Recently I have been immersed in what some would call “missionary stories” as I’ve reviewed prayer items that I and others have shared in the last year. Yes, we are encouraged to work extra hard at sharing these stories with our Southern Baptist supporters at this time of year, the time of the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering. And, yes, many of us have concerns of how the current world-wide economic turmoil will affect your giving to the LMCO this year, but the need for you to surpass this year’s LMCO goal is not the greatest motivation I and others have to share our lives, work, needs, praises, etc, with you.
Our urgency comes from our desire to thank you for ALL of your support during 2008 – your prayers, your joining us as workers in the harvest field, and your financial gifts.
My desire to share is also a response to a personal quest during this uncertain time. While evaluating my financial investments I’ve become more alert to the investment returns of our past and present IMB work. Yes, there have been disappointments and failures, but there are incredible stories of how the investments of IMB personnel and your past prayers, gifts, and involvement were blessed and continue to lead to
strengthening and encouraging the disciples (Acts 14:22) and
the eternal gospel being proclaimed “to every nation, tribe, language and people” (Revelations 14:6). You can find many of these stories at
Lottie Moon Stories from the Harvest Field of Kenya, but today as I considered what to share with you, my mind keeps returning to a missionary story that I experienced last night.
As we ate too much cake and ice cream at a birthday party, a friend said, “I don’t know if I want to know.” This was not a light-hearted reply, but a response from a broken heart. My co-worker was leaving early this morning to visit her former home, Zimbabwe, where she will assist in a Baptist relief project sharing spiritual and physical food. This will be her first visit since billion dollar notes became needed for a loaf of bread WHEN bread can be found, or since the country slipped so deeply into total despair.
Earlier, the friend had shared that her afternoon shopping excursion had left her in tears as she purchased gifts of food for her friends – items no longer available in the past affluent country where her life was invested for many years, where her sons spent their teen-age years.
My friend’s “I don’t know if I want to know” comment was not referring to past friends or work. My friend was debating if she would contact the family who adopted their dog. She feared that they had fled like many others – possibly too fast to find another home for the dog. She was afraid that they could no longer afford or find the needed food to supply their pet’s voracious appetite. As I listened to her comments, the suffering and pain in Zimbabwe took on a more personal wrenching. I recognized that my friend’s voiced words also shared much about her love for the country, her former friends and colleagues in ministry, and her love for her Father.
Her concerns are the basis of a great missionary story – but my friend’s feelings are not based on her desire to be the heroine of a “real” missionary story. Her reactions define what most international missionaries feel when they answer God’s call to be His workers in a place different from our birth homes. Loving the people and learning the culture is often an on-going struggle, yet as we act as our Saviour’s co-workers, something happens – the people of our adopted home become not numbers, target groups, or “those people” –
they become our friends, they become a part of our lives, they are included in our use of the words we, our, us! Most missionaries would say that creating missionary stories is simply what happens as we obediently invest and share our lives with those around us.
And this returns me to why I’m focusing on our missionary stories at the moment and why I’ve allowed this update to be so long! There are still many in our world who do not know of or claim our Heavenly Father’s love and salvation and workers are still needed in his harvest field (Matthew 9:37-38). Without you and your support, I and many others could not be a part of the “we, our, us” stories that become missionary stories. We are thankful for how your prayers, financial support and involvement enable us to be about our Father’s work. We also are very aware that the work is not finished and we need you, our co-workers, to continue with your prayer support, financial support and assistance as volunteers.
So this is my LOTTIE MOON STORY and I do thank you for
being AND for the assurance I have that you will
continue to be God’s and our fellow workers (1 Corinthians 3:9).
Bert Yates
Secondly, even if I did try to write an “impressive” update, I would likely fail as my fingers are exhausted, but for a good reason. The Spiritual Retreat that I asked you to pray for last week was a great success – a true time of retreat, revival and renewal for our mission families. As a part of one prayer time, I asked my co-workers to write a thank you note to Southern Baptist. Everyone at the retreat was so tired and so ready for a break from work, that I expected only a few short replies.
I know you and others were been praying for me, because for once I completed my work hours before my target time and as you know the new “thank you” blog, Thanks to Lottie, was released in a message I sent to you yesterday.
We do depend on your prayers! We are depending upon them as Jack prepares for a mini-training with several of our new staff in support roles that keep them busy caring for our missionaries and others, yet they want to use their free time actively sharing God’s love and salvation. I am depending upon your prayers as I continue strengthening and encouraging our missionaries and Kenyan Baptists by assisting them in raising an army of prayer supporters. We cannot thank you adequately for the strengthening and encouragement we receive from the assurance of your prayers as we do our Father’s work, Bert Yates
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