Allow me to expand upon the concept of the three-fold cord of missions (Ecclesiastes 4:12) referenced in my earlier post.
Those Who Pray
I can remember my Junior year of High School as a young Christian doing a report on Uganda for a world history project. I was so moved by the plight of this country that I began to pray for it every day. I wrote the Baptist Mission Board, and they sent me the name of a missionary from Uganda. I would write him, and he would write me back. I would receive this beat up, blue, international mailing letter with many stamps and smudges. I would open it up, and there in the faded print of a manual typewriter would be a letter from my missionary. “Dear John, As I type this letter by the gas light I can hear a leopard calling in the dark. Thank you so much for praying. Here are a few more requests...” Oh the joy of getting on my knees there by my bed in Houston, Texas and praying for this missionary and Uganda! Oh the greater joy some 35 years later, when God made it possible to preach and teach the holy, inerrant, eternal, written Word of God at the University of Kampala in Uganda!
Those who pray are helping in the ministry as if they were actually there.
On the ministry trip to Uganda mentioned above, I had an allergic reaction to my malaria medication which found me lying in the dirt on the side of a rural road in Uganda with my heart stopping and starting. When I returned home, Eleanor asked me if anything unusual had happened. It seems Celia Williams, wife of my good friend William Williams, had woken up at 4 a.m. with a burden to pray for me. She had gotten William out of bed, and they had prayed. Eleanor had the same experience and related this to Celia who had called that very morning to see if anything had happened. If you work the time zones, it turns out that while I was lying in the dust in rural Uganda, my heart stopping and starting, God was waking my wife and my prayer warriors to sustain me. I praise God for Eleanor, Celia, and those who sustain this ministry thought their prayers (2 Corinthians 1:11 & Romans 15:30).
We are commanded by God to engage in this ministry of intercession.
After getting involved with the Navigators at the University of Texas, I was encouraged by Sam Clark, missionary to Mexico, to start a prayer notebook. One important section of this notebook is my intercession section. In addition to my family, here I have pictures of friends, ministers and missionaries throughout the world for whom I pray daily (Ephesians 6:18; Colossians 4:2-3).
Paul relied upon the intercessions of his team to sustain him in the ministry.
Often while on mission trips, we are at the point of despair, but we remind each other that our prayer warriors are faithfully praying. This thought came to mind as the little Toyota I was in had become lodged under an 18 wheel Texaco gas truck, and we were being dragged along. Eleanor reminded me of this one year when we were stuck in “No Man’s Land” between Belarus and Lithuania in a blinding snow storm. Every time we cross the border, every time we wait to see if that last box of Bibles and aid will come off the conveyor belt, and every time we are stopped at a police check point, we remind ourselves, “Our prayer warriors are praying” (Philippians 1:9; 2 Thessalonians 3:1; Philemon 1:22).
Those Who Give
I can remember my first student conference. A missionary, Tom Eynon, was being sent to Taiwan and then on to Hong Kong. An appeal was made for support. I had worked hard all summer so my college was paid for with a little left over. I knew that if I made a pledge, I would have to take a job at school, something I had worked hard at to avoid. However, the chance to be involved in the next mission wave to China could not be passed up. I remember how important it was for me in my Christian life to write out that check every month and send it in for Tom and his ministry in Taiwan. Now I was not just praying for missionaries, I was actively participating in their material needs. The letter Tom sent telling how my small gift was reaching the Chinese was a great encouragement and stimulus to me in my Christian life as a University student. It caused me to begin looking at international students on campus in a new way, and I began to pray for African and Chinese students to whom I might witness and minister.
As in prayer, those who give become co-laborers in the ministry.
Did you ever feel that life passed you by? Perhaps you received Christ late, perhaps you have family constraints, perhaps you have health constraints, or perhaps you are neither gifted nor called. You can still go. Your checkbook or your debit card is your passport to world missions. My good friend Sheldon Hdogson reminded me of this. I once mentioned to Sheldon that he should join me on a mission trip. Sheldon in turn reminded me that he had been on every mission trip I had ever taken since our first Bible study. He reminded me of his prayers and gifts. You know, I should listen more carefully to my own sermons because that is exactly right. By giving and praying, Sheldon is as much a part of our mission work as we are. In God’s eyes, each of these contributions is equal. They require equal diligence and equal sacrifice; they reap equal rewards (2 John 1:6-8).
By giving we are adding an international element to our spiritual portfolio (Matthew 6:20-21).
Paul relied on this ministry (Philippians 4:18). We participate in giving through our church (Philippians 4:15-16). We participate in giving to individual missionaries (Philemon 1:1, 7, and 22).
Those Who Go
We can all go. You can go physically like Eleanor and I, but that is not always God’s will. Often family, health, responsibilities, and circumstances close this door to some. Yet, we can still all go. We can go through prayer, and we can go through our gifts. This is not simply motivational exaggeration. God the Holy Spirit has no need of such tactics, nor would I stoop to them. Rather, it is the clear teaching of the Word of God. We see this truth illustrated in David’s army. Those who went out to battle and those who kept the supply lines open were to share equally. They were to share equally in the responsibilities and they were to share equally in the rewards (1 Samuel 30:22-25).
This same principle is true today. Those who Go, Those who Pray, and Those who Give all share equally. They share equally in the responsibilities. They share equally in the faithfulness. They share equally in the sacrifices. And they share equally in the rewards. For this reason, God the Holy Spirit assures us in Philippians 4:17 “not that I seek the gift itself, but I seek for the profit which increases to your account.”
By His mercy, II Corinthians 4:1 Rev. John S. Mahon Grace Community Int. - Preparing to depart for Cameroon
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