Jesus said to his disciples, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.” That is what Christians do. They tell everyone the good news of Jesus.
That certainly wasn’t an easy task to perform when Jesus sent His disciples out into the world. Transportation to another place happened on foot, by animal, or by boat. What an amazing thing it is then that shortly after Jesus ascended back into heaven, the good news was spreading throughout the areas of Jerusalem, up around the Mediterranean, to modern-day Syria, Turkey, and Greece.
God is always moving in our world and seeking hearts. He uses us to do this if we are willing and those who answer ‘yes’ are called missionaries. Being a full-time missionary just might be a lifetime commitment. Missionaries have to be brave, physically able to endure hardships, and I find they usually are quite brilliant. God calls His best and brightest.
Neil and I have been blessed to know several missionaries who work both stateside and overseas. One of those missionaries is a Bible translator. She was a math major in college and at that time she could have chosen to work with NASA or any other innovative scientific research, but she chose to use her skills for God. Math makes use of various theories, and that theoretical way of thinking is very useful for language translation.
Eileen works for Wycliffe, which sent her to South Sudan many years ago to make a written language of an oral language and then to produce a Bible in the new written language. That was some big goal, and it has been a massive undertaking and a commitment of unending years of dedication. Getting the first things first meant she had to learn and understand the native language and all its nuances. After that, she needed to create a written language from the oral language that she had just learned.
Once that was done, several things needed to happen next. As the local native speakers were being taught how to read their own language, Eileen, with a team of native speakers, started using that new written language to translate one book of the Bible at a time.
The process has been a slow one because, of course, the native language may not have words that are used in the Bible, such as ‘tabernacle’ or even ‘camel’. Those problems are addressed as they are discovered.
I can’t begin to imagine a mind that can accomplish all of this in a lifetime, but Eileen has certainly been up for the task and is still working for God, even past what most of us consider regular retirement age.
God is getting His word out to the entire world just as He promised. It is exciting to watch the fulfillment of Jesus’ command to His disciples.
Tim, a relative of mine, is a missionary with Youth With a Mission. Tim and his wife, Sarah, spent many years in Russia with their then expanding family doing inner-city evangelism in some very bleak places. Now that Tim is no longer a ‘youth,’ he is working for YWAM in Salem, Oregon, where he helps to train students for various ministries around the world.
Tim is also a street evangelist, which is a tough job, but one he feels called to do and to teach. He has written several short books, but the one I have enjoyed the most contains his retelling of specific interactions that occurred while he was out evangelizing.
One of the stories shows the absolute miraculous working of God’s design as Tim approaches a person to tell them about Jesus and finds out that they had already been seeking God and just didn’t know where to find Him.
He also shared a story of a kind, intelligent, elderly man whom he approached and who rejected his need for God, and yet Tim’s heart knew there was still hope that another might water the seed and possibly reap the harvest before the gentleman’s time on Earth was over.
Tim has an amazing grasp of Scripture and with the guidance and calling of the Holy Spirit, has led many souls to believe in Jesus as their Savior. I consider his ability to work on the streets and college campuses while being ‘wise as a serpent and harmless as a dove’ his special gift from God. Jesus sent his own disciples forth with that very admonition.
We have another missionary friend who joins our weekly Bible study group when she is stateside. Catlin is an engineer by education, who brings fresh water to remote areas of the world by digging wells while teaching the local population how to maintain and repair the wells themselves. She also teaches sanitation and, of course, always speaks of her faith.
She flies into the nearest city in the country where she is needed and then takes any transportation that will get her closest to the site. After that, she often backpacks into the village with her well-digging equipment on her back. Certainly, in my eyes, she is amazingly brave, physically strong, and a brilliant Christian engineer.
All of the preaching, teaching, well digging, church planting, the building of schools and orphanages, and other work that is being done by God’s people has literally changed the world for the better. God asks us to work for Him and those that answer yes will surely reap a harvest and Jesus will call them good and faithful servants when they meet face to face.
Oh, that all of us might be counted in that number for we are all called to go forth and preach the good news – some of us to our neighbors, our family, and our friends, and some of us to complete strangers – here and abroad to all creation.
ED. NOTE: Amy Patsch writes from Ocean City.
