Hearing about missions

I’ll never forget George Verwer talking about the word “dichotomy,” how there is a dichotomy between what we say we believe and how we actually live it out. And then he challenged us all to go out and get involved in missions.

At the end of the summer of 1969, there were five of us left, and we went out one last time distributing Bibles. And we were arrested one time. That summer, I was arrested 11 times. And that last time we were given a five-year sentence in prison.

In our cell was a big, burly man we called “the bear” who, in a fit of rage, had killed five people with an ax. As we shared the Gospel with him, he wept for his sin. I’ll never forget him saying that in Islam, there is no forgiveness for sin; there is only the weighing of your good deeds against your bad deeds. He said, “I know going to hell. I have no hope.” As we shared the Gospel about Jesus dying for our sin, and that there is forgiveness before God, he wept for his sin.

Six months later, that city was struck by a massive earthquake, and that prison was flattened. I’ve never forgotten his tears and God’s sense of timing.

For ten years, I worked in Vienna building smuggling vehicles to smuggle Bibles behind the Iron Curtain.

Our team gave my wife and I a double sleeping bag as our wedding gift.

Missions in 1970 communism

It was all a very confrontational time between the West and the Communist countries.

We didn’t talk politics; we talked Jesus.

The evil one is out to destroy. And when you think of the communist countries, it was all about the Church, and the Bible was seen as enemy number two; number one would be America and the West.

The Bible and the Church; anything Christian was seen as the primary enemy.

It was illegal to educate a child under 18 years old about anything from the Bible or the Christian faith.

Christians learned to live a double life: the public life and their private life. There was no trust.

There were Christians and pastors who were prepared to live secretly and preach the Gospel secretly.

Most of the leaders of the Reformed Baptists had been in prison for eight to 20 years. Many of the leaders would live in total secrecy. They had no public identity at all and would live in hiding their whole life so they could lead their church.

Sunday school material was illegal.

When Communism Fell

When governments began to loosen up, we went out with our teams and began preaching the Gospel openly on the streets.

We had done a lot of work in Romania. We said, “Now there is openness. We are going to go out and take Bibles openly and preach the Gospel.” So we sent team after team there.

As I look back on that, I didn’t realize what I was sending people into at the time.

We always said, “When is it time to preach the Gospel?” It’s time to preach the Gospel when things are breaking open. You need to strike while the iron is hot.

When prayers are answered

We had been praying for what all that God would do over all those years. We were fasting and praying regularly for the believers in Eastern Europe. When everything broke open, we said, Ok, are going to trust the Lord?

It was an amazing time. It was a book of Acts time.

It’s a time when you have to watch what the Holy Spirit is doing and be prepared to get involved, even when it means some danger.

From 1983 to 1989, we were smuggling 40 to 60 thousand Bibles at one time.

We wanted to see the Lord moving.

God was moving. God was giving us opportunities that were just mind-boggling. When everything broke open, we needed to be prepared to move.

1989 was the first Love Europe campaign. We bought five old buses for next to nothing and sent teams all over Eastern Europe. It was a book of Acts time.

Albania had been declared a fully atheist country.

We were out distributing Bibles, and people were flocking in to get them.

The Lack of Awareness Today

There is so little awareness of what God is doing around the world. There is such self-centeredness in the church.

What we are doing in our mission organizations around the world is super, but I don’t understand why there isn’t a bigger impact on the church.

It’s our responsibility to share with our churches back home what God is doing around the world. What God is doing in China, Iran, or North Africa. We need to know that and be prepared to get involved to send our young people to get involved in what God is doing around the world.

There is too much superficiality in the church today. There is a huge need for discipleship, which takes people beneath the surface and looks at what God is doing around the world.

We need to be reminded that we are not living in a nice, comfortable world where everything is going great. We are living in a war.

The fall of the communist governments did not mean that Satan is not vanquished.   

Some of those very churches we used to smuggle Bibles into are now becoming complacent.

We have very little understanding of what God is doing around the world, and no sense of responsibility.

The church in the West is consumed with pragmatism. Pragmatism says that the value of a thing is seen in its results. It’s a results-oriented approach to see what God is doing.

The problem with long-term commitment is pragmatism, which measures everything by its results. Well, if there are no results, what’s the value of it?

We were smuggling Bibles for 25 years and never had the opportunity to share the Gospel except for the few times when we were arrested.

You have to look at what God is doing in the long-term. You can’t be preoccupied with the immediate issue at hand. You have to be faithful to what God is doing in the long-term.

You have to be prepared to get involved where it’s taught.

**Polycarp was the pastor of Smyrna, not Ephesus

St Ignatius’ advice to Polycarp in 110 AD

“Focus on unity, for there is nothing better. Bear with all people, even as the Lord bears with you; endure all in love, just as you now do. Devote yourselves to unceasing prayers; ask for greater understanding than you have. Keep alert with an unresting spirit. Speak to the people individually, in accordance with God’s example. Bear the diseases of all, as a perfect athlete. Where there is more work, there is much gain. If you love good disciples, it is no credit to you; rather with gentleness bring the more troublesome ones into submission. Not every wound is healed by the same treatment…the time needs you (as pilots need winds and as a storms-tossed sailor needs a harbor) in order to reach God. Be sober, as God’s athlete; the praise is incorruptibility and eternal life.”

**The Great Persecution from 249-251, under Emperor Decius, created the Lapsarian Controversy over whether or not followers of Jesus who denied their faith in order to preserve their lives should be welcomed back into full fellowship with the church.

The problem with friendship evangelism is, when do you actually share the Gospel? You spend all your time building relationships, but you never actually get to the point of sharing the Gospel.

What we need is people who are willing to suffer for the Gospel.

Longevity on the field

To stay long-term in the field, you need perseverance and endurance.

We need to learn how to persevere through the tough times. I went through depression. I went through burnout. I went through a major division in our mission team. I went through all kinds of problems with our children. One of our adopted girls was selling herself out of the back of a car in Germany. What takes you through to perseverance in those times? You need to know your calling, and you need to know you are in a battle.

The call to a particular ministry might end, but not God’s call on my life to minister.

Over the years, you need to learn how to increasingly move back into your primary calling.

There is little follow-through to help leaders know what to do next after they no longer have their leadership positions.

Sometimes, once leaders lose their position, they feel like they have been abandoned.

Building resilience

The key to resilience is having the attitude of a growing, developing person.

One problem we face in missions is that we can squeeze our people dry like a sponge.

You have to have a long-term attitude.  Who do I want to be in five years? What do I want to do in ten years’ time? How do I need to develop? Develop myself. Develop my giftings. Develop my calling.

If you believe God has called you to long-term missions, you need to develop your gifts and calling.

You need to ask, How is God moving me? And if you’re married, you also need to ask, “How is God moving my wife?”

Confirming your calling

In my church in the West, there is no sense of the need.

Part of knowing your calling is knowing how God has gifted you.

Calling also means confirmation from your leaders and the people around you. People see that your calling is being confirmed.

There were some people whom we felt God was calling them to leave. But there were far more people left who we felt could have had a valuable ministry.

I would appeal to them and say, “This is not the time to leave. This is the time to move and get involved.”