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Staff Reports
Reports of recent Trips and Work by Godspeed Missionary Care
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Staff Missionary Reports
Reports and Experiences of the Godspeed Staff
"For God is not a God of disorder but of peace."
I Cor 14:33 NIV
April 2003
From Columbia, South Carolina:
Perhaps I should be a bit more careful when I pray... I have
asked the Lord to show us the hearts of missionaries, to let
us understand the types of stresses and pressures they face,
so that we might be able to respond to their needs more
effectively. And He has answered that prayer, many times in
many ways....the most recent in reminding us of the disruption
of one's life inherent in any significant geographic move.
Whoever thought up the motto for a well-known move-it-yourself
truck rental firm had a sense of humor: "An Adventure in
Moving"...
I can attest to such an adventure. Highlights:
- Arriving at new residence after lengthy trip, exhausted,
to find locks have been changed and no access possible.
Late night search reveals other lodging significantly
more expensive than a stable at an inn and not a great
deal more comfortable.
- Initial attempts to arrange furniture disrupted by
finding out the hard way that washer has been hooked up
to wrong discharge pipe. Rinse cycle turns new hardwood
floor into unwanted indoor pool; subsequent ten-day delay
in unpacking as we await a dry spell.
- Phone lines work erratically or not at all for first
week, resulting in marked disruption of usual
communication with friends and family.
- Post office fails to recognize new street address, so
most mail, donations, and other written communications
are returned to senders, marked "No Such Address".
- Registration for licenses to work, drive, and live in
this new location involve voluminous amounts of paperwork,
long lines, and finding after hours of waiting that the
one piece of paper you really need to complete the process
is the one you don't have. Approval awaits retrieval of
certificates of birth, citizenship, vaccination status,
and pedigree.
So, out of contact and out of sorts, I go before the Lord to
complain about my situation. He prompts me to recall that many
of our missionary friends have also experienced impaired
communications with friends and family, housing challenges,
and stifling bureaucracy....and we have the benefit of being
able to understand the local language (well, o.k., there is a
bit of a dialect problem, but we can read the street signs).
He is not a God of disorder or confusion....this is all part of
His answering my prayers...
We are just beginning to sense the ministry opportunities here.
We have already had visits from missionaries we have known
before, and have received requests from new contacts
internationally who want to either come to us or have us come
to them. And while we begin to sort through these new
possibilities, we are also making preparations to fulfill
commitments to missionary teams serving in North America,
Russia, Hungary, and Ukraine (see our schedule below)... This
is exciting; this is good. I am beginning to feel peace about
the work God has for us, even in the midst of the confusion of
relocating, and I can sense His purpose in allowing us a
glimpse of that which many missionaries experience. Also, I
do not count it as co-incidence that during our time of postal
isolation, one of the few pieces of mail I did receive was a
newsletter from a mission organization based in New Zealand
with an article about those things that missionaries don't
always talk about in their reports to churches and supporters,
those stresses and strains that Godspeed Missionary Care
strives to address. With permission, I have re-printed that
article below, that all of us could know better how to pray,
and how to serve...
We look forward to hearing from you. The mail is now beginning
to be delivered, the phones are working, and the Godspeed
e-mail address has not changed. Your financial support, your
prayers, and your caring make all of this possible...
Godspeed,
Barney, for Karen and the Godspeed team
4 Dickens Crest
Columbia, SC 29229
email us
Phone: 803-788-9141
Our Schedule for the next month or two:
April 28 - May 1: Albany, NY. Retreat for pastor/missionary
couples serving with Village Missions.
May 17 - 21: San Francisco, CA. Barney attends annual meeting
of Christian Medical Association Psychiatry Section (winding
up second year serving as president of the Section).
May 31 - June 5: Kiev, Ukraine. Individual consultations and
team building presentations to IFES ministry (cross-cultural
teams from several countries of Eastern Europe).
June 6 - 11: Moscow, Russia: Individual consultations with
missionaries serving with various mission organizations in
Moscow and St. Petersburg.
June 12 - 15: Budapest, Hungary: (Karen returns to U.S. to
attend wedding of close family friend; Barney proceeds to visit
with missionary family in Hungary).
June 16 - 27: Kiev, Ukraine. Barney returns to Kiev to meet
with another Ukrainian-based missionary organization for team
building and personal consultation.
July 16 -21: Greenwood, IN. Presentations on medical issues
and stress management to missionary group undergoing pre-field
training.
And here is that article I mentioned above...
(From "Into the Harvest" April 2003, Published by OMS
International New Zealand)
Things That Missionaries Don't Often Talk About...
"The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears them; He delivers
them from all their troubles. The Lord is close to the broken
hearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit."
(Psalm 34:17-18)
To be called by God to serve Him as a missionary
cross-culturally to reach the unreached for Christ is, I
believe, the greatest privilege anybody can ever receive. It
entails great sacrifice, hard work, lots of study, commitment,
dedication and stickability when the going gets tough. We at
home tend to put such people into a special box. We put them on
a high pedestal. However, there is another side that most
missionaries rarely talk about --the realities of difficulty,
hardship and often harsh living standards on the mission field.
Things that our missionaries rarely tell us about include:
fears, fears for physical safety and for the safety of their
loved ones, fears of the unknown and of the spiritual warfare
they face and fears of rejection, etc. that comes with dealing
with another culture. Failure - "Haven't I been called here by
God? There are so many people who look to me and depend on me,
there's the church who sent me out, all of my supporters and
prayer partners."
Other things include: depression, discouragement, spiritual
attack in intensity and in ways that we can hardly imagine back
here in our comfortable church circles and when God does not
seem to be coming through "on time". There is a loneliness,
particularly for single people on the mission field when
friends seem few and far between and because of the transience
of missionary work, good friends are made and then lost as they
return home or move to another place of service.
Perhaps this short list will help you as you pray for your
missionary - to be more aware of some of the issues that you
need to pray for in the areas that they not tell you about but
often grapple with each day in their missionary life. Thank you
for your support and your prayers.
Yours together in the only cause that really matters,
(written by Denis Shuker, Executive Director OMS
International New Zealand, reprinted by permission)
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