Encouraging the Next Generation of Goers

Before we were married, my wife Sylvia and I both felt called into foreign missions. It was one of the things that brought us together as a couple. After Bible college I served in a church as Assistant Pastor to get more ministry experience. At a missions’ conference in our church, we heard a missionary from Papua New Guinea speak. Someone in the audience commented that he must “love the people,” to which he gave a stunning reply. He wasn’t there because he “loved the people,” even though he did. He was there out of obedience to God’s call. I was convicted! Sylvia was also convicted. That sparked our original conviction as a couple to pursue our call to missions.

We arrived in Emilia Romagna, Italy, November 24, 1982, my 29th birthday. After pushing our family through language school in Florence, we moved to the province of Modena. We used about every tool possible to proclaim the gospel in different ways at different times—Christian radio, home visits and door-to-door evangelism, open-air preaching, delivering weekly evangelistic letters to every door in town, home Bible studies, children’s clubs, and so on. A few individuals and couples came to Christ, and a small home church was established. After a decade we served four years at Black Forest Academy in Germany, then returned to Italy for another stint in Bologna. We opened a meeting point, Punto d’Incontro, from which we proclaimed the gospel through offering services to the public. Those last seven years in Italy were some of our most fulfilling.

If you are considering entering the mission field, this is my encouragement for you:

1. You can do this. If God has called you to missions, you can do this. More precisely, He will accomplish this through you. God’s will, done in God’s way, will never lack for God’s supply.

2. You get to be a part of an amazing community. Statistics are often quoted about how many billions have yet to hear the gospel message. It’s daunting. It’s overwhelming. However, as you go, don’t forget there have been many places of great progress for the gospel. For example, Ecuador, where I was born, had one of Avant’s first and largest fields. Today, they only have two missionary couples. Why? It’s not that the job is done, but that the church there is strong and sending its own missionaries to other parts of the world. You may or may not see great personal success, but you get to be a part of an amazing community of gospel proclaimers, disciples, and church planters.

3. The amazing benefits of raising third-culture children. If you have a family, please let me encourage you to not let the challenge of raising a family overseas overshadow the privilege and amazing benefits of raising third-culture children. With God’s help you can bring them to adulthood with a deep appreciation for both their home culture and their adopted culture. It’s not a choice between family and ministry. They can both be ministry triumphs.

I am grateful for the privilege to serve together with my wife. I’m grateful for the work Christ has done in my own life. I am grateful to make trips overseas and find many we ministered to and with still walking with Jesus. I’m grateful for four children who walk with Christ, who married spouses who love Jesus, and who have given us 14 grandchildren whom we pray will all walk with Christ. Missionary life and ministry played a huge part in that legacy.

I am so grateful for the privilege to serve Christ, and to have obeyed that call to ministry