A Life in Mission

It was 60 years ago. It was in the remote mountains of western China. It was about the Lisu people.

This is the setting of the book: Stones of Fire. Following the story of one young Lisu girl and her husband through marriage and parenthood, it brings out again and again the moral through the following statement: Principle shot through with passion, passion held by principle. Picture it like a wall of principle with an arrow thrust through it but held in place.

Isabel Kuhn and her husband, and a number of other missionaries went to Lisu land as missionaries from as far back as the teens of the twentieth century. They worked hard to spread the gospel in the mountains and valleys of Lisu land. The Lisu people were animists, unbelievers in God. But these missionaries brought the message of salvation to these unbelievers. Their hard work resulted in numerous baptisms through the years.

Today this country is closed to foreign missionaries. But because of the hard work of the Kuhns and other missionaries, 80% of the Lisu people in this country today are Christians. Because of the sacrificing labor of missionaries who took advantage of the window of opportunity to reach that people group…

There was a day when the Lisu tribe was unreached, but not today. There are many people groups today that remain unreached just as the Lisu were before the missionaries came to their mountains. A few are restricted and hard to access. However there are many people groups today for whom the window of opportunity is open, just as it was open for the Lisu people 60 years ago.

We have begun a new year. Consider for a moment the possibility that God may be calling you to go and work in an unreached people group… This year may be the window of opportunity for that people group. If He calls, will you go?

It’s been 6 years since I first became involved in overseas missions. I have no regrets for doing so. I’ve found many blessings and I’ve grown in many ways.

These years I’ve spent differently than most young people do. From age 20 to 25  is when most young people are in college or university studying hard and trying to figure out what they want to do with their life. But for me, I decided to spend those years, the spryest of my youth, differently. I spent them in gaining experience overseas, in learning by practical experience, growing by doing. I spent those years in the foreign mission field, doing whatever God set before me. I learned as much as I could, and did as much as I could. I felt the call to missions, and not only that, but to involve others in mission. The work is more than I could do, so I worked and still work, to spread the word of the need among the people of God. I didn’t spend every one of those years overseas, but I spent every one of those years involved in overseas missions in some way, mostly recruiting missionaries and working to spread awareness.

As the years have gone by, I have realized that my youthful vigor is being spent. I have at times stretched myself beyond what I thought I could do. I have seen God use me, such an impure vessel as I am, in His work in wonderous ways. As the years have gone by I realize that in some ways, my youth is going by as well. Don’t get me wrong, I know that I still have many years that I can serve for God. It’s just that I have to be more careful not to push myself too much.

I have largely taken the position that I don’t need a college education to be useful in God’s work, and to find opportunities to be used. I have found this to be  true in my experience. I have found so much work to be done that I can’t do it all; I can’t even do a little of it. What I can do is less than a drop in the bucket. The opportunities out there are far more plenteous in comparison to the workers available. However I realized recently in my own experience that considering what I was doing, namely management, that I could be much more effective if I knew more about what I was doing. I’ve never thought it was bad to go to college, but it has been a little shift for me to decide to go to college.

I have no regrets in spending my spryest young years in the mission field instead of college. One of the main reasons I did so is because that is the way that God led. He clearly led me to the mission field, and led me to be involved in missions when I wasn’t actually there. Now He has clearly led me to college. And I know that wherever He calls me, He will always give me the strength to do whatever He calls me to do. I have no regrets in spending my all for Him.