They warmly invited me into their home, and I basked in their love for the unreached. The husband, though age has unsteadied his hands, is still steadfast in his desire to support missions. His hair is gray and wiry, but his eyes are bright, and his smile is youthful. He and his wife invited me to their home to become donors and give me two USB drives filled with useful information, resources and videos. One drive was a collection of resources for a church without a pastor, pianist, or children’s ministry leader. The second was designed to help teach English. We discussed how he is working to create a server for a school in Madagascar to aid teachers and students with studies and the Internet.
Touched by this man’s heart and the vibrant ideas flowing out of him, I asked, “So, you specialize in technology?”
He and his wife laughed. “Not at all!” she said. Then he explained that he hired a young man from across the street to help him execute his ideas. Though this man was too old to go overseas as a missionary, he had devised ways to bring a blessing to the unreached with the help of others.
Before I became a missionary, I never put active effort into foreign missions. I was too focused on home missions and felt that foreign missions was only for full-time missionaries. But Ellen White tells us, “Our burden for the ‘regions beyond’ can never be laid down until the whole earth shall be lightened with the glory of the Lord. The missionary spirit needs to be revived in our churches. Every member of the church should study how to help forward the work of God, both in home missions and in foreign countries…The church of Christ on earth was organized for missionary purposes, and the Lord desires to see the entire church devising ways and means whereby high and low, rich and poor, may hear the message of truth. Not all are called to personal labor in foreign fields, but all can do something by their prayers and their gifts to aid the missionary work” (Testimonies for the Church, Vol. 6, p. 29).
Not everyone is called to be a foreign missionary, but we are all called to carry the burden together. What if all church members were as intentional as this couple? What if prayer meetings were called for the unreached, or car washes done to raise funds for missions, or youth taught to aspire to become foreign missionaries? What if you became an advocate for foreign missions in your church? We all can do something for the “regions beyond.” Won’t you prayerfully ask God what you can do?
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