Timothy Series: Veteran Missionary
I know a man that served as a missionary for multiple decades in a couple Asian and African contexts. When Rebecca and I were preparing for the mission field ourselves, I was able to have a conversation with this veteran missionary. I remember standing in his kitchen one day and asking, “If you can, go back to your early days as a missionary. What do you wish you would have known? And what wisdom can you give me as I prepare for those first years myself?”
This proved to be the right question. He proceeded to give me a few nuggets of wisdom to store away for later. One of them I want to share with you now. This is what he said,
“Prayer might be the most important thing you ever do.”
Yesterday, as part of my ministry training, a co-worker and I went on a prayer walk in our city. When we go on prayer walks, we look like two ordinary men simply having a conversation while walking amongst locals and tourists. That is because we pray aloud as we go. Yesterday, we found a few different spots to sit down and pray a moment before moving along. In one of these locations, I was overwhelmed by God’s heart for these people. I found myself praying aloud for the people in the city that do not know Him. Praying that God would use Italians and Sicilians to reach their own brothers, sisters, and friends. As we began to walk again towards another location, one of my first language teachers noticed me and called my name. It had been a couple months since I last saw her. In fact, the last time I saw her I was informing her that I would be changing language schools. In that same conversation, she was telling me about something very challenging she was walking through in that very moment of her life. My last day at this school I had an opportunity to pray for her.
Now here we are in the city, a couple months have passed, and I’m having a very elementary conversation using the little Italian I have. Except, I am still in what I’ll call “the block phase.” I have a lot of language in my head. But when I get in real life conversations, I freeze. It is like there is a block in my mind and I can’t even bring up what I know. Truthfully, I walked away from her feeling more discouraged than anything. Questions raced through my mind. Shouldn’t I be further along in language than I am? What if my changing language schools hurt her and damaged any witness I might have had in her life? Will I ever be able to effectively use the Italian language in a conversation and clearly communicate the good news of Jesus? We walked a little further and found another bench to sit on in another high traffic spot. With these questions racing through my mind, the wisdom from this veteran missionary came to my mind.
“Prayer might be the most important thing you ever do.”
The lies the enemy was trying to feed into my mind were quickly overcome by the truth of this statement. There is no escaping that I hope to have meaningful, deep spiritual conversation one day in the Italian language. I hope to be able to clearly communicate spiritual realities to local Italians and Sicilians in a language they know. All of these matter. But right now I am holding onto this little nugget of wisdom. I am so grateful I was on a prayer walk during this moment. Paul tells us to “pray without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:16). However, if I was not in an intentional posture of prayer, I’m not sure I would have had the reflex to immediately take this to prayer. So, right there on this park bench, I lifted my voice to Jesus out loud in my own native tongue, and asked Jesus to do the work that only He can do. I must be present, willing, and available. But only Jesus can bring transformation to a broken heart far from Him.
Prayer very well might be the most important thing I will ever do. It may be the most important thing you ever do.
So, let’s follow the wisdom of this veteran missionary, and commit ourselves to this important work.
