Focal Passages: Matt. 9:35-38; 28:18-20; Rom. 15:23-28
When John and I were missionaries with the Foreign Mission Board (now the International Mission Board) in Africa, and were home in the States, we were so often touched at the ways members of churches wanted to take care of us.
One person provided a car for our use, and when a man in another church found that the car’s air conditioning system was broken, he fixed it for us, telling us that we needed to be comfortable in the summer heat. I thought his loving and much-appreciated gift to us was such a wonderful example of giving.
During our time “on furlough” as it was then called, we were fed, housed, and sometimes even clothed, by members of different churches. I don’t believe that it was so much a matter of the people putting us on a pedestal, as wanting to lovingly spoil two brothers in Christ, John and our son, Marcus, and a sister, me. I was so grateful for all the spoiling, and yet the thing that mattered most to me was when they told us that they would continually pray for us.
Sometimes they would say, “That’s the least we can do,” to which we would reply, “That’s the most you can do.”
I always let them know that I didn’t want to be in Rwanda and Burundi without their prayers, and now, I don’t want to go to Jamaica without the prayers of my Christian brothers and sisters.
I also was so thankful to our Heavenly Father and to our churches for the financial support we, and our fellow missionaries, were given. By giving through the Cooperative Program and the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering for International Missions, Christians made it possible for us to work in Africa, and now are making it financially possible for missionaries to work throughout the world.
Please, if you do not believe anything else that I say or write, please believe that your prayers for those who have been called to work in the Lord’s fields and your giving to support them make a difference in God’s harvest. This I know.