Through the ups and downs of life on the field, we have often remembered the people in our training who influenced and encouraged us.
These people have already lived on the mission field, already experienced deep pain, great joys, and millions of challenges, resulting in the people they are today:
God-shaped and humble, knowing and understanding more than any book alone could teach, and full of a compassion that only comes through a certain type of experience and sacrifice.
In our journey, we were prompted to write and ask them for their insights on what God them through their hardest times, what God showed them, and how his strength and grace showed up in their lives.
Below is a glimpse into this process: Becoming like Jesus through each experience life brings. This is not just about missions, this is about every person looking for meaning in their life, purpose to make every trial worth something, and in the end, to know Peace and Life and Joy.
As Paul said, “But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Jesus Christ my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that whic is through faith in Christ–the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. I want to know Christ–yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.” ~Philippians 3:7-11
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I had a number of thoughts but one thing that stuck out and it doesn’t always make it easier for us right now but we have definitely seen the truth of II Cor 1 regarding God’s comfort. He not only comforts us in our present trials but He uses them to help us comfort others with the comfort we have received. Over the years we have come in contact with many who are facing trials similar to ones we faced many years earlier and we can certainly empathize with them and comfort them. I guess what I’m saying is that in our present trials we can be aware that God is not only using them in our lives but will enable us to help others in the future.
-Bing Hare, Brazil
In translating 1 Peter recently, we saw that we are not to be surprised by the intense trials we undergo and yet in Romans “nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus”! God proved this to us in our first term when, just as we were ready to begin language study in the tribe, religious rebels visited our house and began operating in our area. We remembered our youth pastor’s advice, “Don’t doubt in the dark what God has shown you in the light,” and clung to his promises, spent more time in prayer and saw God take care of us, although it was indeed hard!
Bill and Donna Davis, Philippines
All through Biblical history, when men and women followed God in His enterprises it meant a measure of pain and suffering for the worker. When these men and women remained in the place of trial by faith, God accomplished incredible feats through them and sometimes in spite of them. Like David in the wilderness they seemed to thrive even in the midst of crushing circumstances. Those who resisted this purifying work, walked by sight, and chose expedience over patience, still seemed to suffer, but their suffering was empty, self focused, and without meaning.
Remember some days HE is the only thing that will make any sense at all. Relax and enjoy Him.
-Rich and Rae Bruce, South America
We went to the field not realizing, but in the back of our minds subconsciously thinking, “We are going to do ‘great things’ for God.” He quickly showed us that He wanted to first do something in us before He was going to do something “great” through us. This meant going through His refining fire that often came in the form of trials. We realized trials are a good thing because they grow us and mature us into the vessels that that He wants us to be and use (James 1:2-4). We want Him to first do a work in us so that when He does work through us it is not despite us (as in the case with someone like Jonah), but because we are walking in fellowship with Him and have that which is eternal in view (1 Cor. 4:16-18). We are so grateful that the One who has called us is also faithful to complete the work that He has begun in us (Phil 1:6), and will be faithful to complete the work that He is wanting to do through us (Matt 16:18).
-Jay and Lisa Franicevich, Papua New Guinea
When our boy died I was reading in Psalm 100 that the Lord is good.
It certainly didn’t seem like the Lord was good right then. I was
challenged to choose to say, ‘Lord, you are good’ not because it felt
like it but because the Bible tells me so.
Sometimes our trials get pretty intense and/or prolonged and I
certainly felt like giving up more than once. God has used what Paul
said in 2 Cor 1:8,9 many times in my life to keep me going. Paul was
so utterly burdened and beyond strength that he despaired of life
itself! That’s heavy trials! But he said that it was all to make him
rely on God and not himself.
-James and Lisa Hatton, Papua New Guinea
In our hardest times (When we felt our children may be dying) we WERE comforted by the reality that Jesus really is ‘more than enough’. It took stripping us of our dearest ones on the planet but His grace really does show up in the dark times…if we’ll look for it.
-Brad and Beth Buser, Papua New Guinea
Looking back on my time in the tribe, I can say that there were definite times of trials. There were times when I came to the very end of myself and wanted nothing better than to run far away. I remember one time in particular when I felt extremely helpless and didn’t know how to cope. A Maco lady was laying in her hammock and refused to eat or drink for days. We begged her husband to take her to town to get medical help but he refused. My co workers and I would take her soup and beg her to eat. She would not. We thought she was going to die and we could not change that. It was heart breaking. I wanted to escape, but there was no escape. I had chosen to live with the Maco and I wanted desperately to share the love of God with them, so I had to stay. I was very thankful that I did not carry that burden alone. I had teammates that were caring for the Maco friend as well. We prayed and cried together, and we talked for hours trying to find a way to help her. I also found great comfort in knowing that God has His plan and He will work it out. He is bigger than I am and bigger than anything I face in life. If He is allowing it to happen, I can trust Him. I know that He is working for His will and for my best. When life doesn’t make sense and I am hurting, I have had to learn to let it go, trusting that Someone greater than myself can work it out. I am so thankful that the working out of His will is not depended on me or my perfection. But is rooted in an All powerful God and that he lets me come along for the ride, even when I want to get off. Staying under or in the hard times til He has finished teaching me has been hard at times, but the lessons I learned in those times are invaluable. My team, His Word and trusting in His love for me and His ability to work out His will, is what helped me get through the hard times in life.
Jackie Bruce, South America