Hi, welcome to Grace to Every Tribe, the ministry website and blog of AJ & Ruth Gibson. We are missionaries to the unreached people of the earth, serving with To Every Tribe and the Center for Pioneer Church Planting. We’re glad you’re taking the time to visit us. Please feel free to have a look around.
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Our Story: a brief biography of our family
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Our Vision: our understanding of missions
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Our Ministry: the ministry of To Every Tribe
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Our Mission: what we do at To Every Tribe
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Our Beliefs: our statement of faith
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Our Distinctives: a few things that define who we are
As missionaries with To Every Tribe we live in an amazing community of families and individuals who have this in common: reckless abandon to the cause of taking the name of Jesus to the nations for the glory of God. That commitment comes with a high price tag. The following is an email that I sent out today to the To Every Tribe and Center for Pioneer Church Planting family, reflecting on what we face as frontline missionaries and how we respond to it. I share it with you for your edification and to encourage you to pray for us.
Dear CPCP community (and larger To Every Tribe community),
I wanted to take a moment to make an observation about something that seems to be going on in our community and then to make some suggestions about how we might respond to it.
It seems to me—and I’m sure that many of you have made the same observation—that we as a community are going through a period of trial and spiritual attack. Many (most? all?) of us are currently facing varying degrees of life, family, and personal difficulty beyond what seems to be “normal” (whatever that is). Sickness, physical difficulties, sin and heart struggles, family struggles, depression, etc. seem to abound among us these days.
In light of these difficulties in our community, it’s hard for me not to conclude that the Enemy is on the offensive and that he’s working overtime to discourage, harm, and disillusion us as servants of the King. This, of course, should come as no surprise to us. Jesus himself frequently warned us that as his emissaries we will be the particular objects of Satan’s wrath. Paul reminds us that the Christian life in general is one of warfare with unseen realities (Eph 6:12) and that particular trials are often messengers of Satan to torment us (2 Cor 12:7).
Those of us who have been at To Every Tribe for much time have learned that our particular ministry (pioneer work among the unreached) makes us high-priority targets for the Enemy. Unreached regions are some of Satan’s last untouched strongholds and he will not surrender them without a vicious fight. And he’s wise enough not to wait until we’ve reached his territory to begin his attack on us. He’s dead-set on derailing us as quickly as possible. And MAKE NO MISTAKE ABOUT IT, the troubles and tribulations that you’re facing now are just a foretaste of what you’ll face when you and your family actually settle your home deep within the Enemy’s territory on the field someday.
In light of all of this, I’ve been meditating on 2 Cor 12:7-10 lately. It’s been extremely clarifying and encouraging to me. Here are some truths that emerge from Paul’s own testimony of Satan’s attack on him. I’d like to ask you to consider them as you face your own particular battles these days.
Although the attack comes from Satan, it is God himself who sends the trial. He’s sovereign over it (cf., Job). Paul indicates that the thorn was given to him by God for a very specific purpose (v. 7).
These attacks are means of tormenting us. The word “harass” in v. 7 means to “strike sharply” and is used to refer to a tormenting and painful attack. Satan’s motives are clear. He’s a terrorist carrying out all manner of guerrilla warfare on us to defeat us.
God sometimes allows these attacks as means of purifying and sanctifying us and to protect us from our own sinful hearts. The thorn was sent to Paul by God specifically to keep him from “becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations” that God had given him.
God will not always take away trials when we ask. When God declines our request for the removal of our trial, it is not an indication of his lack of concern for us, but of his kind and loving desire to bring us into a fuller joy-giving experience of the power of his grace in our weakness. Only in the throes of the trial can we experience the power of Christ “resting on” us (v. 9).
When we come to the point of glad surrender (v. 9) to God’s will and work in our lives we will arrive at the place called “contentment”—the quietest and most peaceful place in the universe to be (in spite of “weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities”).
While I can (and should) pray to God for deliverance from a trial (v. 8), my most earnest and insistent prayer should be for a fuller (more “perfect”, v. 9) experience of God’s grace and power in my life in time of weakness, resulting in my sanctification and Christ’s glory (v. 10—“for the sake of Christ”). Like Jesus, our requests to God can contain a dual contingency: “take this cup from me…yet not what I will, but what you will…”. Similarly, we can ask, “take this trial from me…nevertheless do whatever is necessary for my greatest good and your greatest glory.”
Finally, let me encourage us to pray…earnestly pray. We desperately need God’s grace and power to help us endure the Enemy’s attacks and to fulfill our mission. In times like these it’s imperative that our hearts and thoughts and conversations be consumed with an unceasing prayerfulness that comes as naturally and consistently as the breaths we take. I encourage us to pray for ourselves, each other, and those who have been part of our community in the past and are now in ministry.
Grace and peace to you all,
-aj
2011-12 Center for Pioneer Church Planting staff, students, and families.
During yesterday’s Sunday morning message, Joseph Najera, one of the elders at our church quoted Abraham Kuyper’s famous statement about Jesus’ authority:
“There is not one square inch of the entire creation about which Jesus Christ does not cry out, ‘This is mine! This belongs to me!’”
That’s why I’m a missionary. The missionary task is much more than preaching a message of the sinner’s personal salvation from hell. It includes that, but it’s much more. The missionary task is to take the message of a sovereign Jesus whom God has made “both Lord and Christ” (Acts 2:36) and with all the authority of a commissioned ambassador, proclaim the message of his rule.
We take the message of Jesus, to whom has been given all authority in heaven and on earth, and call people to obey all that he has commanded (Matthew 28:18-20).
Isaiah 52:7 puts it like this:
“How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, ‘Your God reigns!’”
“Your God reigns!” Jesus reigns! That’s the “gospel of the kingdom” proclaimed by Jesus and the apostles. When the reign and authority of Jesus are proclaimed, there’s just one appropriate response:
“Submit to (lit. “kiss”) God’s royal son, or he will become angry, and you will be destroyed in the midst of all your activities— for his anger flares up in an instant.” (Psalm 2:12, NLT)
Jesus’ message was simple: “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel” (Mark 1:15). When the kingdom of God is preached, rebels are commanded to fall down before Christ in broken, humble repentance. “At the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.” (Philippians 2:10-11)
That is why Paul was so adamant that the goal of his ministry was “to bring the Gentiles to obedience” (Romans 15:18). He preached the gospel “to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations” (Rom 1:5; cf. 16:26).
The mountains of southern Mexico are exactly the kind of place where Isaiah’s 52:7’s message needs to be preached. Upon those mountains we run and proclaim “Your God reigns!” Our mission is to press the kingdom of God and the authority of Christ deeply into these mountains.
To Every Tribe is pleased to announce that David Sitton’s new book, Reckless Abandon is now available for pre-order. The book will be officially launched in September at the Desiring God National Conference in Minneapolis, MN. Please visit the book’s website here and pre-order a copy here.
Book Description:
David Sitton was barely a man when he left surfing and partying to live in Papua New Guinea, a faraway, perilous land. Leaving Texas with a Bible, a suitcase (and a surfboard), he took the gospel into cannibalistic areas to people who had never heard the name of Jesus. For thirty-four years God has used him to help train missionaries, spread the gospel and establish dozens of churches in remote regions. Through this book, experience the amazing things God did as David recklessly abandoned his will to the will of God.
The last couple of months I’ve been slowly and prayerfully working on putting together a list of “core values” that define who we are and what we strive for as a family. My goal has been to create a memorable teaching tool for our kids that will provide a basis for everything we try to teach them about living life as followers of Jesus.
What I came up with was six brief statements that hopefully summarize the essential elements of Christian living.
With these six statements, I want to teach my children/family to…
…Love, value and pursue Jesus above all else in life. This is the basis for all the other values. If my kids don’t get this one, none of the rest matter.
…completely surrender their life to Jesus’ lordship.
…live for others and not themselves.
…live in a culture of grace and gospel where love, repentance, and forgiveness are a way of life.
…daily, relentlessly pursue sanctification from sin and transformation into Christlikeness.
Here is the prayer update that we sent out earlier this week. If you are interested in receive these updates via email, click on the “prayer updates” link on the sidebar of this blog.
Anyone who has spent any extended time in missions is aware that when God sends a missionary to the field, he not only is intent on doing a work of grace through the missionary, but also in the missionary. Cross-cultural ministry can be an amazingly powerful sanctification exercise. It has a way of bringing sinful attitudes, biases, habits, heart idols, and self-dependence to the surface. It has always been amazing to me how actively God is working to transform me into his image even as he uses me to minister to others. The missionary’s heart is just as much one of God’s mission fields as is the place to which he is called to serve.
I was recently reflecting on this with a missionary friend of mine. We were discussing how clear it is to us that in every mission activity we are just as aware and amazed by what God is doing in our lives to humble, transform, and purify us as we are at what he’s doing through us to minister to others. Then my friend commented on how little this part of God’s work (his work in the missionary’s own life) gets mentioned in our missionary prayer letters. At that moment I determined to use part of our next prayer update (this one!) to share something about what God is doing in the mission field of our hearts, as well as what he’s doing in the mission field of Mexico.
The boys catching crab with friends in Mexico
This last year and particularly the last few months have been a time of great growth and sanctification in our lives. We have become increasingly aware of how every single trial, every single hardship, every single inter-personal conflict, every single need, and every single blessing is designed by God to accomplish what he predestined us for (Romans 8:29): “to be conformed to the image of his Son”.
I’m not talking here about anything earth-shattering. No headlines here. I’m just talking about how God has graciously, progressively, and persistently revealed to us areas of pride, selfishness, self-will, and impatience. He has kindly shown us sins such as worry, anxiety, and faithlessness that lie deeply hidden within our hearts. And although the revealing of our heart idols is invariably painful, God’s grace in weeding them out of us is an altogether joyful experience. At the same time he has been graciously working to cultivate within us the fruit of his Spirit—things like love, kindness, patience, compassion, etc. For all of this we are extremely thankful. God is good!
So what does this mean for you? It means that as you pray for us you can pray for our own personal spiritual needs as well as our ministry needs. I would challenge you to use Scripture prayers such as Colossians 1:9-14, Ephesians 1:15-23 & 3:14-21, and Philippians 1:9-11 to pray for us. Pray for our sanctification and growth in grace. Pray for our continued transformation into the likeness of our Savoir. Pray that the gospel that we preach will have a rich dwelling in our own lives. Pray that the kingdom of God would fully come in our hearts as well as in the mission field of Mexico.
Street Soccer
Not only has God been working in us, he’s also been working through us. Here are some ministry highlights from the last few months.
In our last prayer letter we asked for prayer for our housing situation. God graciously answered our prayers and provided us with a rental house directly across the street from the To Every Tribe ministry buildings. Thank you for your prayers! Being able to live so close to where we serve is a great blessing. Several days before the opportunity to rent the house opened up, Jonathan prayed in family devotions that God would give us a place close to the To Every Tribe apartments (where most of the other missionary families live) so that he and Christian could still play with the other kids during school recess and after school. God’s provision of the house across the street was a special faith-building answer to prayer for us.
Our student mission trips into northeastern Mexico with the students from the Center for Pioneer Church Planting have continued. An increasing challenge for us has been the escalating violence in that area. Each time we cross the border we are literally entering a war zone. Gunfights, grenade attacks, carjackings, and kidnappings have become a way of life here. Please pray for our safety as we seek to faithfully continue the ministry that we’ve been given. And please pray for wisdom as we seek to develop relationships and share the gospel there.
In January we had the opportunity as a family to visit the little fishing village where our students are church planting. Normally I go in with our students without the family, so it was great for Ruth and the kids to finally take a trip there with me. It was a special blessing for Ruth to be able to minister to Minerva and Ariana (two believing ladies for whom we’ve asked prayer in the past). Jonathan and Christian also had a great time. They ended up spending most of their time roaming the territory with new friends.
At the end of February we were privileged to make a visit back to Monterrey as a family. Monterrey is the city in Mexico where we lived and ministered for five years before coming to To Every Tribe in 2009. The primary purpose of our visit was to participate in the second anniversary services of New Life Baptist Church, the church that we helped to plant and pastor. I was privileged to preach two times, and we were happy to reconnect with these dear people whom we love so much. It was a great joy to be back and see how the Lord is continuing to work. We were also very thankful for the great time of fellowship with our friends and former colleagues and students from the Christian University of the Americas.
We continue to enjoy being actively involved in our local church here in South Texas. We are so thankful for the wonderful body of believers that God has given us to be a part of.
We are continuing to seek the Lord’s direction concerning our future ministry in Oaxaca, Mexico. Please continue to pray for us in this regard. Lord willing, I’ll be making a trip down to Oaxaca this summer. Part of that trip will be to spend time with the To Every Tribe missionaries there, but it will also be somewhat of a survey trip as we explore the possibility of moving there.
The birth of our fourth child is just around the corner! He’s due the middle of May, but we have a track record of early births (anywhere from 2 to 4 weeks early), so we wouldn’t be surprised if he came in early May or even late in April.
Thank you all for your faithful prayer and support for our family and our ministry. In addition to the prayer requests mentioned earlier, here are some others:
Safety in Mexico (we have several trips planned the next couple of months)
Church planting ministry in northern Mexico
Wisdom as we provide leadership and direction for our ministry’s activity in Mexico
The salvation of our children
Our continued growth in grace as a family
Direction for future ministry
Our Suburban in front of the To Every Tribe cabin in the fishing village in Mexico
Note: Because of security concerns and the searchability of the internet, complete names and locations are avoided in this report.
On November 8, eleven members of the To Every Tribe staff and CPCP student body left Los Fresnos, TX for a two-week trip to the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca (pronounced wuh-hah-kuh). We were accompanied by a dentist, a nurse, and one To Every Tribe missionary who was heading to Oaxaca to join his church planting team there. The purpose of our trip was to conduct four days of medical and dental clinics in the northwestern Oaxaca village of E.J. The trip to E.J. is just over 1,000 miles. Once in Oaxaca, we were joined by our church planting team, two Mexican doctors, and two Mixtecan interpreters who would help us bridge the language barrier between our team’s English and Spanish and E.J.’s Mixtecan dialect.
God’s hand of blessing upon us was evident from the first day that we left south Texas. The trip had been bathed in prayer and fasting. We were deeply aware of the dangers involved in traveling through Mexico, and had sought the Lord’s help in every facet of the trip. A caravan of three vehicles, a trailer, and 14 Americans traveling through Mexico attracts a good deal of attention. But God was gracious, and our trip both to and from Oaxaca was amazingly free of problems of any kind. Throughout the two weeks we could see a clear one-to-one correspondence between our specific prayer requests and the Lord’s intervention to answer those requests.
The main part of our journey to Oaxaca took three days, bringing us to our first major stop—the Oaxacan city where our church planting team is temporarily based. This city is located just 45 miles by road (18 miles as the crow flies) on the other side of the mountain from E.J. On the fourth day of our trip, we made the 5 hour journey over the mountain to E.J. This jaunt took us from 5,500 feet above sea level up and over the mountain’s 9,000 foot peak, and then back down to the 2,500 feet of E.J.
A Mixtec village of about 2,000 people, E.J. has been a ministry target of To Every Tribe for several years. As a ministry, we began to visit E.J. in 2003 and over the years have conducted 6 clinics there. The goal of each of these clinics has been to open doors for the future arrival of a To Every Tribe church planting team. This year’s clinic was especially important for us as we now have a church planting team preparing to move into the village within the next few months.
Ministry in this village is particularly challenging. Access to the village from modern cities over the rugged mountains of Oaxaca is probably one of the lesser challenges. The vowel-abundant Mixtecan dialect spoken there sounds more like a southeast Asian language than Spanish. (Here’s an example of what Mixtec looks like in its written form: Á xîni-un ndáa ndo’ó kití kúú-a.) The life and culture of the Mixtec people seems foreign—even to those of us who feel very comfortable and “at home” in Mexican culture. The people seem distant, their faces hard and their eyes hollow. Their cold, dead-pan gazes seemed totally unresponsive to our smiles and greetings. It only took a few minutes in the village for us to realize that these are people whose lives are hard, who know little joy and peace, and who have no trust of outsiders.
Although there are doubtless numerous historical and cultural causes for this gloomy ethos, the spiritual factor is clearly the most prominent. Mexican Mixtec religion is syncretistic, blending elements of Catholicism and ancient Mixtec animism. Evidence of folk Catholicism mixed with the worship of deities from the local pantheon is abundant—from roadside shrines to the decoration of local graveyards to floral arrangements placed on the front of homes. E.J. still celebrates an elaborate annual ritual honoring “El Señor de la Lluvia” (the Rain God) which includes the building of an altar and the sacrifice of animals whose blood is thrown on the altar.
Undoubtedly the most important and striking fact about the religious life of this and the surrounding Mixtec villages is the total lack of any gospel witness. These Mixtec villagers, classified as “rural peasants” by the Mexican government, form a tribal community that is as “unreached” with the gospel as any other tribal community on any lesser developed continent in the world. What an incredible privilege to be part of bringing them the message of God’s love and grace!
As mentioned earlier, life in the Mixtec villages is hard. Agriculture is important, but difficult in the rugged mountain terrain. Employment is scarce, forcing many men to leave their families and villages to look for jobs in other areas such as Mexico City, Baja California, and the U.S. (southern California). In the 4 days that we were in E.J., I met several people who had been to the U.S. to work. Although the government has made significant steps to improve the livelihood of these people (roads and electricity have been introduced within the last decade), village life is still very dangerous and backward by modern standards. For example, the people still do not use outhouses—facilities are “open air” (which contributes to an abundance of problems with intestinal worms).
Land wars with neighboring villages are a constant source of violence and conflict. Just last month a twelve-year-old boy from E.J. was killed by men from a neighboring village because his family’s corn patch was allegedly located on land controlled by that village. One evening halfway through our visit, two armed men came up to our camp to inform us that there would be some shooting that night down the mountain near the river that our hill overlooked. They said they just wanted to warn us so that we “wouldn’t be afraid” when we heard the gunshots. As predicted, we could hear multiple gunshots at night throughout the remainder of our stay—evidence of the ongoing land conflict that we’d stumbled upon.
Earning the trust and favor of people whose lives and histories are stained with violence and abuse is not easy. But on this trip, by God’s grace, we saw the centuries-old barriers begin to tumble. After several years of conducting dental and medical clinics in the village it seems that we have finally “earned the right to be heard.” As the week progressed, we witnessed the people opening up and beginning to smile more and express confidence. Hundreds of personal interactions throughout the week between our team and the people we ministered to provided us with many opportunities to show God’s love in very tangible ways, even if we were generally unable to communicate to them in their own language. In the four days of the clinics, God gave us the grace to minister to over 500 people from E.J. and at least 6 other neighboring villages (one of which was located three hours away in the neighboring state of Guerrero).
God is good, and he is clearly at work in the region of E.J. to make his name and grace famous among people who for hundreds of years have lived with no access to the gospel of Jesus Christ. Please pray for To Every Tribe as we continue to work among the Mixtec people of northwestern Oaxaca. Pray for “fruit that remains” from our ministry these last two weeks in Oaxaca. And please pray for our church planting team as they seek to move into the village of E.J. within the next few months.
But God’s grace was not only at work in the lives of the villagers of E.J. Perhaps the most amazing thing about this trip was the work of grace that God was carrying out concurrently in the lives of our team. He worked powerfully in us, in some cases confirming our calling and commitment to pioneer church planting, in other cases awakening within us a specific burden for the unreached Mixtec tribes of Oaxaca. Only in eternity will we be able to see the long-term spiritual results of our humble efforts the last two weeks. Soli Deo Gloria.
“I have seen, at different times, the smoke of a thousand villages–villages whose people are without Christ, without God, and without hope in this world.”
So wrote Robert Moffat (1795-1883), the Scottish pioneer missionary to Africa. It was this statement by Moffat that inspired David Livingston, who married Moffat’s oldest daughter, to give his life to missions.
I thought of Moffat’s famous quote several times this last week as my friend and co-worker, Chris B* and I traveled to the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca. (Note: Because of the searchability of the internet and security concerns for our church planting teams, the full names of our missionaries and of towns where we work will not be used.) Our long and meandering journey, which took us through some of southern Mexico’s most treacherous mountainous regions, led us past dozens of little hidden villages where the gospel has not yet been preached. Each spire of smoke rising from those villages represented a home occupied by people who have yet to hear of God’s reconciling grace in his Son, Jesus Christ. Just that though alone made my trip a thrilling experience.
The purpose of my trip was to accompany Chris in his move to join the newly launched To Every Tribe church planting team that he will be leading in Oaxaca. The team is currently based in a town strategically located across the mountain from the group of villages that the team plans to target for church planting. In addition to accompanying Chris down, our plan was to use the visit to spend time praying and discussing the team’s plans and strategies for moving to one of those unreached villages.
Adventurous Road Trip
Traveling through Mexico was, to say the least, an adventure. Our plan was to make the trip in two long days by primarily following a series of very nice toll roads and major highways down to Oaxaca (once we reach Oaxaca, it’s necessary to leave the highway system and follow less-friendly roads through the mountains). The toll roads tend to be much safer than other other highways, which are becoming increasing dangerous for travel due to escalating violence throughout the country.
Taking the major highways, however, does not ensure one’s safety. Last month, the I* family, part of the Oaxaca church planting team, was stopped and searched by drug cartels on a busy section of highway just a couple of hours south of the border. For us, as it turned out, the biggest problem was not drug cartels, but corrupt local police and military checkpoints.
The first day of our trip started out with a bang in Matamoros, the border city in northern Mexico where we enter the country. Upon crossing the Texas-Mexico border we were almost immediately pulled over by a local police truck. Four armed policemen jumped out of the truck and surrounded our vehicle. They asked us to get out of the truck and “assume the position” behind it. Upon being frisked they found a (very) small personal pocketknife in Chris’ pocket. This, they declared, was a “concealed weapon”. They threatened us with prison and large fines. As they talked, the threat went from three days in prison and a $15,000 peso fine each to three years in prison and a $40,000 peso fine each. It was quickly evident that their intent was to extort us (i.e., get a bribe). We, however, had no intention of giving them any money and so the ordeal ended up lasting for quite a while. Their leader had us sit in the back seat of their truck where he continued to threaten us. All the while his comrades continued to search our truck. They eventually realized that we were not going to cooperate with them and let us go. It wasn’t until later that night that we realized that as they searched our vehicle (while we were distracted), they had helped themselves to an IPod and some of our money.
That was probably the most exciting part of the trip to Oaxaca. A three-hour stop at a military checkpoint later on in the day ensured that our first day’s journey wasn’t going to get us very far into the country. These military checkpoints are becoming increasingly common as the government steps up its efforts to stem the tide of guns flowing into the north-eastern Mexico war between drug cartels.
We ended up getting our truck searched on three occasions on the trip down. The third search took place the second day of the journey when we were stopped by federal police deep in the heart of south-central Mexico. I was frisked again (this time it was a very thorough, “personal” frisk ) and we were asked a lot of questions, but since the search was conducted by very professional, “legit” federal police and not corrupt local ones, it was not a bad experience.
Overall, the road trip was outstanding. Mexico is a breathtakingly beautiful country. But even more enjoyable than the scenery was the great fellowship that I enjoyed with Chris. Chris and I are both big dreamers when it comes to reaching unreached people in Mexico and we passed the hours talking strategy, plans, dreams, and team development.
Chris with the maps that the team purchased from the Census Bureau
Maps, Maps, and more Maps
Upon arriving at our destination in Oaxaca, I enjoyed a brief day-and-a-half visit with the team. We spent a lot of time enjoying fellowship, seeing the area, and talking to people (at stores, in the street, in markets and in the town plaza). But perhaps the highlight of my stay with the team was the maps that they had recently purchased from the Mexican Census Bureau in the state capital, Oaxaca City. These were detailed topographical and demographic maps of the entire area of western Oaxaca. These 30+ maps provide invaluable information about the location and size of every village in the region. It was a thrilling experience to pour over these maps which even include the exact location of the residences in each village. I was again reminded of Moffat’s “smoke from a thousand villages” quote. I pray that God will be pleased to use us to reach some of these people with the gospel.
The whole experience reminded me of Paul’s words in Romans 15:20-21:
“…and thus I make it my ambition to preach the gospel, not where Christ has already been named, lest I build on someone else’s foundation, but as it is written, “Those who have never been told of him will see, and those who have never heard will understand.”
Lord willing I will be returning to Oaxaca in November with a group of CPCP students and medical professionals to conduct medical and dental clinics in the village where the team plans to church plant. Please pray for us as we continue to plan that trip. We are praying that our work there will serve to open the door for the team to move into the village.
Studying the census maps of western Oaxaca
A closeup shot of a village on the census maps. The dots are inhabited homes. (Click to enlarge)
Return Trip
My return trip to Texas yesterday proved to be an adventure as well. The day began with an arduous six hour trip through the mountains to Oaxaca City where I was supposed to catch a flight to Mexico City and then on to Matamoros. When we arrived in the city we found out that the bridge on the highway leading to the airport had been washed out by flooding earlier in the morning. Thankfully we were able to find a back dirt road leading to the airport! Once my flight left, I thought the adventure was over. I was wrong. In the Mexico City airport a security official thought he saw a knife in my backpack when he examined it in the scanning machine. After searching my bag twice and running it through the scanner again, he finally let me go.
There’s more. After boarding the plane for my flight from Mexico City to Matamoros, we were informed by the captain that they were having some technical difficulties with the plane and that we were going to have to taxi to a maintenance hangar for repairs. We did and were told that the problem was fixed. We then taxied back to the runway and took off. But immediately after takeoff I could tell that something was wrong because instead of lifting up high out of the city the plane kept low and begin to circle. After about 10 minutes of circling the captain informed us that they were having a “strange” (his word) problem and that we were going to have to return to the airport. By this time it was nearly 9:30 at night and I was ready to end my journey and get home. God was gracious and our landing was uneventful. We deplaned out on the tarmac somewhere and were taken by bus back to the terminal where we awaited our fate. Thankfully the airline was able to round up another plane and we were on our way again about 2 1/2 hours later than scheduled.
I was picked up from the Matamoros airport by friends from To Every Tribe. On our trip back to Texas we were stopped at another military checkpoint and briefly searched. The solder doing the search told me to be careful because there were some gunfights in the city that evening. There have been quite a few gun and grenade battles between the military and the drug cartels (and between rival cartels) in Matamoros the last couple of weeks, so we knew that his warning was serious. But again, God was gracious and we made it home safely about 1:00 this morning.
PRAY!
I want to thank all of you who prayed for our trip to Oaxaca. It was a wonderful experience. God was very good. I decided write this detailed account of the trip so that you all would have a better idea of how to pray for us–especially as we travel into northern Mexico at least twice a month. We covet your prayers.
“I have but one desire now–to live a life of reckless abandon, putting all my energy and strength into it.”
–Ed McCully, Missionary Martyr (one of the ‘Ecuador Five’)
As a missionary, Ed McCully’s quote resonates with me. The longer I live and the more I read the New Testament, the more attractive the concept of living a life of “reckless abandon” for Jesus and the Gospel becomes to me.
The idea of reckless abandon for the sake of Jesus and the kingdom is not a new one. In Luke 14, when thronged by a multitude of curious, would-be-but-still-largely-uncommitted followers, Jesus turned and frankly declared: “Any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple” (v. 33).
Ed McCully (left) with Peter Fleming and Jim Elliot
These words are among the most radical of all of Jesus’ radical sayings. The finality and scope of Jesus’ ultimatum takes our breath away. It sounds so . . . well . . . reckless. “Renounce” is such a strong word . . . like “abandon.” And “all?” “Renounce all?”Really? This sounds so unrealistic to people who are ever accustomed to emasculating Jesus’ hard sayings. Such reckless demands do not jive well with the American Dream — even the “Christianized” version. Can Jesus really be asking us to recklessly abandon all that we have to be his disciples?
Everyone seems to agree Jesus’ words apply to those called to be missionaries. Yet, how do Jesus’ words apply to Christians who have not been called to the mission field? At To Every Tribe, we are fond of saying all believers are either goers, senders, or disobedient. So, what about the “senders” among us? Are Jesus’ words of self-denial and renunciation any less applicable to “senders” than they are to “goers?”
The answer must certainly be, “NO!” The difference between “goers” and “senders” is not the difference between sacrificing and not sacrificing. Nor is it the difference between being recklessly abandoned and being cautiously calculated. Those are the differences between “goers” and “disobedient.” The difference between “goers” and “senders” is purely functional. One carries the gospel to foreign lands while the other stays at home and facilitates that going. Both sacrifice. Both renounce all to follow Jesus. Both take up their cross. Both die to themselves. Both live lives of reckless abandon for Jesus.
Recklessly Abandoned Senders: Renouncing All
So, what does a recklessly abandoned sender look like? When Jesus says we must renounce all we have, he must, at the very least, mean we must renounce all personal claim to our money and material possessions. Our things, our money, our assets are not ours. Renouncing all we possess means we bring it all to Jesus and lay it at his feet. We surrender it all to him. We cease to view it as a means of making our lives more comfortable or secure. This means our assets are no longer personal assets, but kingdom assets. They are gospel assets. Jesus does not give us money so we can build our own personal kingdom. He graciously calls us into his kingdom and, then, gives us material resources for the advance of that kingdom — his kingdom, not our kingdom.
This is surely what Jesus meant in Matthew 6 when he said “seek first the kingdom of God” in the context of speaking about money and material goods. People who are not citizens of Jesus’ kingdom lay up treasures on earth. They work, toil, and sweat to build around themselves a cushion of financial protection and stability. They labor to amass property and possessions to improve the status and comfort of their own kingdom. They do so because their money is where their heart is. It is their treasure, Jesus says.
A New Kingdom
However, followers of Jesus have forsaken the kingdom of personal enrichment and have entered the kingdom of God. They have a new King and, therefore, renounce their former dogged pursuit of material accumulation because they cannot serve two masters (Matt. 6:24).
This transfer of kingdoms results in a radical re-evaluation of the role money plays in the lives of kingdom citizens. They “do not love the world, nor the things that are in the world” (1 John 2:15). They are no longer driven by “the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions” (v. 16). They are freed from the love of money (Heb. 13:5). The things they once considered to be their “gains” — their personal assets — are now counted as loss for the sake of Jesus (Phil. 3:7). They seek his kingdom first, and begin to accumulate wealth in heaven (Matt. 6:33). They realize the quality, success, and value of their life does not consist in the abundance of their possessions (Luke 12:15). Their expectations and desires for this life change. Since their treasure is in heaven, they are no longer looking for their kingdom to come in this life. They realize the only material things Jesus has promised us in this life are food and clothing (Matt. 6:25-34), and, with those two things alone, they are content (1 Tim. 6:8). They are happy with their allotted “daily bread” and nothing more (Matt. 6:11). They no longer obsess about feeding and clothing themselves because, as citizens of Jesus’ kingdom, they understand “life is more than food, and the body more than clothing ” (Matt. 6:25). Furthermore, they know their heavenly father knows their needs and will provide (Matt. 6:32). He promises to never leave or forsake them so they become increasingly detached from money (Heb. 13:5).
“Jesus does not give us money so we can build our own personal kingdom. He graciously calls us into his kingdom and then gives us material resources for the advance of that kingdom—his kingdom, not our kingdom.”
This is the perspective Paul encourages in 1 Corinthians 7 when he says, “[Let] those who buy [do so] as though they had no goods, and those who deal with the world as though they had no dealings with it (vv. 30-31, NIV). Paul encourages us to maintain a healthy emotional distance from this world’s goods. Yes, we have to buy and sell. We are not ascetics. We must deal with material possessions in this life. We must conscientiously manage what we have. Yet, we do so in such a way that we remain ultimately unattached to these things. We hold onto all of them loosely as we seek to use those resources for the advancement of the kingdom.
In the Psalms, David called his house the “house of my sojourning.” We must learn to look at everything in that light — as a temporary gift from God — as we make our pilgrimage through this world. Our houses, money, cars, jobs, and careers are simply the houses, money, cars, jobs, and careers of our sojourning. If this is true, neither acquiring nor protecting any of these things in this life will be our chief occupation. Getting them will not drive us, keeping them will not occupy us, protecting them will not consume us, and losing them will not destroy us. We live for another time and another place.
Wartime Living
This radical kingdom perspective — financial reckless abandon — is often appropriately called “wartime living.” I can think of no better way to capture the sentiment of Jesus’ teaching. The call to wartime living is a call to simple living. It is a call to zero-excess living. It is a call to minimalistic living that conserves and funnels all resources into the greater war effort. In wartime, car assembly lines are converted to artillery factories. Food is rationed so as to send as much as possible to the troops. Money is used sparingly so as to conserve as much as possible for the front lines. The war becomes the all-consuming preoccupation of those who have sent their sons, siblings, and fathers off to the trenches. The progress of the war hinges, in part, upon the commitment of those back home to personal self-sacrifice and reckless abandon for the cause. Mission is war, and we must live accordingly.
The Philippians
Few people better exemplified this kind of sacrificial, kingdom-oriented, financial reckless abandon than the church in Philippi. In the book of Philippians, Paul recounts “from the first day until now” the Philippians had financially partnered with him in ministry (Phil. 1:5). In the weeks and months that followed Paul’s planting of the church, the Philippian believers “once and again” sent Paul gifts to fund his mission (Phil. 4:16-17). Apparently that support had continued throughout the years. Ten years later when Paul passed through Macedonia near the end of his third missionary journey, the Philippians once again demonstrated their reckless abandon as gospel-driven senders by sacrificially contributing to Paul’s offering for the suffering church in Judea. Here’s how Paul describes the generosity of the Philippian church: Out of the most severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity. For I testify that they gave as much as they were able, and even beyond their ability. (2 Cor. 8:2-3) That is financial martyrdom. They were poor, yet, out of their “extreme poverty,” their kingdom-centered, mission-loving generosity overflowed in wealthy giving. Nearly 20 years after Paul founded the Philippian church, their poverty continued, yet so did their mission-minded generosity. During his Roman imprisonment, Paul wrote the Philippians to thank them for the gift they had sent to him in prison — again, a gift sent out of deep poverty. “Do not be anxious about anything,” Paul encourages them. As Paul had learned, so they had to learn “the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want” (Phil. 4:12). The Philippians understood, as their legacy of self-sacrificial giving to Paul’s mission indicates.
Funding the War
Mission is war, and war must be funded by wartime living–wartime giving. We cannot fund the war while pursuing the American Dream. The call to take up our cross, die to ourselves, and renounce all personal claim to our material possessions is a call to both goers and senders in this war. Mission requires more than dedicated self-sacrificing, recklessly abandoned goers. It also requires dedicated self-sacrificing, recklessly-abandoned senders.
* This is an article that I wrote for the Fall 2010 To Every Tribe magazine. This issue as well as back issues can be read here.
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I thought of Moffat’s famous quote several times this last week as my friend and co-worker, Chris B* and I traveled to the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca. (Note: Because of the searchability of the internet and security concerns for our church planting teams, the full names of our missionaries and of towns where we work will not be used.) Our long and meandering journey, which took us through some of southern Mexico’s most treacherous mountainous regions, led us past dozens of little hidden villages where the gospel has not yet been preached. Each spire of smoke rising from those villages represented a home occupied by people who have yet to hear of God’s reconciling grace in his Son, Jesus Christ. Just that though alone made my trip a thrilling experience.
) and we were asked a lot of questions, but since the search was conducted by very professional, “legit” federal police and not corrupt local ones, it was not a bad experience.
This is surely what Jesus meant in Matthew 6 when he said “seek first the kingdom of God” in the context of speaking about money and material goods. People who are not citizens of Jesus’ kingdom lay up treasures on earth. They work, toil, and sweat to build around themselves a cushion of financial protection and stability. They labor to amass property and possessions to improve the status and comfort of their own kingdom. They do so because their money is where their heart is. It is their treasure, Jesus says.
Wartime Living
generosity of the Philippian church: Out of the most severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity. For I testify that they gave as much as they were able, and even beyond their ability. (2 Cor. 8:2-3) That is financial martyrdom. They were poor, yet, out of their “extreme poverty,” their kingdom-centered, mission-loving generosity overflowed in wealthy giving. Nearly 20 years after Paul founded the Philippian church, their poverty continued, yet so did their mission-minded generosity. During his Roman imprisonment, Paul wrote the Philippians to thank them for the gift they had sent to him in prison — again, a gift sent out of deep poverty. “Do not be anxious about anything,” Paul encourages them. As Paul had learned, so they had to learn “the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want” (Phil. 4:12). The Philippians understood, as their legacy of self-sacrificial giving to Paul’s mission indicates.
