered with about 40 other appointees at the Virginia headquarters to discuss where in the world we would go.  To illustrate what a sample request from the field looked like, the moderator handed out a personnel request for, of all places, a career missionary for Panay Island, Philippines.  The description and the needs of the place grabbed our hearts.  Once again, God spoke.  Six months later, Jan and I arrived on Panay Island to begin our missionary journey.

And what a journey it has been!  I have been super blessed to share the gospel with thousands of Filipinos and see many of them born into God’s kingdom.  Churches have been started.  Filipino men and women have matured in their faith.  A few have even gone on to other nations as missionaries.  Just this morning I spoke via skype to a lady who Jan and I helped train.  She is now working as a teacher in Vietnam where she has been instrumental in starting two churches and has seen dozens of people come to know Christ.

Last September, we learned that our organization could no longer support the number of missionaries we had on the field.  Our numbers had to be reduced by 15%.  A generous volunteer retirement incentive was offered.  For the past 2 months I have prayed, as many others have.  Nothing in my time with the Lord told me that it was time for me to leave.  So, yesterday, I sent in my Letter of Intent to stay.  If the Board doesn’t arrive at the 15% reduction, I still may be asked to leave or relocate.  But I will face that decision if and when it comes.  My journey continues, at least for now.

Please pray for the many who heard God say that it was time for them to return to the States for a new phase of ministry.  Of the dozen or so families we have here in the Philippines, half will be leaving.  They are precious people who have been greatly used by God during their many collective years in this country.  God’s kingdom here will be hurt by their absence.  I wish Southern Baptists would give more to keep them here.  I hope Southern Baptists will give more this year to allow us who remain to continue the journey of proclaiming Christ to all nations.