[Faith-talk] {Spam?} Daily Thought for Saturday, May 28, 2016

[Paul Smith]

Hello and greetings to you on yet another hot day in the 
Baltimore-Washington metro area.  If it's hot where you are, I hope 
that your AC is running good.  For the rest of you I hope that your day 
is faring well, by God's matchless grace and His providential care.

This article is dedicated to senior citizens and missions.  Now before 
you who are not senior citizens tune this author out, just remember 
that, if God wills it, you will eventually become part of this 
community.  The article in question was written by Ronica Stromberg and 
is entitled "A Peculiar Call," rendered as follows:

Mission leader Gary Thies sees proof daily that a person is never too 
old, too uneducated, or too isolated to do God's work.  At age 51 with 
no college education, he himself launched one of the world's largest 
and fastest-growing missions organizations, Missions Central, in the 
cornfields of Iowa.  At age 68 (in 2012) he continues to run the organization.

He remembers the day in 1994 when Dr. Richard Kapfer, a Lutheran church 
leader, offered him a position as their denomination's first deployed 
Mission Development Counselor.

"The timing is all wrong," I told him," Gary says.  He went on to 
explain all the reasons he felt unqualified:  He lived near tiny 
Mapleton, Iowa, and always had.  How could he accomplish much for God 
in the middle of nowhere?

He'd never worked anywhere but the local bank.  How could he direct 
missionaries overseas when he had no missionary experience himself?

He had no college education but had worked hard to become president of 
the bank.  If he left his 33-year career and this mission work failed, 
what would he do then?

He planned to retire at 60, not at 51.  Wouldn't later be a better time 
for "God's work?"

Dr. Kapfer listened to Gary's reasons in silence and finally said, 
"Well, maybe that's your plan, but maybe that's not God's plan."

On the two-hour drive home from Dr. Kapfer's office, Gary replayed in 
his mind what the church leader had said.

"I realized I had been thinking too much about myself, and what I 
wanted," Gary says.

He had wanted to do God's work _someday _somewhere, but what if God 
were calling him to do it _right _here, _right _now?

"I had no idea what lay ahead," Gary says, "but I knew my banking 
career was done."

God had chosen him.  A scripture verse came to his mind:  "But you are 
a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's own people, in 
order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of Him who called you out 
of darkness into His marvelous light." (1 Peter 2:9).

"Leaving the security of my career to start a mission organization 
without a single supporter certainly qualified me as peculiar," he 
says.  He promptly decided he needed other peculiar people to work 
alongside him.

Lord, he prayed, will You give me a four-drawer file of people who are 
not normal?

He explains, "Normal people might see a need and say, The congregation 
should do this or the pastor should do this.  I needed not normal 
people who would see a need and step forward to meet it."

That year, his wife, Maxine, joined him in working out of their 
basement.  Gary began speaking at churches about the need for 
missionaries.  He used his own savings to pay travel expenses to visit 
75 countries to film the work of missionaries.  Other not-normal people 
volunteered to help and to support missionaries.  His organization was growing.

In 2003, he and Maxine had their basement nearly filled with 
four-drawer file cabinets and office furnishings, and missionaries and 
supporters visited and stayed at their house continually.

"We can't keep this up anymore," Maxine said, worn out.  "We don't even 
have a home.  Who are all of these people coming and going?"

Gary and Maxine needed a change.  So they prayed.

Shortly after that, the five-acre farmstead across the road came up for 
sale.  Gary realized his 33 years of banking and working in real estate 
had prepared him to make the purchase.  He and Maxine bought the five 
acres, farmhouse, and outbuildings with their savings.

Local farmers and other volunteers helped convert the lower part of the 
house into offices and the upper part into a dormitory for 
missionaries.  They also converted the hog house into a fellowship hall 
and the barn into a worship center and museum.  They hauled 21 loads of 
manure from the barn and power-washed it before moving in used pews and 
church furnishings donated by many churches.  Individuals donated and 
installed a heat system and a nineteenth-century stained glass window.

Today, Mission Central in western Iowa is helping to support 52 career 
missionaries and many of the nearly 500 volunteers.  There are 8000 
individual families and 1100 congregations of various denominations 
supporting it with prayer and finances.  Mission Central helps to send 
missionaries into 70 countries.  It operates with no overhead for the 
facilities and 59 volunteers who receive no pay.  Financial donations 
go directly to sending missionaries and supporting them overseas.

People hear this and say, "That's isn't possible.  No one can do this."

"Normal people cant," Gary says.  "But with God nothing is impossible."

Over the past 17 years God has made clear what Gary now tells others:  
"God doesn't call the equipped but equips the called at anytime, anywhere."

Being blind or otherwise disabled is no excuse for not being a 
missionary.  Look at people like David Ring and Joni Earickson Tada, 
among others.  Of course God has to equip you, but you must be willing 
to follow His lead.  Over more than 35 years Bartimaeus Ministries 
International has been sending Gospel tracts primarily to blind people 
in eastern Europe, a mission field that the Lord has called me to, in 
Esperanto, where they are translated into the various Slavic languages. 
This would not have been possible without His lead, guidance and 
encouragement.  Donations have come in from nameless individuals to 
help continue the work.  For instance, this Sunday's weekly post in 
Esperanto poses an interesting question:  Can a true Christian at the 
same time be a patriot? Those who receive our weekly posts will learn 
what the Lord has told me to write, but unfortunately it's all in 
Esperanto.  Now, some may consider this a small missionary effort, but 
the Lord will, in His way, will and time expand it to where He wants it.

And that will do for today.  Don't forget that tomorrow in this space 
will be the weekly Bible trivia game poem, then from the New Testament. 
Until then may the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob just keep us safe, 
individually and collectively, in these last days in which we live.  
Your Christian friend and brother, Paul