"You Just Have to Go"

Years ago in Russia, a Christian pastor was arrested and put in prison.  His wife and children were sent to live (or die) in the cold wilderness of Siberia.  One wintery night, in their dilapidated wooden cabin, the children divided their last crust of bread, drank their last cup of dirty tea, before climbing into bed, still hungry.

Kneeling to say their prayers, they asked, “Mother, where are we going to get some more food?  Do you think Papa knows where we are?”  Their mother assured them that their heavenly Father knows where they are and what they needed.  They prayed.

Thirty kilometers away, in the middle of the night, God woke up the deacon of the only church in that place and instructed him. “Get out of bed. Harness your horse, hitch the horse to the sled, load up all the extra vegetables that the church has harvested, the meat, and the other food that the group has collected, and take it to that pastor’s family living outside the village.  They are hungry!”

The deacon said, “But, Lord. I can’t do that! It’s below zero outside.  My horse might freeze and I might freeze!”

The Holy Spirit told him. “You must go! The pastor’s family is in trouble.”

The man argued, “Lord, you’ve got to know that there are wolves everywhere.  They could eat my horse and if they do, they’ll then eat me! I’ll never make it back.”

But the Holy Spirit told him, “You don’t have to come back.  You just have to go.”  

So he did, making several trips to the needy family in the months that followed.

Last week during our annual mission meeting, we heard stories of how God is at work from Vietnam to Thailand, from Laos to Indonesia.  We were challenged by our IMB president, David Platt, that the measure of our success as missionaries is not how many we baptize, the number of churches we start, or how many leaders we train, as important as all of these are.  But our ultimate goal, in the midst of all our hard work, is simply to be faithful.  When the Lord calls, we go.