Doing One Thing Right
Charles Malik, Lebanese ambassador to the United Nations, asked in a speech: “What has been the greatest American contribution to the rest of the world? Has it been money? Has it been food? Has it been medical skill? Has it been military might? Has it been industrial know-how?” Then he answered: “The greatest thing to come out of America has been the American missionary effort: the quiet, selfless men and women who have left the comfort and security of their homeland to bring the gospel of Christianity to less favored nations.”
Who Is a Missionary?
For a helpful look at what or who a missionary is or should be, I recommend A Hitchhiker’s Guide to Missions, by Ada Lum. Lum gives some helpful definitions and analysis of just what the missionary enterprise is all about. “A missionary is a prepared disciple whom God sends into the world with His resources to make disciples for His kingdom.” She suggests six biblical images:
- A Witness, Acts 1:8; Isaiah 43:10-12
- An Evangelist, Luke 2:10-11; Acts 11:19-21
- A Pioneer, Hebrews 12:2; Acts 20:22-24
- A Herald, 1 Timothy 2:7; 2 Timothy 1:11, 4:2
- An Ambassador, 2 Corinthians 5:20; Ephesians 6:19-20
- A Servant, 1 Corinthians 4:1; 2 Timothy 2:24
Lum points out similarities between Jesus and Paul in Preparation and in Ministry.
Similar Preparation: They had a deep sense of commission, they were well trained by life, they were full of the Spirit and they each had the heart of a servant.
Similar Ministry: Their message was reconciliation to God, they had a worldwide vision, they had a strategy, they focused on basic ministries, they trained disciple makers to carry on the work, they were men of perseverance, they were part of a team, they were men of compassion, and they were men of passion.
A Losing and Finding Oneself
Here is the losing and finding of life in a person. Marian Preminger was born in Hungary in 1913, raised in a castle with her aristocratic family, surrounded with maids, tutors, governesses, butlers, and chauffeurs. Her grandmother, who lived with them, insisted that whenever they traveled, they take their own linen, for she believed it was beneath their dignity to sleep between sheets used by common people.
While attending school in Vienna, Marian met a handsome young Viennese doctor. They fell in love, eloped, and married when she was only eighteen. The marriage lasted only a year, and she returned to Vienna to begin her life as an actress.
While auditioning for a play, she met the brilliant young German director, Otto Preminger. They fell in love and soon married. They went to America soon thereafter, where he began his career as a movie director. Unfortunately and tragically, Hollywood is a place of dramatic illustrations of people “biting, devouring, and consuming” one another. Marian was caught up in the glamour, lights, and superficial excitement and soon began to live a sordid life. When Preminger discovered it, he divorced her.
Marian returned to Europe to live the life of a socialite in Paris. In 1948 she learned through the newspaper that Albert Schweitzer, the man she had read about as a little girl, was making one of his periodic visits to Europe and was staying at Gunsbach. She phoned his secretary and was given an appointment to see Dr. Schweitzer the next day. After a visit, he invited her to have dinner at his house. By the end of the day, she knew she had discovered what she had been looking for all her life. She was with him every day thereafter during his visit, and when he returned to Africa, he invited her to come to Lambarene and work in the hospital.
Marian did—and found herself. There in Lambarene, the girl who was born in a castle and raised like a princess, who was accustomed to being waited on with all the luxuries of a spoiled life, became a servant. She changed bandages, bathed babies, fed lepers and became free. Marian wrote her autobiography and called it All I Ever Wanted Was Everything. She could not get the “everything” that would satisfy and give meaning until she could give everything. When she died in 1979, the New York Times carried her obituary, which included this statement from her: “Albert Schweitzer said there are two classes of people in this world—the helpers, and the nonhelpers. I’m a helper.”
Send More!
Alexander Mackay of Scotland was sent to Africa by the Church Missionary Society (Anglican) in 1876. He was an engineer by profession and a jack of all trades who was conversant in linguistics and theology. Mackay’s heart was set on Africa and at last the call came. On November 15, 1875, a letter appeared in the columns of the Daily Telegraph. It was from H. M. Stanley, the famous explorer who had found Livingstone, and it told of the needs of the ancient kingdom of Uganda.
“Here, gentlemen, is your opportunity,” it concluded. “Embrace it! The people on the shores of the Nyanza call upon you.”
At age twenty-six Alexander Mackay headed for Africa. But before he left he and the seven other missionaries who were bound together for service in Africa met for a farewell meeting with the committee of the Church Missionary Society.
Each of the missionaries said a few words, the last speaker being the youngest of the party, Alexander Mackay. There was a stillness in the room as the erect young Scot spoke:
“There is one thing,” he said, “which my brethren have not said, and which I want to say. I want to remind the committee that within six months they will probably hear that one of us is dead.”
All eyes were fastened on him as he went on: “Yes, is it at all likely that eight English men should start for Central Africa and all be alive six months after? One of us at least—it may be I—will surely fall before that. But when the news comes, do not be cast down, but send someone else immediately to take the vacant place.”
Mackay’s words were still ringing in the directors’ ears when the news came that one of the eight had died. A ghastly total of five of them succumbed to the African graveyard in the first year, and by the end of the second, Mackay was the only one left.
Jonathan Goforth—The Spirit of Caleb
Some years back, there was a missionary with the same kind of persevering passion as we find in Caleb in the Book of Joshua. His name was Jonathan Goforth—of China. At an advanced age his mission was turned over to the United Church of Canada. He was now separated from his life’s labor in China. His wife was weak with illness, and he was accompanied by two lady missionaries who were now semi-invalids and a young man who did not know the languages. Closed doors and nothing but difficulties surrounded him. But at age seventy when most are retired or dead, Goforth set out for a new field to preach the name of Christ where it had not been named. Goforth tried to enter five different fields in Manchuria—and every door closed. But his faith was steadfast. Then came a call to northwest Manchuria, and another miracle of modern missions took place. In a few short years, almost two thousand people came to Christ through his ministry—when all doors seemed shut.
The Power of Being
Legend has it that a missionary, lost at sea, was by chance washed up out of the sea on the edge of a remote native village. Half-dead from starvation, exposure, and sea water, he was found by the people of the village and was nursed back to full health. Subsequently, he lived among these people for twenty years. During the whole of that time, he confessed no faith. He uttered no songs. He preached no sermons. He neither read nor recited any Scripture. He made no personal faith claim. But when people were sick, he attended them, sitting long into the night. When people were hungry, he gave them food. When people were lonely, he was a source of company. He taught the ignorant. He was a source of enlightenment to those who were more knowledgeable. He always took the side of those who had been wronged. There was not a single human condition with which he did not identify.
After twenty years had passed, missionaries came from the sea to the village and began talking to people about a man called Jesus, and after hearing of Jesus, the natives insisted that he had lived among them for the past twenty years. “Come, we will introduce you to the man about whom you have been speaking.” The missionaries were led to a hut, and there they found their long-lost fellow missionary whom they had thought dead.