Saturday, 04 July 2009

• The "why" in missions

  Anyone asking the question “why?” either knows that the answer is very simple or is fully convinced that there is no answer in this side of eternity.  As a Christian and particularly as a person involved in the missions of the kingdom of God, one thing that constantly compels me to ask the question why is when I see conmen so easily being trusted with huge resources that would eventually be squandered.  If those resources fall into the hands of faithful ones; it could have done wonders for the expansion of God’s kingdom.  Lately the question came to my mind when an American friend of mine said how the Lord provided a helper for his ministry.  When he told the name of the person, I was dumbfounded!  I had to work hard to hide my reaction to that news.  It was so unreal to hear.  About five years ago that same person was with our ministry, but did a great damage to his own life and also to the lives of the other believers.  Finally he left the ministry all together and became so debased that he deliberately would contact our fellow believers and explain to them the number of prostitutes he had visited that week.  He never returned to Church.  But now he is one of the main leaders into this new ministry with full financial assistance.  You may think that he must have repented and confessed his sins…and he may have done so.  But the records and his own confession revealed that he had had this problem from years gone by and never seemed to be free from it.  I wished my friend a good luck without telling him anything about the person…sometimes wonder whether that was good or not…but again who am I to judge.  At least the fellow has a good paying job.

  The issue is more complicated when it comes to missions in country like ours.  I know some of my friends who are so sincere and are taking great pains to make through the day and still faithful to carry on the ministry the Lord has called them for.  With great difficulty they are able to send their children to some very ordinary schools.  They cannot even afford to buy a bicycle for transportation, and live in one room along with their children.   Because they do not have the financial freedom, their ministry potentials remain unfulfilled.  These brothers and sisters are some of the most dedicated and gifted servants of the Lord when it comes to preaching and teaching of the word.  They have dreams and vision to see their homeland won to Christ.  But due to the terrible state of the nation, they do not have the resources to achieve their dreams of seeing this nation come to Christ.  When the going gets so tough, they wish to partner with some churches or mission agencies from the affluent nations that could have alleviated their sufferings with minimum of contribution.  With fraction of assistance from some of such partners, they could have affected the destiny of so many souls.  With prayer and fasting they do contact with some of these mission agencies not only for their personal needs but also the needs of the work of God; needs of the their fellow ministers.  But to this day I have never seen such people being trusted by the so called mission agencies or churches.  They are always given a cold response or an outright rejection.

  But to our dismay, after rejecting to work with some of the most committed and faithful individuals, these same agencies or churches easily trust a crooked person to establish their national headquarters making such conmen as their national supervisors, directors and so on.  They start pumping the resources helping their national leaders to live in luxury; building houses for them and buying most expensive cars.  The same question comes, why?  Why is it that these mission agencies love to work with a crafty person than faithful ones?  Why are swindlers, frauds, and adulterers trusted in missions than genuine individuals?  Is it because the mission is now no longer a thing of the kingdom of God?  May be the mission agencies have now completely moved away from God the Holy Spirit who guides and have made mission purely a human enterprise.  Because it is purely a human enterprise, it is possible that they need such cleaver and cunning partners in the mission fields who can provide a good return for them.  But to me, it is still a mystery, but a mystery that is fully revealed and yet the question keeps coming back.  In the biblical language, I have to join with Habakkuk and ask God “why are the wicked prospering?”, and the answer comes back, “the righteous shall live by faith”, for “without faith it is impossible to please God”.  May be the Lord allows his genuine servants to go through the hardships in life so that they will remain faithful to him knowing that there is no one to trust apart from Him.  “The righteous shall live by faith” because man does not live by bread alone.  With this many answers, the question “why?” remains.

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