I mentioned a work that was coming to a critical point in my last blog post. The SL people have now heard the Gospel. They heard if after going through 74 lessons that told the story of God’s love from Creation all the way to Christ. That’s a lot of days of teaching, and a lot of waiting on the part of the people listening. It took years for the missionaries to get to the point where they could communicate this message in the SL language and in a culturally-appropriate way. It took years for the SL people to learn to read in anticipation of having the Word of God. And it is now taking lots of conversations and re-iterations of the truth to determine who has understood the Gospel. It will take future years for growth.
A new church has been born because of the work of God in people who recognized the urgency of the Gospel for the whole world and because of their patience in learning and teaching. What a dichotomy…patience and urgency.
This is not my realization. It is just an application of patience and urgency as described in an article about missions by Josh Manley, who has expressed this dichotomy very clearly. (https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/be-patient-missions-is-urgent)