"Why didn't you come sooner?"

One of my missionary heroes is Hudson Taylor the missionary pioneer to China. I love reading of how he trusted God to do great things in his life and among the millions of Chinese that had never heard the Gospel.

One story that stands out from Taylor's life is the conversion of Mr. Ni a former Buddhist leader. Ni came to one of Taylor's meetings in the city of Ningpo and heard the Gospel for the first time and was amazingly converted to Christianity. Mr. Ni then became a fervent student of God's Word and a valued assistant to the Gospel work that was going on in the area.

One day while Hudson Taylor and Ni were talking Ni asked, "How long have you had the Gospel in your country?" Taylor reluctantly replied, "Some hundreds of years." Shocked at this new revelation, Ni exclaimed, "What! Hundreds of years! My father looked for the truth and died without finding it. Why didn't you come sooner?"

Those words were unforgettable to Hudson Taylor and they deepened his resolve to seek to bring the Good News of the Gospel to the millions of Chinese who had never heard. The Apostle Paul had that same resolve and spoke of the Gospel as a "stewardship" for  those that had it. A wise steward of the Gospel not only clings to it as his treasure, but he is also zealous to give it away to those without it.

The great theologian Carl Henry said, "The Gospel is only good news if it gets there in time." And for most in our world today the time is very short. May we never hear the words, "Why didn't you come sooner?"  

Without Words Wednesday

Without Words Wednesday

"I don't want to be a missionary!"

With all of the change that is happening in the life of our family we have tried our best to spend time talking with our children one-on-one. We want to talk to them, and more importantly, to listen to them so that we can gauge how they are processing all that is going on. Our prayer is that God would be continually preparing our children to go to the mission field.

In one such exchange Hosanna, our three year old, was sitting in my lap and I was telling her what it was going to be like to be a missionary. I was telling her all of the great things that God was giving us the opportunity to do and experience and how God is very loving to us to allow us to get to serve Him as missionaries.

But in the middle of our conversation Hosanna's face turned sour (those of you that know Hosanna know exactly what I am talking about). And she leaned right up into my face and exclaimed, "I don't want to be a missionary!" Now this came as an absolute shock to me because for the last year all Hosanna has talked about is going to Africa and living there. This is the same little girl that every time we would get into the van would ask if we were leaving for Africa now.

So I began again to rehearse all the great things that come with being a missionary. But she got right back up into my face again and said, "I don't want to be a missionary! I want to be an African!" It seems that God does indeed have her ready to go. Africa may never be the same!

Here are the Facts...

Here are the facts: I am a 45 year old home school mother of three. And people ask me, "How can you take your children and go live in Africa? Why are you excited to go and live in such a different culture with limited medical facilities and a totally different way of life?" But I cannot wait to get to Africa because of the hope  that the Gospel brings!

When I think about Senegal  I think about the women there. My heart is drawn to them as they are a picture of hopelessness without Jesus. Their days are spent with backbreaking work and responsibility, all lived out in a culture of spiritual darkness apart from Jesus. And most of them have no way to know the truth of the Gospel. That is why I want to go: to share my life with them and tell them about my Savior and how He is their hope.

I often think to myself, "What would Senegal look like if it were not 95% Muslim, but were instead 95% Christian?" How would that change the lives of these women? Pray with me that the women of southern Senegal would hear the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and that He would bring true hope to their lives!
- Gayle

Without Words Wednesday

Without Words Wednesday