As a missionary you must be witnessing. You respond with 'of
course', great. I know of a Baptist missionary to Ireland. When we spent
time together, he told me he had been in Ireland for over seven years
and had never led someone to Jesus!
Why should you witness?
Mark 16:16-20 "He that believeth and is baptized shall be
saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned. [17] And these signs
shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils;
they shall speak with new tongues; [18] They shall take up serpents; and
if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay
hands on the sick, and they shall recover. [19] So then after
the Lord had spoken unto them, he was received up into heaven, and sat
on the right hand of God. [20] And they went forth, and preached every where, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following. Amen."
Acts 1:8 "But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth."
Matthew 28:19-20 "Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of
the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: [20] Teaching them
to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am
with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen."
2 Corinthians 5:19-20 "To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. [20] Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God."
Hardships
You may wish to remember the location of the following verses. In the
USA, normal everyday life is easy. In China life was not easy. Our
apartment was cold in the winter. We could not control the heat in our
apartment. The heated water came from a central unit somewhere? The
water would not be heated until the end of October. There would be snow
on the ground, and we would not have water heat. As wimpy Americans, I
bought a space heater. Could only get a little heat from it. If I turned
it too high, it would blow a fuse, and then we would have no
electricity in our apartment. Changing the fuse is a big issue. You must
turn off the electricity to three other apartments. Pull out the fuse.
Then remove the wire from the unit, and replace it with another special
fuse wire. If your fingers are cold, well you must endure.
Kitchens in our area of China only have a two
burner gas hot plate to cook on. Ovens like our stoves are non-existent.
You would have to hunt for a flat frying pan. In over three years, we
never found a salt shaker. Mustard does not exist. Coffee is more
expensive then here in the USA. Freeze dried coffee is your only choice
for home. Outside temperatures can get down to 40 degrees below 0. Our
kitchen was not heated. One must keep the kitchen door open or the pipes
would freeze, and they still did, flooding our dining room!
Washing clothes, well we never saw a dryer. Everyone hangs up their clothes to dry.
Transportation, well the new buses are very cold in
the winter. The short buses are warmer, because they have routed the
exhaust pipes through the bus. The bad news is many of these pipes have
cracks allowing exhaust fumes into the bus. Prayer is a must when
getting on a bus. If the bus driver is busy pumping away at the brakes,
constantly, well you hope they have strong legs. They are pumping to
keep the air pressure up, because the compressor isn't working or isn't
working enough. Bus accidents happens. You get off one bus and get on
another. Normally a bus ride would cost 1 RMB (8 cents, US). A normal
taxi ride would cost 10 RMB (80 cents, US). Most of the time we would
take a bus.
1 Corinthians 13:7 "Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things."
2 Thessalonians 1:4 "So that we ourselves glory in you in the
churches of God for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and
tribulations that ye endure:"
2 Timothy 2:3 "Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ."
2 Timothy 2:10 "Therefore I endure all things for the elect's
sakes, that they may also obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus
with eternal glory."
2 Timothy 3:11 "Persecutions, afflictions, which came unto me
at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra; what persecutions I endured: but out
of them all the Lord delivered me."
2 Timothy 4:5 "But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry."
Hebrews 6:15 "And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise."
James 1:12 "Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for
when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord
hath promised to them that love him."
James 5:11 "Behold, we count them happy which endure. Ye have
heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that
the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy."
Child Education
There are many programs for homeschooling. Such as:
Alpha and Omega 2 programs - one using books (all grades), the other for 3rd grade up using CDRom
In China on campus almost next door to our home was a small daycare
school. They would start at about 8 am and stop about 7 pm. The teachers
were very nice. The children are very nice. They did not teach
communism. They taught Chinese speaking and writing, math, etc. Luke
attended for 3 years. Joseph attended for 2 years. Their Chinese was
much better than their English when we returned to the USA!
Danger
As a Christian, our enemy is the devil and the demons who would
like to kill you, steal from you, and destroy what he can of your
material goods and ministry. He will try to do this in whatever country
you are in!
Is the USA the safest country in the world? When
we lived in Minneapolis, Minnisota, we took on the wicca. We recieved
death threats. They tried to kill me by running a truck into my car.
Jesus is our protector! I was a pastor at the time, but without the
Biblical water baptism.
In China, we lived in a large city, Urumqi, a city
of 2,000,000 people. It is a dangerous city. People get shot, mugged,
etc. Pick-pockets are everywhere. Jesus protected us!
We ministered in Israel. I was walking outside the
Damacus Gate of Old Jerusalem at night. A group of maybe 12 Palestinian
men quickly gathered around to do me harm. I kept right on walking
through them just like Jesus did when a religious group wanted to throw
Him over a cliff. The next night in almost the same place the same thing
happened. In Tel Aviv, I was walking in the dark when two Palestinians
came upon me with two huge dogs. One threatened me by saying 'my dog is
going to eat you'. Jesus protected me!
In Uganda, East Africa, a ministry team and I were
headed for Mbale. On the way Apostle David is telling us about his
experiences in starting the church we were going to. During the first
week of meetings the Muslims came in after a meeting was over and most
of the people were gone. They beat him left him to chase some girls came
back to make sure he was dead but couldn't find him. He recovered in a
hospital. He hadn't told me the story before he invited me to Uganda. He
was not Apostolic. I started praying asking Jesus to protect us. The
house we were staying in was surrounded by Muslims. We didn't have any
problems. Thank you Jesus!
Claim Psalm 91!
Sure Peter and Paul suffered. But, I am not going to suffer unless
it is Jesus' will! The devil or his demons will not decide if or when I
suffer!