Why North America?

Last week I had the opportunity to meet with a group of students interested in God’s work among the nations. Before the meeting someone asked me, “Why Uruguay?” This is a question that we regularly try to answer, and that I’ll try to review here in the near future.

But we’re not in Uruguay yet. It’s been helpful to me to work through a philosophy of why we’re doing what we’re doing right now, before making a permanent move to Uruguay. The full answer takes much more space, but here’s an attempt to summarize in a hundred words:

As a missionary teacher, my work is preaching the gospel and teaching the Bible, with the goal of strengthening Christians and churches. We are currently trying to serve in this way among a group of North American churches and Christian friends in preparation for doing the same in Uruguay. We have the added opportunity of recounting God’s works in Uruguay and requesting prayer. These activities then serve a secondary purpose of giving people opportunity to evaluate their sense of God’s calling and of our qualifications, resulting in their sending us (in various ways) and thus confirming God’s calling and leading.

(“And who is sufficient for these things?”)

BJU

It is not outside the purpose of this blog to mention at least once that I hope to be among the large group of BJU graduates who feel secure:

They’re secure enough on the one hand not to look for their identity in a school or movement, because they recognize there is a much greater Cause—that of Jesus Christ, His kingdom, and His gospel. They don’t follow Jesus as well as they should, but they’re sure they want to. And they have experienced God’s grace to help them do so.

They’re secure enough on the other hand not to grasp for position with others by looking for ways to criticize the school. Not everyone who openly criticizes does so from self-seeking motives; but the group I’m talking about is absolutely sure they don’t want that kind of politics. They see enough love of self in their own hearts, and they despise it—especially when it uses other Christians to push an agenda.

This is a group of people, I think, who have never thought their school was perfect, but who continue to support and appreciate BJU; and who honor the many faithful servants who directly and indirectly taught them.

Bob Jones University’s core values

Post by Deborah: "Beginning Year Two"

Mid-May of last year was a time of great emotion, reminiscent of high school or college commencement; we stood at a defining moment made up of an end as well as a beginning. We were leaving the predictability of life as we had known it in the Upstate to begin full-time travel, preparing for full-time ministry in Uruguay. Originally, our goal was to be in Uruguay in April 2011. We continue to trust God for His perfect timing...

In mid-May of this year, we were preparing to fly to Uruguay as short-term “furlough replacements” for my dad and stepmom. We returned from Uruguay in late August and began Year Two of full-time travel in September. We are currently at 43% of our targeted support level and prayerfully plan to be in Uruguay in mid-2012.

Year One was undoubtedly filled with “stretching” and learning opportunities. Our experiences have been – for the most part! – encouraging and enjoyable. I say “for the most part” because traveling with a four-year-old (now five) and newborn (now one) has certainly provided an array of often unexpected challenges. We continually find our Good Shepherd to be faithful for each step of the way; He is blessing us and providing our every need. His people have been very good to us, and we have enjoyed reconnecting with friends as well as forming new friendships with like-minded brothers and sisters who now pray specifically for us and for the ministry in Uruguay.

Our most recent travels took us from SC through the Mid-West to churches in CO, UT, ID, Alberta, and back through MT, UT, CO, and IA. After that last week of thirty hours in the car, we’re especially thankful for God’s grace and protection. And we’re content to be “sojourning” in South Carolina once again!

Elizabeth gets excited about real-life geography lessons!

(I do plan to post pictures of our trip – as time and the demands of getting resettled allow!)

As we continue this stage of our ministry, we recognize more than ever our need for God’s grace. Each day on the road offers new challenges, new opportunities for growth, and new mercies – all from the hand of our perfect and loving Shepherd. We’re thankful for His promises!

Will you pray for us?

The Law of the Yukon

On more than one occasion last month in Alaska, conversations turned to the needs in the villages. We want to see native churches led by native pastors. In the meantime, what seems to be at least one necessary element is the missionary willing to go for good, willing to be isolated, willing to feel the brunt of winter after dark winter; in short, willing to go there to die. And no doubt the romance of working in a northern village dies at the rate of six or seven minutes each day until the sun no longer rises and one realizes his need for Something greater than romance to sustain him.

At the risk of perpetuating a bit of romance, I quote Robert Service’s personification of the Yukon: “And I wait for the men who will win me—and I will not be won in a day” [HT: Jim Elliot, who acknowledged quoting the words “utterly out of context”].

The irony is that God has chosen the weak—in Service’s words, even “the dissolute, damned and despairful, crippled and palsied and slain”—made whole and strong by the gospel and empowered by grace, to make disciples in this land, by authority of the King of the land (Matthew 28:18-20).

I enjoyed reading the entire poem here.

The Bible and the Book of Mormon

When an LDS missionary comes to the door, Christians need to know this about them:

“Like most members of my faith I don’t take every word of the Bible literally, Old Testament or New. My embracing of the Bible allows room for human errors of translation or omission, or indeed of interpretation. In that, I’m typical of most Latter-day Saints” (Michael Otterson).

This makes me realize that I have to understand the Bible’s teaching about its own preservation. (In my view this providential preservation has taken place within the totality of the immense number of manuscripts available to us.)

But perhaps more significant than Otterson’s statement itself is that he says nothing comparable about the Book of Mormon, thereby leaving it in a position of superiority to your copy of the Bible.

His entire post is here.

Psalm 67

The first time I remember paying attention to Psalm 67 was when reading notes that Jim Elliot had made in his journals. Appropriate, considering his interest in the subject that interests the psalmist: the nations of the earth.

In the years following 9/11, nations new and ancient have occupied our attention: Iraq and Afghanistan, Russia and Georgia, Libya and South Sudan. Some nations, like South Sudan, should receive more of our attention.

If we would allow this psalm to renew our minds, our interest in these places would go beyond our own national security, beyond our questions about the economy and price of gas, and beyond even a love for democracy and freedom. The writer of Psalm 67 prays for the nations to be rightly related to God. How would this happen?

His first prayer is for God’s blessing on His people, the Jews, a blessing that he hopes will result in the nations’ praise of, fear of, and joy in God. We haven’t seen this yet. How would this happen?

The Queen of Sheba’s visit to Solomon piques our interest as we watch her observe God’s blessing on Israel and as she then praises Yahweh (2 Chronicles 9:1-8). But this leaves us unsatisfied. Has God answered the Psalm 67 prayer? What kind of blessing would result in the nations’ being rightly related to God?

The answer is found in the New Testament, where we read of God’s blessing on the Jews in the person of Jesus of Nazareth, the Messiah . . . “that the Gentiles (the nations) might glorify God for His mercy” (Romans 15:8-9). We wait to see further fulfillment of the psalmist’s prayer when Jesus will exercise His full, visible rule over this planet and its nations. But in the meantime, you and I as (mostly) Gentiles from the nations rejoice and glorify God for His mercy to us. Undeserved mercy! Why did we respond to the gospel when North Koreans will die without hearing Jesus? How will they call on someone whom they will never hear?

There is a right way to think about the nations of the earth. Jesus is the only way for these nations to be rightly related to God. We glorify Him for His mercy to us. And those mercies are adequate motivation for us to present our bodies in living sacrifice . . . that the nations might experience such mercy and thus glorify God. And South Sudanese brethren have known greater sacrifice.

Summer 2011 Report

We have returned to the U.S. following a three-month visit to Uruguay, which we began in late May. The primary reason for the trip was to oversee the ministry of Iglesia Bíblica Maranatha in the city of Pando while Don and Pat Garwood were in the U.S. for a short furlough. The Garwoods are Déborah’s father and stepmother and serve with Maranatha Bible Missions. Thank you for your part in sending us. We will continue to need your prayers.

The Garwoods have diligently worked for years on the side of railroad tracks that more or less form the boundary of a particularly difficult area of town. Some of these northern barrios tend to be known for crime and vice and are more economically challenged than are many other areas in Uruguay. Déborah’s brother (Daniel), and his wife (Viviana), faithfully help with morning Sunday school and the Sunday evening preaching service. For thirteen weeks we had opportunity to better acquaint ourselves with a group of people that came to one or more of the four regular weekly meetings. Don and Pat are eager for help in making disciples of these and other contacts.

Other towns across the Uruguayan pampas are in need of clear gospel testimony and sustained Bible teaching. In other nations the landscape is even bleaker. But we are encouraged by the condition of the Uruguayan churches, and we look forward to their being further strengthened and used by God to proclaim His glory in this region and elsewhere around the world. Our future ministry will focus on training laborers, as we work alongside these churches, national pastors, and faithful missionaries. The warm welcome we received from people—some connected to the EMU churches, others not—encourage us that there is a definite place for us here.

During these months John Mark attempted to emphasize certain themes (as did Déborah in a couple of encouraging, well-attended ladies’ meetings): understanding of the gospel, recognition of God’s control of everything (Dan. 4:35), and identification of God’s good purposes (Gen. 50:20; Rom. 8:28-30). We encouraged memorization of these verses and reading through the gospel of John. On our final Sunday evening, we heard testimonies of the Lord’s work in people’s hearts, followed by a time of food and fellowship they had planned.

We were also able to have regular contact with some of the EMU ministries: JM attended a couple of morning prayer meetings with the Montevideo-area missionaries, visited Camp Emmanuel, and sat in on a Bible institute class. Many opportunities arose to see other pastors and friends. We’re thankful for friendships strengthened, and we’re hopeful that the Lord will use in the future what we experienced these months. The primary benefit of our time in Uruguay may have been our own learning and the further preparation that it provided for our upcoming return. Please pray that we, along with Matías and Kristine Espinel, will be able to move permanently within this next year. We have reached 43% of EMU’s goal for our financial support; the Espinels are receiving 54%.

During the fall we will again travel to the western U.S. and Canada, beginning with three weeks in Alaska, where JM plans to visit churches, preach and teach, see friends, talk with pastors, and share information about the work in Uruguay. Please pray for encouraging services and conversations in which the Lord will accomplish His purposes among His people through His Word. Thank you for the many ways you encourage and help us.