In the past year we have listened to a lot of audio books. We have heard about many missionaries who gave their lives to serve Jesus Christ faithfully. I don't know about you, but Deanna and I used to think about missionaries as "the heroes of the faith." They went out into the deepest and darkest woods to save people from eternal destruction. With undaunted courage they blazed their trails with joy and vigor, relentlessly pursuing the lost.
That picture couldn't have been farther from the truth. Yes, underneath all of the circumstantial elements of life, these missionaries did have an unwavering type of faith and undaunted spirit that delighted in serving the Lord. But, make no mistakes, their lives were far from easy. Their lives were often marked by massive obstacles, seemingly impossible tasks, and painful losses. They had to enter territories theretofore unseen and unknown. They had to survive hardships, the likes of which most of us never even think of.
But this post isn't about missionaries from way back when, it isn't even about "other" missionaries, it is about us as a family following the Lord into the mission field. Now, circling back to those heroes of the faith though - one of the things that we have been blessed by as we read their stories is this: They loved their savior Jesus Christ so much and they loved His church. They gave themselves to building the church in many new places to bring the gospel of Jesus Christ to the farthest reaches of this globe.
While we are not going to plant new churches or evangelize the lost, we do see part of our role as being an attendant to the bride. We want to support, equip and strengthen the church, with service and resources. In Germany, most churches are small and the resources scarce. There aren't always multiple pastors on staff and various departments to run. It's the simple, Sunday morning service, children's ministry, and a few extra programs here and there type of setting, most of the time.
What does your church do when someone raises their hand and says, "I'm hurting. I can't keep holding on. My faith is wavering and my life is falling apart - can you help?" You can imagine the desperation of many people who are losing hope fast.
This means that the church needs help. We need more people who can do the work of the church as the leaders equip and shepherd. But who is going to do the equipping? Who is going to do the writing of resources that help people? Who is going to create homework assignments for counselees, assignments that go beyond the read-these-3-verses-and-let's-talk-next-week approaches?
Here's where you can partner with us. Pray that we would be able to help raise up more counselors. Pray that we would find people who are crazy smart and have a gift in writing. Pray that we find creative people who can put words into simple but impactful pictures to communicate concepts in a way that are easy to absorb. Pray that we would be able to collaborate with other counselors, ministries, and local churches to think about what kind of biblical counseling helps and resources they need. Pray that we would be wise in those conversations to be humble and unified so that we can strengthen local churches to instruct, encourage, exhort, and care for their people better.
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