Okay, okay! I know it sounds conceded and prideful but I'm serious. I truly am thankful for missionaries. We've just finished taking part in a missions conference with eight other missionary families (all giving their lives to go all around the world and share the Gospel)...eight families who we already knew before this week but now have become true friends...eight families that each have a story to tell of sorrow and heartache. Some of which I would like to share with you here.
One family going to Lithuania lost their oldest son two years ago just as they were begin deputation. While he was showering, right their in their home, he was fooling around and fell. He passed away right then and there! Can you imaging losing a child at all but especially in your home and in that kind of accident?
Then there's the family surrendered to Mexico. They have four children, three boys and one sweet girl named Lindsey. They've been on the field for nine years and Lindsey was born there. Now she is 6 years old, I believe. About two years ago she was riding with her dad on a four wheeler to deliver something to a fellow pastor. He was driving and she was sitting in front of him. They were traveling down a path they frequently used having a nice ride. Suddenly the dad saw up ahead that someone for some reason had stretched a string of bobbed wire across the path. They were headed straight for it and it was too late to stop. He held his legs out in an attempt to protect his little girl. The wire was old and rusted so it broke under the force. It sprang back and caught Lindsey across the throat...it almost killed her. She was in the hospital for months there in Mexico then here in the States. Two years later she is facing her eighth surgery...
There's also the story of the Baird Family, missionaries years ago to Jamaica. They aren't there now because the government forced them to leave. They wired their phone and accused Brother Baird of being a CIA agent. This is true, no joke! The authorities came to their home and told them they had to leave the country and could not come back. And on the same note, there's the story we heard from some missionaries in South America. They had shipped all their possessions to the country in a big container preparing to live there but the MAFIA confiscated the entire thing! They forced the missionaries to give them money
every month so they would not be harmed and could keep their own things. What could they do? God had called them there and they felt they couldn't leave.
There are many other things I could share, like the two families we know that have had miscarriages this pass year. And like the Haitian missionary that has been arrested twice and lost his home after buying it out right from the owner who was selling it.
My husband and I have been taught never to tell the bad side of missionary life but sometimes it takes the bad to cause us to appreciate others. And sometimes it takes the bad to cause us to appreciate our Savior. Without HIM, there would be no triumph in these sorrows. Behind each sorrow faced by these missionaries there are countless souls won for Him. This is the triumph! This is the victory!
Personally, sometimes it takes the bad to motivate me to be willing to sacrifice more. If others have lost so much and suffered such heartache, how can I not be willing to go?
What good gift has he given you today?
Matthew 7:11
Take care,
Kristy
Matthew 7:11
We leave for Arkansas tomorrow. We have two places to present our work (and show our new DVD) and one place we're just dropping in on. This trip will only last a little over a week but its exciting to hit the trail again.
Monday night Kenneth was excited because he had the opportunity to teach in Bible College here in Mississippi. He loved it! Several students told him how much they enjoyed his lecture and so did the college administrator (I'm not surprised). I wonder if he realizes he'll probably be teaching regularly at the Bible college in Kenya?
Monday night Kenneth taught and last night I got to teach! I shared a few moments with these lovely ladies at my home church during their monthly Ladies For Christ meeting. I don't speak often to ladies and I'm sure I don't do it very well but I'm thankful the Lord allowed me to serve him with a little of my TIME.
