When I was growing up some of my buddies dreamed of someday being in the NBA mimicking the skills of Michael Jordan. Others planned on playing professional baseball along side the likes of Oral Hershiser. And though I had my share of fantasy winning buzzer shot baskets, more of the “when I grow up” dreams was about being a missionary hero in the class of David Livingstone and Hudson Taylor. I figured I would be swinging on vines through the jungles saving thousands of souls as I went.
The reality is, none of my friends are professional athletes and I am not that missionary superhero I once envisioned. The truth is that the life of being a missionary in the jungles has been tough, the work is hard, and the results are not what I had hoped. It has required blood, sweat and tears and still the masses seem uninterested at best if not oppositional.
Don’t get me wrong, there have been lots of good things happening and I love to write and share those highlights when they happen. We have been blessed to be able to see some fruit from our ministry for which we are thankful, but the road has not been without its ups and downs. It’s been 2 steps forward 1 step back. It has been filled with heartbreak and disappointment.
I often wonder how Jesus felt when the religious leaders disregarded his message and did not see him for who he really was. I wonder if he was disappointed when the 70 left him when his teaching became tough. And even though Jesus knew from the beginning, I wonder if it was hard for him to see 1 of the 12 betray him to the enemy. Yet Jesus continued on to do the will of the Father, even to the point of death. Though the masses rejected him, he still came as a missionary sent by God to save a dying world through his own death on the cross.
And though the world had rejected him, when the Son of God returned to his throne, he had accomplished the will of his Father, and he had left the life-giving message to a small group of disciples to carry on to the nations and to teach others. And so today, that message of God’s free gift of salvation through Christ’s death for our sins has been passed on to us. And so it is with joy that I continue to labor and strive to pass this message on to a group of Patpatar disciples who can then pass it on to others.
Video – One of our friends was able to post a 1 minute video that we made called “Making Disciples.”