39 Apr 25 The advantages and disadvantages of being a ...
MISSIOLOGY
LECTURE 39
ADVANTAGES / DISADVANTAGES OF BEING A MISSIONARY
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ADVANTAGES
Live in another country; travel; experience a new culture.
Challenging career; never a dull moment.
Not all caught up in all the temptations that flood American life
Great potential for rewards and position in eternity future.
Your full time job is ministering spiritually to people; very fullfilling.
You might be the only man of God in that whole city/state that you initially plant a church in; great potential, hope.
You are (hopefully) right smack in the center of God’s will for your life
Probably the highest calling a human can have.
Advantageous Bible verses:
Matt 10:16-18 Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves. But beware of men: for they will deliver you up to the councils, and they will scourge you in their synagogues; And ye shall be brought before governors and kings for my sake, for a testimony against them and the Gentiles.
Acts 5:41-42 And they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name. And daily in the temple, and in every house, they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ.
Luke 10:2-3 Therefore said he unto them, The harvest truly is great, but the labourers are few: pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth labourers into his harvest. Go your ways: behold, I send you forth as lambs among wolves.
John 4:35 Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest.
Rom 10:13-15 For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!
Matt 28:18-20 And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: 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.
Luke 24:47 And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.
DISADVANTAGES
Adoniram Judson: Father of Baptist Missionaries
by Fred Barlow
Copied with permission from Profiles in Evangelism, ©1976*
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1788-1850
|American Baptist missionary, lexicographer, and Bible translator to Burma. Born in Massachusetts in 1788. Helped form the |
|American Baptist Missionary Union. In 1834 completed a translation of the whole Bible into the Burmese language. During the |
|Anglo-Burmese War, he spent twenty-one months in prison. From 1845-1847, after thirty-four years in Burma, he took his only |
|furlough to his native land. Returning to Burma, he spent his remaining years working on his English-Burmese dictionary. He |
|died in 1850 and was buried at sea. |
|By whatever measurement you measure the man Judson — the measurement always is the same — he was a mighty man! |
|Mentally — he was mammoth. He read at the age of three years, took navigation lessons at ten, studied theology as a child, entered Providence College |
|(now Brown University) at seventeen — despite the fact he spent one year of his youth out of school in sickness — and he was a "veritable bookworm." |
|Also, he mastered the Burmese language (possibly the most difficult language to acquire, excepting Chinese), writing and speaking it with the familiarity|
|of a native and the elegance of a cultured scholar, and he also translated the Bible into Burmese. His biographers believe that his translation was |
|"undoubtedly his greatest contribution to the people among whom he chose...to spend and be spent for Christ's sake." |
|Spiritually — he was superlative. Despite the fact his father was a Congregational preacher, and in spite of his mother's "tears and pleadings," Judson |
|was not saved until he was 20 years of age. He had become a confirmed deist — due largely to the influence of a brilliant unbeliever in college who set |
|out to win Judson to his deistic faith, and succeeded. |
|But, incredibly, Judson's conversion to Christ was due in large measure to that same deist. After graduation Judson left home to become a wanderlust. One|
|night in a country inn his room was adjacent to the room of a dying man. The moaning and groaning of that man through the long night permitted Judson no |
|sleep. His thoughts troubled him. All night questions assailed his soul: "Was the dying man prepared to die?" "Where would he spend eternity?" "Was he a |
|Christian, calm and strong in the hope of life in Heaven?" "Or, was he a sinner shuddering in the dark brink of the lower region?" Judson constantly |
|chided himself for even entertaining such thoughts contrary to his philosophy of life beyond the grave, and thought how his brilliant college friend |
|would rebuke him if he learned of these childish worries. |
|But the next morning, when Judson inquired of the proprietor as to the identity of the dead man, he was shocked by the most staggering statement he had |
|ever heard: "He was a brilliant young person from Providence College. E______ was his name." |
|E______ was the unbeliever who had destroyed Judson's faith. "Now he was dead -- and was lost! Was lost! Was lost! Lost! Lost!" Those words raced through|
|his brain, rang in his ears, roared in his soul — "Was lost! Lost! Lost! There and then Judson realized he was lost, too! He ended his traveling, |
|returned home, entered Andover Theological Seminary and soon "sought God for the pardon of his soul," was saved and dedicated his life to the Master's |
|service! |
|His conversion not only saved his soul, it smashed his dreams of fame and honor for himself. His one pressing purpose became to "plan his life to please |
|his Lord." In 1809, the same year he joined the Congregational church, he became burdened to become a missionary. He found some friends from Williams |
|College with the same burden and often met with them at a haystack on the college grounds to earnestly pray for the salvation of the heathen and petition|
|God to open doors of ministry as missionaries to them. That spot has been marked as the birthplace of missions in America. |
|Three years later, February 19, 1812, young Adoniram Judson, and his bride of seven days, Ann Haseltine Judson, set sail for India, supported by the |
|first American Board for Foreign Missions. But on that voyage, Judson, while doing translation work, saw the teaching of immersion as the mode of baptism|
|in the Bible. Conscientiously and courageously, he cut off his support under the Congregational board until a Baptist board could be founded to support |
|him! |
|The Judsons were rejected entrance into India to preach the Gospel to the Hindus by the East India Company and after many trying times, frustrations, |
|fears, and failures, they finally found an open door in Rangoon, Burma. |
|There was not one known Christian in that land of millions. And there were no friends in that robber-infested, idolatry-infected, iniquity-filled land. A|
|baby was born to alleviate the loneliness of the young couple, but it was to be only for a temporary time. Eight months later, Roger William Judson was |
|buried under a great mango tree. The melancholy "tum-tum" of the death drum for the thousands claimed by cholera, and the firing cannons and beating on |
|houses with clubs to ward off demons, tormented the sensitive, spiritual souls of that missionary couple, too. |
|And there were no converts. It was to be six, long, soul-crushing, heart-breaking years before the date of the first decision for Christ. Then, on June |
|27, 1819, Judson baptized the first Burman believer, Moung Nau. Judson jotted in his journal: "Oh, may it prove to be the beginning of a series of |
|baptisms in the Burman empire which shall continue in uninterrupted success to the end of the age." Converts were added slowly — a second, then three, |
|then six, and on to eighteen. |
|But opposition came, also. Finally Judson was imprisoned as a British spy — an imprisonment of twenty-one months. Judson was condemned to die, but in |
|answer to prayers to God and the incessant pleadings of his wife to officials (one of the most emotional-packed, soul-stirring stories in evangelism), |
|Judson's life was spared and finally British intervention freed him from imprisonment. |
|The work progressed and gospel power began to open blind eyes, break idolatry-shackled hearts and transform the newly-begotten converts into triumphant |
|Christians. On April 12, 1850, at the age of 62, Judson died. Except for a few months (when he returned to America after thirty-four years from his first|
|sailing), Judson had spent thirty-eight years in Burma. Although he had waited six years for his first convert, sometime after his death a government |
|survey recorded 210,000 Christians, one out of every fifty-eight Burmans! It was a partial fulfillment and a monument to the spirit and ministry of the |
|man, who at Ava, the capital city, gazed at the temple of Buddha and challenged, "A voice mightier than mine, a still small voice, will ere long sweep |
|away every vestige of thy dominion. The churches of Jesus Christ will soon supplant these idolatrous monuments and the chanting devotees of Buddha will |
|die away before the Christian's hymns of praise." |
|Aye, a mighty man of faith, prayer, purpose, patience and perseverance for the Son of God and for souls, was Adoniram Judson! |
|*Copied with permission by Stephen Ross for from Profiles in Evangelism by Fred Barlow, Sword of the Lord Publishers, ©1976. |
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7 Reasons Why You Should Never Go on a
Short-Term Mission Trip
by David Armstrong
1. It will distort your perception of the world! Seeing it through the plastic lenses of our society is sufficient. They may be distorted, but you are used to them! Don’t needlessly mess yourself up.
2. You could get sick or robbed! It’s dangerous out there! Some places have a crime rate almost as high as our inner cities.
3. It will make you harder to live with! The way you view life and even your likes and dislikes are liable to change. Your friends and family probably won’t understand or appreciate your sudden changes.
4. Afterwards you will feel awkward at some of the jokes and comments you currently enjoy. They will not seem as funny when you have seen life from the other side.
5. You will experience sadness you haven’t felt before. After you see real suffering, you won’t pay much attention to your complaining about how hard you’ve got it. You are even liable to feel guilty and uncomfortable about the nice things in your house and the food on your table. Stay home and stay comfortable!
6. You might lead someone to the Lord. I know that is a laudable goal, but it tends to cause excitement and further interest in Christian Service.
7. You could feel a pull toward going overseas again—for the adventure, of course. The problem is that you could slowly, subtly get sucked into thinking about being a missionary!
My advice? Stay home and stay comfortable!
It is too late for me—but there is still hope for you! So keep praying for both me and yourself!
David Armstrong served as a missionary and short-term mission coordinator at OC International and is now the Director of Agency Services at Mission Data International
“Some people want to be missionaries so they can see the world. The truth is that missionaries don't see very much of the world. Yes, they usually live in another country, but most missionaries don't have much time to do sightseeing. They may live in a city and work in the same city and their leisure activities revolve around that city and the people with whom they work. Or perhaps they live in a rural or very remote area and do very little travelling of any kind. Pretty soon the novelty wears off, and wherever you happen to live is “home.”
Wherever you live, you have the same problems and chores you did where you used to live. Maybe more. You have to shop, and cook and wash clothes just like before. The difference is that in most countries there are no ready to heat foods which means cooking is a pretty drawn out affair, and in some countries there are not even any washing machines. You have the same amount of work but it takes much longer. You have less leisure time. If you live in the two-thirds world polution is often out of control. Pretty soon you find out that being a missionary isn't as romantic as you first thought.
Some people want to become missionaries in order to escape from someone or something. You know, the harder we try to run away from something, the harder it seems to escape it. You can't run away from a problem. It will go with you wherever you go. Our problems follow us. We often use Jonah as an example of the futility of trying to run away from God. Jonah tried very hard but soon understood he couldn't run away from God. Trying to run away from problems is very similar. You can't. You might hide for a while, but that doesn't solve anything. So don't decide to become a missionary in order to run away from a problem. It will probably only make the problem worse.
I don't think there is anyone who thinks that being a missionary is a lucrative decision, a great money making opportunity, but just in case there is, let me bring you back to reality. Missionaries don't make a lot of money. Most pastors make a lot more, with fewer headaches.”
Gary Clow (Missionary)
Paul would tell you to think ‘thrice’ about becoming a Missionary --
2 Cor 11:21-33
21 I speak as concerning reproach, as though we had been weak. Howbeit whereinsoever any is bold, (I speak foolishly,) I am bold also.
22 Are they Hebrews? so am I. Are they Israelites? so am I. Are they the seed of Abraham? so am I.
23 Are they ministers of Christ? (I speak as a fool) I am more; in labours more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft.
24 Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one.
25 Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep;
26 In journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren;
27 In weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness.
28 Beside those things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches.
29 Who is weak, and I am not weak? who is offended, and I burn not?
30 If I must needs glory, I will glory of the things which concern mine infirmities.
31 The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which is blessed for evermore, knoweth that I lie not.
32 In Damascus the governor under Aretas the king kept the city of the Damascenes with a garrison, desirous to apprehend me:
33 And through a window in a basket was I let down by the wall, and escaped his hands.
STANDARD so-called DISADVANTAGES (generalized):
Away from family, friends, and home church
Away from familiarity of home
Away from ‘modern convenience’ center of the Universe….America
No central ‘air’
Poor cell phone reception (if any)
Poor internet connectivity (if any)
Chaotic and dangerous traffic
A totally different, and often backwards, culture
No-one speaks your language
Unable to obtain secular employment
Schooling difficulties for the children (homeschool is ok, though)
Few or no Americans to fellowship with
Demonic strongholds for centuries
State controlled religion: Muslim, Catholic, Lutheran, Buddhist, Hindu….
No Bible in the native tongue
No buildings available conducive to a church meeting place
Self-supportive concept will be difficult; low standard of living
Civil and/or governmental uprisings against Americans and/or Christians (Baptists)
Great stressor on wife and kids
Potential tragic death for you or your family
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DAVID LIVINGSTON
Here follows a brief chronology of Livingstone’s life (adapted from Buxton).
1813 Born 19 March in Blantyre, Scotland.
1823 Started work in a cotton mill (14 hours per day (6 am – 8 pm), six days per week, for 13 years).
1826 Studied Latin during and after work.
1834 Read pamphlet on medical missionaries in China; decides to become a medical missionary.
1836 Enrolls in Anderson’s College, Glasgow.
1838-39 Probationer of London Missionary Society (LMS) at Chipping Ongar. Courted a young lady and is rejected as a suitor. Generally not attractive to women. Heard Robert Moffat speak on missionary work.
1840 Qualified in medicine, ordained as minister. Heard Thomas Buxton speak on the slave trade. Accepted Buxton’s view that Christianity and commerce (trade) would bring an end to the slave trade (which still flourishes, although abolished in the British Empire in 1833). Sailed to Africa (as an LMS missionary), arrives at Robert Moffat’s Kuruman mission (on the Kuruman River, in what is now northern South Africa) in July, 1841.
1841-43 Traveled in southern Africa (what is now northern South Africa and southern Botswana; based in Robert Moffat’s Kuruman mission; founded mission at Mabotswa, 220 miles from Kuruman and near present-day Mafeking (near the Malopo River, which divides present-day Botswana and South Africa)).
1845 Married Mary Moffat, moved to Chonuane (40 km north of Mabotswa) because of drought.
1846 Son Robert born.
1847 Moved to Kolobeng (just west of present-day Gaborone, Botswana, on the Kolobeng River) because of drought; daughter Agnes born.
1848 Converted chief Sechele to Christianity (his only convert, who later lapsed).
1849 Son Thomas born. Expedition to Lake Ngami (in northwest Botswana, south of the Okavanga Delta) with William Cotton Oswell.
1850 Expedition with Mary and children; Daughter Elizabeth born and died; Mary had stroke.
1851 Son Oswell (Zouga) born.
1852 Visited Cape Town, South Africa. Mary and children sent to England (for children’s education). Kuruman and Kolobeng missions sacked by Boers.
1853 Conducted explorations in southern Africa; started for west coast.
1854 Reached Luanda (in what is now Angola) on the Atlantic coast.
1855 Visited Mosi-oa-Tunya (“Smoke that Thunders”) Falls, renamed them as Victoria Falls.
1856 Traveled to Quilimane (in what is now Mozambique) on the Indian Ocean, becoming the first European to traverse southern Africa.
1856 Sailed to England.
1857 Published Missionary Researches and Travels in South
Africa. Acquired fame and fortune.
1858 David, Mary and Zouga (not yet in school) travelled to Cape Town, South Africa. Began Zambezi expedition. David sailed for the Zambezi and Mary travelled to Kuruman. Daughter Anna Mary born at Kuruman.
1859-61 Explored Shire River, Lake Shirwa, Lake Nyasa.
1862 Mary arrived at mouth of Zambezi River, died four months later of malaria (six-day illness).
1863 Explored Lake Nyasa.
1864 Sailed Lady Nyassa to Bombay, India. Sailed to England. Son Robert died in US Civil War.
1865 Published Zambezi book.
1866-1873 Conducted explorations in southeastern Africa (Mozambique, Malawi, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Zambia). Died on 1 May 1873 at age 60 near Lake Bangweulu, Zambia, of dysentery, hemorrhoids and malaria.
1871 Journalist Henry Stanley located Livingstone at Ujiji on Lake Tanganyika; they explored for a year.
1874 State funeral conducted in Westminster Abbey.
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