A story about my life as a missionary in Thailand.
When I was in Bible School we were made to say a prayer over ourselves every morning. It was quoted straight from the Bible, prayers which the Apostle Paul prayed over the churches he started. The concept of self-prayer is that you shouldn’t take a que sera sera attitude toward your future. If you don’t strive for God’s plan for your life, then you will simply float downstream, bumping into whatever gets in your path. I’d rather take a more proactive approach, actively seeking out what God has for me.
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July 22nd, 2007 · Permalink · Back to Top · Comments (5)
Today was a relatively short day. Short in comparison to the last two, that is. And I was completely happy with that. I hopped in my truck, and I headed home to boil up a fresh pot of rice. On the way I spotted a hitchhiker. And the strangest thing is I heard in my spirit that I should pick this man up. I used to be a Safety Officer for a local trucking company, so I’m quite safety-conscious. Picking up a fellow on the highway is not safe. Plus, I’m practically pedantic about traffic law, so my first thought was hitchhiking is illegal and I shouldn’t empower him to continue this practice. But almost immediately that thought was replaced with a burden to stop and get this guy. And as I continued driving (I drive really slow; this is nearly a real-time transcript) my heart started pounding, and I could hear God yelling at me, “Hey! You down there! I’m trying to tell you something!
” But I kept driving. And as I drove on by the man, I felt my stomach turn over in knots. I knew I had missed God.
I’m going to keep this short. But I want to encourage you to strive to obey God, no matter how odd or strange it may seem. The idea of picking this man up was the exact opposite thing I’d conjur. And the Devil sure didn’t want to help him. It had to be God. Perhaps the Lord wanted to show this man His love. Or maybe he had something to say to me. And, there might have been no other reason to pick him up besides practicing obedience to the Lord’s voice. There have been times in my walk with God that I suspected such! The most probable reason God asked me to pick him up, though? When I left my house later this afternoon, I noticed it had been raining where I’d seen him.
~Jonathan
July 13th, 2007 · Permalink · Back to Top · Comments (5)
Here’s a couple pictures my dad captured which I especially like.
~Jonathan
July 2nd, 2007 · Permalink · Back to Top · Comments (8)
I met a man the other day named William. At first, our conversation was about the mechanics of fitting a Pentel eraser to the aft end of a Zebra 301 pencil. But it soon turned toward God and the sheer goodness and awesomeness of His plan.
It’s always so refreshing to run across people like that, who take time out of their day to not only help you accomplish what you set out to do, but also make it simply pleasant. There’s nothing more energizing than talking about God!
I’ve been focusing lately on getting God in my conversations. I continually think nowadays about who around me needs what I have to give. Just asking someone where they go to church or telling them Jesus loves them can make their day. You have no idea the benefit it is for them when you take just a couple seconds to tell them about the Lord.
Something that seems so small and almost insignificant to us can be the world to the one you’re telling it to. For instance, the “God bless you” I said to Daniel. What does it cost you to ask a person if he knows Jesus? Or what liability is it to you to smile at them and tell the good news that Jesus loves them? Hardly any, but the returns are astronomical!
This past Sunday afternoon I had some time to myself and I spent it at the bookstore. I grabbed a couple of my favorite magazines and a Chai Latte, and I sat down for a treat. Then a fellow at another table spoke to me; John was his name. He asked me are those reading glasses I’m wearing? No, I said, and then the conversation turned almost immediately toward the Lord. I still don’t know how that happened.
But for the next thirty minutes or so we talked about God and our need to spread His love. We spoke earnestly—and with quite a bit of volume—about the call to take the Gospel to the lost. We lamented the state of Christianity, that no one cares about his fellow man’s eternity. We boldly spoke that the only way to salvation is through our Lord Jesus Christ. All of this at a coffee shop inside Borders.
I later attended a service at a nearby church. (We don’t have service on Sunday nights, so I wasn’t playing hooky!) Well, this church had a guest minister in, and boy, was he a fireball. He preached on being frozen in the fire. We Christians, if we don’t watch ourselves, can become complacent and lackadaisical with our relationship with God—even in the midst of revival. He gave some symptoms of a freezing Christian. One of them was having no compassion for the lost. Was God trying to say something to me that day?
To top it all off, this morning on the radio I heard Dr. David Jeremiah speak about the fact that there is a “proxyism,” as he calls it, concerning missions. A Proxy is something that stands in the place of another, and there has appeared in recent years a proxy for Christ’s Great Commission. People have said that if you can’t go, then send a substitute. Send money to a missionary, and that will be just the same. But God never said that! That’s not in the Word. The only thing mentioned in the word is “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations.
” (Matthew 28:19 NKJV)
It’s an absolute lie that we don’t have to speak to others about Christ so long as we are putting money in the offering plate. You’ve got to do both. So, I encourage you to try it. Go out, find someone, and just start talking. Open up with something goofy, like inquiring about the genre of their spectacles! :o) You don’t have to pack up and move to Thailand or Timbuktu, but you do have to tell your neighbors wherever you are.
~Jonathan
June 24th, 2007 · Permalink · Back to Top · Comments (2)
Basically, my job as a missionary has been to help other missionaries. Every trip I’ve taken has included augmenting the already-existing work in the country I’m traveling to. Jim Cottrill over at missionary-blogs.com sent an E-mail to everyone asking what we’d like to get in a care package, and he requested that we write a post about it. So this is mine.
My missionary career has thusfar been an extension of the ministry of helps. I’ve never pioneered a work. I’ve never pastored a church. I’ve never been an instructor at a Bible school (I have spoken at one a few times). I’ve never lived overseas longer than three months, and I’m pretty sure I never will. I considered at one time the possibility of staying in Brasil for two years, but circumstances prevented that from happening. One colleague said it best when he called me a “pond hopper”, going here and there, wherever I’m needed.
When I was getting ready to go to Thailand last fall, I considered all of this and what I had on my heart to do at Patti’s place. I began to see how God was using me to be a care package intrinsically; myself a gift to other missionaries stationed permanently overseas. Not that I’m special, but that I’m available. Less like the apostle Paul, and more like Epaphroditus.
I took with me to Thailand numerous things for Patti and the kids: ointment for bug bites, vitamins, a Hot Wheels track. I was going to bring peanut butter and grits, but she was well stocked on those items! Yet, the most important thing was having somebody there to talk to. Somebody who spoke English. Somebody with the same accent. Somebody to help with the kids when she wanted to be alone.
I’m sure there are lots of people writing articles like this saying they’d like to have a jar of their favorite perfume or some quality jackets for the winter, but what they won’t tell you is they’d like to see you. There is stuff in America you can’t get overseas, and sending these things to a missionary is a great help for them psychologically as well as physically, but the greatest boost in morale is a little help.
Do your missionary a favor: send them you. :o)
~Jonathan
June 16th, 2007 · Permalink · Back to Top · Comments (11)
Burn this feed.
