“Abraham answered, ‘God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.’ And the two of them went on together” (Gen. 22:8).

Was it really just the two of them? What thoughts cut through the heart of that old man of faith even as he gave Isaac that confident reply? It was just he and his precious boy, alone, trudging through the stillness up that barren mountainside. Or was it? No! It had to be three, or all was lost.

This story of Abraham, like many articles our AFM missionaries write, makes me imagine a three-legged stool—a very strange one that appears to be balanced precariously on two legs, its third leg nowhere to be seen. Would you sit on a three-legged stool that was missing a leg? You might break your neck! “Immortal, invisible, God only wise,” goes the old song. Immortal, only wise—that’s fine. But invisible? That’s a bit harder on the nerves. That makes our hearts flutter as we stand on the brink, ready to commit our full weight to something that looks impossibly dangerous.

The fact is, AFM missionaries only make plans that are incomplete without God. Sure, they could build their projects more like six- or five-legged stools so that, if the invisible leg went missing, everything wouldn’t crash down immediately. But they choose the three-legged recipe—the senders, the sent and the immortal Invisible. God’s miraculous power isn’t a pleasant, helpful surprise, it’s vital.

This is the nerve-wracking, faith-flexing journey God sent Abraham on, and the journey each of our frontier missionaries follows today. As you read Adventist Frontiers this month, I invite you to take the journey with them.

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