The Spirit of Christmas
Almost Christmas. I'm on the second leg of the return flight to Seattle from Springfield, MO. So much seen, so much heard, and now it's time to assimilate the data. I had a chance to visit the missions archives twice. The second time, the files have been pulled so I get right to work.
I'm looking for three case studies of Pentecostal missionary women: how did their experience inform their life and ministry? Reading reports and letters from Upper Volta (West Africa) and North India, China, and Japan, I'm stunned by the hardships the women took for granted. They expected to suffer, and suffer they did.
They tramped miles of jungle and mountain paths to remote areas. They learned new languages and developed writing systems so they could teach locals to read scripture. They expected God to transform societies, and watched villages change from war zones to peaceful communities. Miraculous healings (from TB, leprosy, and deformities) and desperate illness and death coexisted side by side. "Please pray for us. We lose at least one missionary a year to malaria," someone wrote from Liberia.
I read lists of missionary appointments: "Arrived on the field 1915. Died 1918." "Arrived on the field 1919. Died 1920." "Arrived on the field 1920. Retired 1957." Long columns lists names and dates of retirement or death. Old people, finishing a lifetime of telling the Story. Young people in their prime and entire families, wiped out.
From India comes one glowing report from Dr. and Mrs. T. who are planting churches. They love what they're doing and sense God's blessings during the hardships of getting to know the culture. The next letter from Sister T says her husband Dr. T has died of influenza. "Pray that I can provide for our four young children. I am staying in place until the Lord speaks to me about my future. I love these people and hope I can stay to serve them." Her children are aged 18 months to 8 years.
The follow-up a few months later from a single, female coworker, says, "Mrs. T passed away of influenza. I arrived to help with the children when I heard she was ill. Pray for me. What will we do with the children?"
And finally, "Their grandmother has come from Australia and taken the children home with her. Thank you for your prayers over the past few months for this family. I am going back to work in my area." Of course, the time lag for a letter to home can be months. I wonder how people reacted to the sad news. My heart fills with sorrow and awe at their stamina, even ninety years later.
I'm asking this week, how does Christ make a difference? Am I willing to be mocked as a narrow-minded plebian by pluralists in Seattle? The man who sits beside me on the airplane tells me a story of one relationship after another, one pleasure after another. And no satisfaction or resting place. He is stuck on the Catholic Church as colonial imperialists and soured by his father's resentment at the forced conversion of his family generations ago, from the Brahmin caste of India.
He cuts our conversation short when we begin to talk about Christ. He turns away, shuts me out, and I all I can do is pray: May God find you and give you the love, joy and peace in a transformation from darkness to light.
Like many others whom I've met and chatted with before Christmas, Glen will be in ongoing prayers over the Christmas season. Who--or what--are you praying for today?
Read more:
*Look straight ahead and fix your eyes on what lies before you. Mark out a straight path for your feet; stay on the safe path. Don't get sidetracked; keep your feet from following evil. Proverbs 4:25–27 NLT
*He will give eternal life to those who keep on doing good, seeking after the glory and honor and immortality that God offers. Romans 2:7 NLT
*So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ. Romans 10:17 NLT
*So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love. 1 Corinthians 13:3 NIV
I'm looking for three case studies of Pentecostal missionary women: how did their experience inform their life and ministry? Reading reports and letters from Upper Volta (West Africa) and North India, China, and Japan, I'm stunned by the hardships the women took for granted. They expected to suffer, and suffer they did.
They tramped miles of jungle and mountain paths to remote areas. They learned new languages and developed writing systems so they could teach locals to read scripture. They expected God to transform societies, and watched villages change from war zones to peaceful communities. Miraculous healings (from TB, leprosy, and deformities) and desperate illness and death coexisted side by side. "Please pray for us. We lose at least one missionary a year to malaria," someone wrote from Liberia.
I read lists of missionary appointments: "Arrived on the field 1915. Died 1918." "Arrived on the field 1919. Died 1920." "Arrived on the field 1920. Retired 1957." Long columns lists names and dates of retirement or death. Old people, finishing a lifetime of telling the Story. Young people in their prime and entire families, wiped out.
From India comes one glowing report from Dr. and Mrs. T. who are planting churches. They love what they're doing and sense God's blessings during the hardships of getting to know the culture. The next letter from Sister T says her husband Dr. T has died of influenza. "Pray that I can provide for our four young children. I am staying in place until the Lord speaks to me about my future. I love these people and hope I can stay to serve them." Her children are aged 18 months to 8 years.
The follow-up a few months later from a single, female coworker, says, "Mrs. T passed away of influenza. I arrived to help with the children when I heard she was ill. Pray for me. What will we do with the children?"
And finally, "Their grandmother has come from Australia and taken the children home with her. Thank you for your prayers over the past few months for this family. I am going back to work in my area." Of course, the time lag for a letter to home can be months. I wonder how people reacted to the sad news. My heart fills with sorrow and awe at their stamina, even ninety years later.
I'm asking this week, how does Christ make a difference? Am I willing to be mocked as a narrow-minded plebian by pluralists in Seattle? The man who sits beside me on the airplane tells me a story of one relationship after another, one pleasure after another. And no satisfaction or resting place. He is stuck on the Catholic Church as colonial imperialists and soured by his father's resentment at the forced conversion of his family generations ago, from the Brahmin caste of India.
He cuts our conversation short when we begin to talk about Christ. He turns away, shuts me out, and I all I can do is pray: May God find you and give you the love, joy and peace in a transformation from darkness to light.
Like many others whom I've met and chatted with before Christmas, Glen will be in ongoing prayers over the Christmas season. Who--or what--are you praying for today?
Read more:
*Look straight ahead and fix your eyes on what lies before you. Mark out a straight path for your feet; stay on the safe path. Don't get sidetracked; keep your feet from following evil. Proverbs 4:25–27 NLT
*He will give eternal life to those who keep on doing good, seeking after the glory and honor and immortality that God offers. Romans 2:7 NLT
*So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ. Romans 10:17 NLT
*So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love. 1 Corinthians 13:3 NIV
