The Mission Society

Last week I attended the Evangelical Press Association’s conference in Colorado Springs. I know, it’s tough being me. On the opening night, Compassion International’s Dr. Scott Todd spoke on the topic of how the Church can end global poverty in our lifetime. Not if, but how we can do it.

On the plane home, I read his book 58: Fast Living. In it, Todd takes a look at extreme global poverty (the people living on less than $1.25 a day) and how the Church can bring an end to this suffering. Packed with statistics, research, and the reasons Todd believes the Church is the answer, the book is worth the read.

Todd says, “Today there are about 1.4 billion people living in extreme poverty (2005 data – latest available). And that’s good news. In 1981, 52 percent of the world’s population lived in extreme poverty. Today that number is 26 percent. …We have already cut the percentage of people living in extreme poverty in half! And we did it in one generation.” (pg 36-37)

The statistics, while still overwhelming and sad, are actually much better than I imagined. Todd said that most Christians are hesitant to say we can end global poverty, although people in Haiti and rural Ethiopia wholeheartedly believe it can be done.

The 138 million Christians in the United States make a combined income of $2.5 trillion dollars each year. If we were a country, we would be the seventh wealthiest country on earth. What we do with those resources and our influence are up to us. Todd’s website live58.org has different ways people can live a “fast” and help end global poverty. Take a look and see what ideas you have to end global poverty.

Do you think the Church can end global poverty in our lifetime?

The Mission Society will be sharing some articles from our newest issue of Unfinished on our blog. To read more articles, see the full magazine on our website.

In 2011, missionaries to Thailand, Chris and Dora Barbee welcomed into their lives their first child, Natalie. Since Roi Et is a relatively remote region, Chris and Dora traveled to Bangkok to have Natalie there.

Dora happened to choose a Christian OB/GYN in Bangkok, Dr. Cleopandh. At her appointments, Dr. Cleopandh would always tell Dora, “God will help you in delivery.” Natalie’s delivery had a lot of complications, and her heart rate dropped to dangerous levels. Chris and Dora recall that Dr. Cleopandh kept leaving the room when Natalie’s heart rate would drop, but they did not know why.

After Natalie was born, they found she had the umbilical cord wrapped around her neck three times. Dr. Cleopandh later told Chris and Dora that she had left the room to pray. She knew Natalie was in danger and was asking God to help her.

“I think it is amazing that God not only blessed us with a healthy baby, but He provided a Christian doctor, in a land where Christians are very uncommon, to help us pray!” said Dora.

In addition to serving as an OB/GYN, Dr. Cleopandh runs a home for abandoned children. She currently cares for 44 children and supports the ministry with her own income. You can read more about her work at www.chaiyaprukchildrenhome.com.

Chris and Dora Barbee have served in Roi Et, Thailand since January 2010. They teach English classes, music classes, and disciple Thai youth in their relationships with Jesus.

When I got home from work one night last week, I was elated at the thought that I did not have to be hovering over books and my computer screen, researching and writing. Though I love it, I also love just being home. Can you believe I couldn’t wait to scrub the floors? It was such a beautiful day out I grabbed the rake and didn’t let up for 2 ½ hours. It was so refreshing and energizing. Coming inside, I quickly scanned the house….for about the millionth time. And that was it. I couldn’t stand it anymore. I had to get that old table out of there – which meant rearranging the couches. And the desk. Well, shoot…I might as well just rearrange the whole room. But why stop there? I ended up completely switching rooms! The cool thing is, I accidentally created a beautiful space just for me to write and to worship! My hardly-ever-used room is now the one I covet to be in.

But what happened before I got to the “can’t stand it anymore” phase? There had been days, weeks, and even months that would go by when I would ponder, think, dream, plan, calculate, and envision and say, “Some day when I have time…” That day was not marked on my calendar. That day the rooms really weren’t ready for what I was about to do, but that day was the breaking point, and something had to be done. I couldn’t wait for tomorrow.

I imagine Moses felt the same way at one time. Bill Heibels relays the possible defining experience that Moses might have had that forced him into leadership. You see, Moses was watching his own people labor under difficult situations and being oppressed on a daily basis. He hurt for his people. And he got mad. Of course, after killing the abuser, he fled and hid in Midian. Not the end of the story! Forty years passed. Forty! But just when He couldn’t stand it any longer, God met Moses in the burning bush and poured out His heart to Moses. He, too, had been watching His people labor, being oppressed and living as slaves. And He had to do something.

I believe that the things that stir in the heart of God stir also in the hearts of His people. And He is waiting. And watching. And preparing. And looking for someone. And maturing them. And creating angst in their heart – a frustration, if you will – a holy discontentment. You may become frustrated with your job, with a relationship the way it is, with the Church, with society, with abuse, with no clean water, with lack, with no sense of purpose, with……..and the list goes on. You fill in the blank. One day, however, you will no longer be able to do nothing. Or say nothing. Because the heart of the Father and your own heart have become one. And He has created an avenue for you to be a voice and to make a change. The stirring in your heart will give birth to a vision. It will move you to action.

It can be exciting, and it can be scary. What will it cost you? I’ve walked with Jesus long enough to know that doing something, speaking up for justice, righting a wrong, creating healthy tension to “fix” a problem and simply obeying Him will cost you. It may cost you time, money, loss of relationships, loss of your job, and for some, loss of their own life.

You were born for greatness. You were born to make a difference. Wherever you are in the world, whatever you do day in and day out, whatever frustration or anger stirs within you because you see and hear things you wish you didn’t…there will come a time when God will stand and declare, “Enough!” And you will need to burst forth into action. I wouldn’t suggest killing the guy, like Moses did, but God will give you the strength and the wisdom to carry out His purpose.

“They cried out for help, and God heard their loud cries. He did not forget the promise he had made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and because he knew what was happening to his people, he felt sorry for them” (Ex 2:23-25, CEV). Who around you is crying out for help? And will you allow yourself to be the instrument for God’s deliverance? I’m writing this as I wrestle with these same questions and counting the cost. In honest love and true humility, let us yield our frustration to the One powerful enough to change lives and bring redemption to our brokenness.

A faithful priest named Zacharias had a change-agent son. Everyone assumed that his son, John, would someday follow in his dad’s footsteps as a priest. They all assumed he would manage the ritual purification at the many small pools in Jerusalem, or that he would maintain the order of worship at the Temple. Instead, John left the family’s priestly practice and became a prophet. John didn’t waste his time calling complacent people to wash in convenient small pools in the city; he sought intentional God-followers to leave their comfort zone and enter the wild. John didn’t waste his time maintaining an order of animal sacrifice; the fiery prophet cared more about seeing real people actually rending their hearts before God. John had initiated a radical new thing, a foretaste of our Messiah’s mission.

Just like John the Baptist, I want to be part of God’s wild adventure that sees changed hearts and lives. Don’t you? I have no interest in managing polite religious rituals while the Messiah beckons me to become his untamed agent of change. While some people worry about rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic, I want to be the one issuing life rafts. Each of us has a calling to join in the Messiah’s ministry, the wild adventure of proclaiming the name of Christ in places that have not yet heard. He calls us to step out of our own comfort zones in order to call people out of theirs. Yet some of us sit in religious programs or committee meetings and, deep down, wonder whether we are maintaining a religious institution rather than actually transforming the world. John’s radical new thing in the wilderness was in-step with the leading of the Holy Spirit. Do you sense the same Spirit leading you to move from a maintenance mindset into joining the Messiah’s radical mission of transformation in the world?

“So what do you want to do?”

I was on a double-decker bus with a Londoner, asking the question that would make anyone in transition cringe. His answer, a shrug of the shoulders and a look that said transition was just the beginning, and the beginning was a couple years back.

He replied, frustrated, “I just want to do something great for God.”

I’ve heard this from so many people – friends, interns, colleagues – over the years, and I sometimes get a little disheartened by this idea that God needs me to do something great in order to please him or to live my life fully. I have performance fears as well, it’s not just everyone else. I worry that I’m wasting time, or running around on too many different tracks, or that I’m not even headed in the right direction at all. All I want is for God to lean down and give me my gold star sticker just for making a good decision. I’m pretty sure if we’re honest, we all feel this way for some portion (or more) of our Christian life.

Colossians 3:17 (NCV) reads, “Everything you do or say should be done to obey Jesus your Lord. And in all you do, give thanks to God the Father through Jesus.” Some versions say we should do all “in the name of” Jesus.

What does this look like? In the life of a young doctor, facing the ethics of life and death and everything in between, how does obeying Jesus happen during his morning rounds?

I work in an organization that is faith-based and helps people to live out their God-given callings to love others in a cross-cultural context. If you met me on the street, you would probably call what I do a “ministry job.” While I would probably agree, I would also tell you that my days are filled with phone calls, budgets and expense reports, board reports, and even the occasional confrontation with a co-worker. How do I obey Jesus in everything I do at this place?

While there’s definitely some intentionality and practice required, I think it’s also a lot simpler than that.

On that bus in London, I asked another question. “Is the kingdom of God a part of you?”

He shrugged again and answered, “Yes.”

If that’s the truth, if the kingdom of God is inside each of us, then we show up for work. We show up, and God shows up with us. We long to be like Him, and He answers that desire by filling us with things we don’t naturally have – things like hope, patience, compassion, faithfulness, and love. In our showing up, we are working toward obedience to Jesus.

When I went to visit my mom in Ohio recently, I took one of two cassette tapes that had been mailed to me in the summer of 2003. My brothers received the same recordings. The tapes were from Mom, and they contained stories of her life. Nine years ago, she had taken it upon herself to record these stories, for which I am very grateful. She has dementia now and had a stroke last fall. Gradually, the person we have always known Mom to be is slipping away. Some of these stories would likely have been already lost to us if it weren’t for her initiative to make these recordings. I took the tape with me, because I wanted to listen with her to her reviewing her life.

Over the course of six days, we listened several times to the tape I brought. Because of her memory loss, each hearing was new to her. She didn’t realize that the person talking on the tape was herself, but she seemed to brighten up when she heard that woman’s familiar voice. At the same points in the tape, she would nearly always laugh or cry or would say, “That’s right.”

And at one point, we would both nearly always tear up. It was when she told the story of the Lord’s first “appearing” to her. She was about 12 years old, and the rural Eastern Kentucky community where she grew up was having its big annual festival. This particular year, it started to rain, so a crowd of people came to my grandparents’—a big house—for shelter. My grandmother wanted to be able to feed all her incoming guests, so she sent mom to the potato patch to dig more potatoes. It was nearly sunset. No one in Mom’s home ever attended church (although she had gone to Sunday school a couple times). But while she was gathering potatoes, she said, “All of a sudden, I realized I was not alone. I didn’t see a thing, but the presence of the Lord was so real, it was if He was standing there.

“I threw that hoe down,” she told. “I ran into the house, the tears just streaming down my cheeks. Mother was in the kitchen, over that hot, coal stove, and she saw me crying. I told her what happened. She took her apron and wiped her face off, and she took me into the living room, sat me down and said, ‘Honey there is a time in everybody’s life when the Lord comes to talk to them, and He has now come to talk to you, and you must listen and obey.’

“I went to bed that night,” Mom recounted, “and prayed as though I had prayed all my life.”

Mom would eventually go to a Christian college—Asbury—where she would meet my dad, who was preparing for the local pastorate in the Methodist church. Mom and Dad would serve together in pastoral ministry until his retirement.

Jesus, said, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him.”(John 6:44, NIV). All over the world, the Father is drawing people. I read on one website that Jesus is appearing in dreams and visions to so many Muslims that that particular ministry can hardly keep up with the stories. Like my grandmother who helped her 12-year-old daughter interpret her experience with the Lord, God’s people are sometimes being used by Him to help others understand that the loving “presence” they sense is their Savior. What a gift it is to be connected with the worldwide Body of Christ who is announcing Jesus!

Many times I’ve dreaded the idea of hearing God’s voice or I have a hard time believing it’s Him speaking. It was not until recently that He so kindly revealed to me: “My child, when I want you to know something, I make sure you know it; and I make sure you know it’s Me speaking.”

It was a Tuesday evening. I usually would head to a Bible Study on campus. For the past three weeks though, I had to go to work on Tuesday nights. That particular Tuesday, I didn’t have to go to work. However, I was feeling tired from having eight-hours of classes, lectures, tests, quizzes and everything else related to college. So I decided not to go. After class, I found my legs walking towards the direction of the Bible Study rather than my apartment. I asked myself, “What’s wrong? You decided not to go!” It felt like God wanted me there somehow. But I still redirected my feet to my apartment believing that rest is good, and skipping a Bible Study isn’t the end of the world.

The next day, as I was walking through campus (pardon me, there are 30,000 students that go to my university), I ran into one of the eight girls in the Bible Study group. We got to catch up and she explained to me how they talked about tithing and giving money back to God because he is the original source of it. I thought, “How interesting! I just got a job a month ago and am about to get my paycheck! I’m glad God reminded me to give.”

It was only a couple of days later until the message of giving money to God passed my memory. But He saw and still was merciful enough to remind me once again. Sunday at church, the whole sermon was about tithing and trusting God with our money by giving and seeing Him provide. I smiled to myself. I felt ready, spoken to, and willing to obey. All this was done by His Spirit; He prepared me and didn’t give up on me.

The LORD does not leave His children hanging and confused. God’s voice is clear, though as soft as a whisper at times, His voice is still powerful. His intent is to have you seeking Him with no doubt of His response to you. If you ignore Him once, He’ll come twice, and thrice, and so on. Our God’s love endures through our shortcomings, and never runs dry. This is why He is God and we are man. He is capable of pursuing everlastingly, while we have a limit. It’s another reason to rejoice in Him and be reminded that He is Holy, unlike us.

So trust Him. Trust His voice. Don’t beat yourself up wondering, “Was that God trying to tell me something? Am I listening? What’s going on?” Just trust and have faith.

I can hardly resist making a response when well-meaning individuals say: “I don’t see race. I just see people.” The statement, while it is intended to communicate one’s acceptance of people of all varieties, actually contradicts the way God sees people. In Revelation 7:9, the Apostle John sees a vision of heaven with people from “every nation, tribe, people, and language standing before the throne and before the Lamb.” How did John know that every nation, tribe, people, and language were present? Was it simply an inward knowing, or did he experience the vision in full color and sound? I believe it was a combination of both. John couldn’t have recognized every ethnic group in the world—which supports the former view—but he likely saw lots of skin colors, facial features, hair textures, which gave him a vivid illustration of the nations coming to worship the one true God. The whole vision up to this point has included imagery galore. Just take chapter 1, verses 12-16, as an example:

I turned around to see the voice that was speaking to me. And when I turned I saw seven golden lampstands, and among the lampstands was someone like a son of man, dressed in a robe reaching down to his feet and with a golden sash around his chest. The hair on his head was white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire. His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters. In his right hand he held seven stars, and coming out of his mouth was a sharp, double-edged sword. His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance.

“Golden,” “white like wool,” “face like the sun shining” – these are not black and white images. They are robust and full of color. It is therefore not difficult to conclude from John’s vision, which was indeed inspired by the Spirit, that God Himself sees in color.

God sees us in color. Why wouldn’t He? He is so descriptive of other aspects of His creation. Why wouldn’t he be descriptive of that which was made in His own image? God takes pleasure in His creation. He takes delight in the work of His hands.

Open your eyes! SEE ebony-colored people. SEE blonde hair. SEE hazel eyes. SEE thick lips. SEE narrow eyes. And then, PRAISE GOD! He is a wonderful Creator.

My daughter, Susanna, was playing in the backyard a few weeks ago. It was a beautiful Saturday and she was splashing in the little blow-up pool, running through the sprinkler, swinging on the swing set – just enjoying being a four-year old and the perfect spring weather. I brought out an orange popsicle to her after she’d been playing a while and we both sat down for a snack. She said, “Now I have a better life.”

Where does she come up with this stuff?!

I learned something from my child that day. I had been in the house cooking or cleaning or something else boring and important that I have to do. (Don’t worry – my husband was out in the yard with her.) But I stopped and stayed outside with my daughter and played on the swing set for a while. And I had “a better life” then too.

My sweet girl doesn’t have to worry about paying bills, work deadlines, and so many other things we all deal with. Thank goodness she just gets to be a kid and play and jump in mud puddles. I need to remember that more often when the stresses of life creep in on me. “A better life” usually means putting down my work for a little while and playing with my kids. Not all of the striving and working and pushing that I resort to so often. After all, it’s the popsicles in the backyard, picking strawberries at a farm, and building sand castles at the beach that they’ll remember. And that I’ll remember.

Jesus invites us to a better life as well. “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” (John 10:10b NIV) Jesus wants more from us than our striving too. More than the American Dream. More than we want for ourselves. He invites us into a relationship with the Creator of all things. And, at the end of our lives, we’ll probably remember the times He spoke to us, the things we learned from Him, when we allowed Him to use us for His glory, how we enjoyed the wonder of His creation. Those things that make life with Jesus so much better than life without Him.

My quiet reading time was continually being interrupted by the whirlwind of action going on around me. As I sat in the sunshine and read my book, my daughter was scooping up water in her cupped hands and trying to walk as fast as possible toward her best friend, Charlotte, without spilling the water. Charlotte was not as keen on the likely outcome of this idea, and continually ducked and scurried out of reach just as the water leaked out of Sarah’s cupped hands. Frustrated, she would run back to the water bucket, cup her hands, and again scoop up as much water as possible, turn, and speed walk again in the direction of Charlotte.

“What exactly are you trying to do with the water?” I asked.

“I’m trying to baptize Charlotte,” was the innocent answer. Now, at this point in the story, I should probably tell you that Sarah’s best friend Charlotte is actually a dog. Sarah continued with her quest to carry the water to Charlotte and ‘baptize’ her.

I smiled and considered the scene that I was watching. Sarah was chasing down her target, and Charlotte was doing everything she could to stay just out of reach of the water.

“Sarah, it doesn’t appear to me that Charlotte actually wants to be baptized,” I said.

“Well why not? It’s just water,” she argued.

Eventually, Sarah was able to coordinate the carrying of the water, the fast walking, and the cornering of Charlotte. Charlotte was ‘baptized’ in the corner of the yard when she finally had nowhere else to turn. Poor thing… cowering in the corner, she relented to the inevitable and played along, allowing Sarah to dump water on her head (just a couple of tablespoons, by the time she finally captured her). Sarah was quite proud of herself and decided to go for a second baptism, this time setting her sights on our big yellow lab.

“Sarah, why are you baptizing the dogs?”

“Because that’s what we need to do.”

“But why? What is baptism?” I probed.

“It’s when you put water on someone’s head,” she said, looking at me like I had suddenly lost my memory and had gone temporarily insane.

“But why? Why do you put water on their head?”

“I don’t know. You just do,” was the innocent reply.

Oops… somewhere we missed a very important explanation and teaching point! So I began to explain about baptism and what it means and the symbolism surrounding it. And finally, I explained that you can’t force baptism on anyone – it is a personal decision. You can’t just attack someone with water when they are cornered and have no way out. It is a personal discussion with Jesus and a personal choice to accept Him in your life. Sarah sat and listened and pondered all that was said. Her response to the lesson was, “Well, I’m sure that if Charlotte could talk, she would say that she wants Jesus to be her Father. So, I’m baptizing her.”

Well… okay. Who am I to stand in the way of an eight-year old missionary determined to bring her best friend into the Kingdom?