Playing it Safe

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The story is told of the farmer who didn’t plant corn for fear of blight, he didn’t plant beans for fear of drought, and he failed to plant wheat for fear that a fire might burn his crop just before harvest. He told a friend, “No, this year I’m playing it safe!” A BBTI graduate in the world’s most populous country just wrote, “Pray for more laborers; we sure do need them.” Missionaries never say, “Don’t send any more missionaries; we have more than we need.” And the heathen, in their own way, are pleading, “Come over and help us!” Meanwhile, many, realizing the seriousness of missionary service, are playing it safe and staying home.

Millions, yea billions, if we could only hear them, are crying out, “Stop playing it safe and come over and help us!” The heathen seek happiness in intoxicating substances, illicit sex, material possessions, education, sports, and vain religion. They are left empty and disappointed. But we know the One who gives abundant life and eternal satisfaction! They live in bondage to evil spirits, always trying to manipulate or appease them to receive their blessings and avoid their curses. But we know the Spirit who can make them free. They bow to idols that have hands that cannot help, ears that cannot hear, and eyes that cannot see. But we know the all-powerful, all-knowing, omnipresent Creator whose ear is always attentive to our prayers. In vain the heathen look for help from shamans and priests who offer them forgiveness of sins if they will do enough good works, say enough prayers, do enough penances, and of course, give enough money. But we have God’s promise of free forgiveness without any of the above dead works. If they knew we have what they need, they would beg, “Stop playing it safe and come over and help us!”

Why are there thousands of cities and villages with no gospel-preaching church? Why do thousands of languages still have no Scriptures? And why are literally thousands dying every day having never heard the name of Jesus Christ, let alone a clear message of salvation? It is not for lack of a command to tell them. Jesus made it perfectly clear that He expects us, His church, to give the Good News to every soul on Earth. They will not all accept it, but they all have the God-given right to hear it. God desires all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth; He wants none to perish. The God of truth wants no one to live and die ignorant of the Gospel. Jesus who tasted death for all men wants all men to know it! Are we being too careful, playing it too safe, about who goes to tell them?

Ask one hundred young Christian men why they are planning to stay here and not planning to go to the mission field? Almost all of them will say that God has not called them to be a missionary. And so, we usually drop the subject and don’t challenge them further. But if we dare ask them how they know God has not called them, they can only say that they just don’t feel called. (So then, the eternal fate of the heathen depends on how we feel?) Ask them what this call would feel like, and they probably cannot tell you that either. Ask them for two New Testament verses that show them if they are called or not, and my bet is they will not find even one. Ask them if they have ever surrendered their lives to serve God on the mission field. Ask them if they have volunteered and asked God to let them go tell the heathen about Christ. The prevailing thought is that God will give an overwhelming emotional experience, a special supernatural revelation, to those He wants to serve on the mission field; otherwise, they should stay home. Unfortunately, this play-it-safe mentality often takes precedence over God’s command to go. And aren’t we inadvertently blaming God for not calling enough laborers to reach our world?

Some say that God hasn’t called them as a pretext; they wouldn’t go if He did. Others, however, have heard misleading rhetoric that has convinced them to play it safe and stay home: “Don’t go unless you are one hundred percent sure that God is calling.” (But they are given no scriptural instruction on how to be sure.) “Don’t confuse a burden with a call.” (No scriptural explanation is given to explain the difference, and the heathen won’t care if the message comes from someone who is called or burdened.) “If you can do anything else, God hasn’t called you.” (And our young people can find a hundred things they’d rather do than preach to the heathen.) “Wait until God calls you.” (While we wait in comfort, the heathen wait in despair!) “We have too many mama-called daddy-sent people.” (Oh no, I wouldn’t want to be accused of that! Better stay home and play it safe.)

My friend, withholding the Gospel from the lost is a much bigger sin than going to the mission field without a special call! We hear over and over about the call to go. When is the last time you heard preached the command to go? The call is subjective and ambiguous; the command is absolutely clear. I tell young men this: “In light of Christ’s command, you better go or have a good reason to stay!”

How many potential missionaries have stayed home because they have always heard and believed these warnings to play it safe concerning the mission field? Wouldn’t it be much better to risk sending three or four people to the mission field that really should have stayed home than have three or four thousand stay home that could have and should have gone? And lest you fear that unqualified missionaries will go, wasting our precious mission funds, remember that God has provided a safeguard. He has given the church the responsibility to determine who should go or stay.

As one brother said, “If you are not called, why not go and stand in until a called missionary gets there?” The heathen man who gets saved and goes to Heaven probably won’t care who it was that brought him the Gospel. For the sake of the heathen and the glory of God, let’s run some risks. Let’s ignore the religious rhetoric. Let’s hear the heathen’s desperate plea, “Stop playing it safe; come over and help us!”

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October 12, 2021 No Comments

Once in Oaxaca, Mexico, while teaching in a home Bible study about Sabbath observance, I meant to say “sabatistas” (those who worship on Saturday), but I said “sabanistas.” “Sabanas” are bed sheets. Someone said, “Yeah, sabanitas are the people that stay in bed on Sunday and worship God between the sheets!” My preaching may not have always been edifying, but it was entertaining! —Rex

October 5, 2021 No Comments

Today I sent my very first text message in Chinese characters (with the help of an English-Chinese dictionary). But I was still admittedly pretty proud of myself until I was double checking the last word… 谢谢 (xie xie-thank you) and realized it was the wrong characters… 腹泻. Although also pronounced xie xie, it has a totally different meaning (loose bowels or diarrhea). —Julie

August 23, 2021 No Comments

Darkness and Death

Sam & Mary Beth Snyder (BBTI 2015 graduates) Tommy (age 10)
Leland (age 7)
Bethany (age 5)

To many in our world, sickness and death are never due to natural causes but always to some evil activity of spirits. People make sacrifices to protect themselves from sickness, to insure the fertility of the land and the women, or to bring the rain. There is usually a shaman or witch doctor who is the expert in communicating with the spirits. The spirits tell him or her what remedy is needed for healing or who is guilty of placing the curse that caused the sickness.

This is the world that a missionary comes to and the culture that he must understand and contend with. The following narrative was written by Mary Beth Snyder, who serves with her husband, Sam, in the remote mountains of Gulf Province, Papua New Guinea (PNG).

We have heard the hopeless sound of wailing off and on this past week, for the family across the road lost a son, a brother. Today, Leland said it reminds him of the man in Pilgrim’s Progress who was in a cage yelling, “No hope!” The young man who died, electrocuted in Lae, had adamantly opposed the mission, and Sam remembers it well. His father is a papa graun (landowner) who has consistently shown interest in gaining material possessions and may be involved in witchcraft. The young man who died has been mostly away from the village for the past several years, and it is sad to know that he was so close to the Gospel in the past but rejected it. We went over to be with family and friends this afternoon and sat on the ground with the grieving. A young child coughing with the ever-prevalent kus (mucus) and the dirtiness of it all is a stark reminder that the ground is cursed, full of disease and death. Tears dripped down my face.

Our Papua New Guinean surroundings boast abundant natural beauty. While hearing tropical birds sing and enjoying occasional butterflies floating by banana trees in the midst of lush mountains surrounded by misty clouds, I can imagine what the paradise of creation may have been like. Reality sets in when I hear the cries of children in the clinic, when I assist mothers in childbirth, when pouring rains drench the clay-like ground making it hard to grow food, and when our feet are habitually coated in mud. Today, the curse was more evident than other days as I sat and watched our friends sobbing, wailing, and falling on the casket. Actually, it is a blessing that there is a casket. This young man died in a coastal town many kilometers from here, and it took over a week to fly his body back to our airstrip. Sam then drove it here in the ATV. Another haus krai (funeral) I attended several years ago involved the typical practice of people wailing over and hugging the dead body.

We have heard reports that Covid is hitting hard in the towns the past two weeks. On top of that, its spread is even more inevitable because of the large town gatherings to honor the recently departed Grand Chief Somare. As I watched people hug and sob face-to-face today, the nurse in me saw how easy it is for sickness to spread. We customarily shake hands with those who offer their hand, make sure we wash our hands well when we get home, use vitamins and oils, and pray for protection from disease. Our good friend and only believer in that family had just returned with his dead brother’s body from a major town, and we shook his hand. Some things are just too culturally important to shun, for after health teaching is done and customs don’t change, it is best to avoid stumbling blocks. One consolation is that the temporary mourning tent, church building, and clinic are all airy.

Reminders of the curse are everywhere the past few weeks. Another elderly man, the papa graun of the mission property took another wife. He has had multiple wives in the past and many children, but he has not taken care of them well. Before our arrival, he made a profession of faith, but he has not attended church for a while now, blaming it on a sore leg. His wife and daughter attend church regularly. It is sickening to find out that he had his eye on a young girl from another village and that he and her family went through with the arranged “marriage.” It is child abuse. He must feel that he is powerful enough to take or buy what he wants, no matter the cost to others. It is sickening and infuriating and has been heavy on my mind this week. While I battle with anger, I really do pity him. How many sermons has he heard? How many verses has he listened to? How many chances has he had to follow the light? Yet, he seems to delight in darkness. He also lives almost across the road from the church buildings. Incredibly sad. Marriage is sacred and the first institution God ordained, and, of course, our enemy attacks it in any way he can.

After the children and I were back home from visiting the haus krai, a man, carrying an old lady who had been brutally bitten by a pig, came to the clinic. The pig unexpectedly bit off many of this poor woman’s fingers. The nurses gave her an injection of pain medicine, and Sarah drove her in the ATV to the small hospital at the airstrip. Tommy quickly mentioned that it could be that an evil spirit had entered the pig. Witchcraft is a reality in some situations.

In PNG, it is a common belief that grief shown at a death can assure that the dead spirit will not be angry, but instead, will bring blessing on the living. The Bible teaches that when we die, our spirit goes to heaven or hell; it does not linger around the village. Do our believers not understand that, or are they wailing to simply show their grief culturally, or do they wail because they realize the man was not a believer?

Sam is getting over a respiratory virus. His nose has been bleeding off and on, which could be from the infection or because he was hit there several months ago by an angry man who came up behind him when he was working on the road. God protected Sam and others and the situation was finally resolved. This morning, a woman came to the clinic with a severe knife wound to the back of her head, inflicted by her husband. She was returning up the mountain from the haus krai and was attacked by her jealous older husband when she did not hand over enough money she was supposed to have made at market. Later in the day, someone came running and said that when they were digging the grave at the village about a mile from here a man fell into the hole and was injured.

Our children are not completely sheltered from violence, anger, greed, decayed wood breaking and causing a bridge to collapse, nor from the sting of death. Though the sadness is a little sobering for our children, it has opened up good discussions on sin, sickness, Satan, and salvation. We can enjoy the beauty of God’s creation, but it is groaning.

While we see some encouraging progress in the lives of several believers, in the Bible Institute, and in the growth in new church music, Satan is not content to lose a foothold here. Spiritual oppression is evident. We are in a war. But we know Who the Victor is, and we are on His side. Greater is He that is in us than he that is in the world. As I recently taught in Sunday School, Jesus is more powerful than Satan and his demons. This is evidenced by Jesus’ sinlessness and victory in trials, by His performance of many miracles and casting out of demons, and by His death and resurrection. He has crushed the head of the serpent and will ultimately cast him into the lake of fire. Jesus is more powerful than witchcraft. That is what we need to be talking about in our houses at night.

Satan is the father of lies and delights in destroying lives. It can seem hopeless at times, but we are not without hope. We rest in the work that only the Spirit of God can do, and we continue to give out His Word. We are here for His glory and because of His grace. He is the Light of the World. He gives eternal life: joy in this life no matter the trial, and everlasting life with Him in heaven. Those who live for the things of this world sadly only have an imperfect ground to enjoy for a short time.

Luobohe Miao of China

August 16, 2021 No Comments

Luobohe Miao of China

Imagine a dark place where superstition and fear rule peoples’ lives. It is a place where daily activities must be done in a prescribed manner or risk the ire of demons and the spirits of ancestors. There are no Christians, no Scriptures, and no hope. This is reality for the 123,000 Luobohe Miao (a group of the Hmong people cluster) who live in the mountains in southwest China. They keep to themselves in their own remote villages and live by farming.

The Luobohe are ethnoreligious—they are unified by both their ancestry and their animistic religion. Jewry is another example of ethnoreligion, especially in the Old Testament. To be a Jew was to be both a descendant of Abraham and a follower of the law of Moses.

The Luobohe language is tonal with three distinct tones that distinguish words. It is largely unwritten, though a Latin alphabet has been recently proposed. This language desperately needs a translation of the Bible. The Word of God can cross borders and go to places where missionaries cannot go.

Global Recordings Network recorded six Bible stories in Luobohe. You can listen to The Lost Sheep at https://globalrecordings.net/en/progra. Someone was the human instrument that produced this recording, the only glimmer of light for the Luobohe. Will you be another human instrument by praying for them? Pray for someone to take them the the Gospel, for heaven’s forces to bind the evil one, and for the light to shine brightly.

We Sold the Farm

August 9, 2021 No Comments

When a man decides to go to the mission field, his wife may have little to say about it. But for sure, his children have no voice or vote—they go. It is not a problem for young children; they simply go where mama and daddy go. Children seven or nine years old may be concerned that they cannot take all their toys, but it is probably not a disturbing event. However, for preteens or teens it is an altogether different story. They are facing a big struggle. Being teenagers is hard enough in a place where they know the language and culture perfectly. In a strange new place where they cannot speak the language and have no idea how to act, it can be traumatic and terrifying.

A family on deputation going to South America was in a distant state when their teenage son disappeared one evening. They did not know if he was kidnapped or if he ran away. The latter was the case. He decided he was not going to the mission field. The family did go to the field but stayed only a year or less. A family that graduated from BBTI many years ago planned to go to a first world European country. One of the sons told his parents that he would kill himself if they took him out of the country; they, of couirse, stayed home.

Consider these portions from a journal entry of an extraordinary fourteen-year-old girl facing a new life in a third world country on the other side of the world.

“Dad signed the last paper, and the farm is now in the hands of someone else. It will never more be my refuge, my shelter, my home. Home as I have known it will never be the same. Tears begin to stream down my face as I relive the many happy years I spent on the farm. Faces, places, and happenings start to flash through my mind. I remember spending wintry evenings with a fire crackling merrily in the wood stove and a kerosene lantern shining softly above me [their house had no electricity or running water], snuggled in the lap of an older sibling, listening to Dad or Mom read a book about the Anabaptists or about a missionary. I remember the happy hours gathered around the kitchen table playing games and just enjoying each other. I remember… I remember… I remember… I remember the many special memories that my family made on the farm. Fun, scary, hilarious, and sad memories race through my mind. I see the farm from stem to stern. I see where I spent fourteen years of my life. I begin to wonder, was it worth giving them up? I see my dog that I gave up, my special treasures, my life. Was it worth giving up? Was it worth leaving behind friends, family, and the only home I have ever known? Was it worth leaving it all to go to a place I have never seen, to a people I have never met, to a language I have never heard, and to a culture I have never understood? Was it worth leaving close friends to become the stranger and the newcomer? It will be worth it all. These temporal things such as our farm, will someday be gone, but the eternal things that we have done for Christ will last forever. Pictures of natives in [we dare not name the country] begin to play on the screen of my mind. I envision the souls that will get saved, the Bible that will get translated, and the glory that God will get. Now it doesn’t seem so hard to give up everything. In my mind I begin to replace the hardships and sacrifices with eternal rewards in Heaven. So, to me, it is worth giving up my friends, my treasures, and all this world can offer to fulfill the Great Commission and help reconcile the world to God. As I dry my tears and close my journal, I ask myself this question: Was it really worth it to give up the farm? My answer is yes!”

Does this mean that a family with teenage children should opt out of foreign field service? Absolutely not. But there are things that would help prepare young people for the field. First, parents should raise children to love and serve God as the above quoted girl was. Then, the churches, especially the sending church, should recognize the teens as missionaries in their own right. Churches should encourage and reward them in every way possible. Missionary dads usually get the recognition and love offerings. Give some accolades and gifts to the missionary mom, children, and teens. Generously finance survey trips to the field so that older children can accompany their parents. This is a good way to help relieve teens’ fear of the unknown, and they will probably learn that the place is not all that bad. God may even give them a great love for the people and a desire to return.

Consider also that teens would benefit greatly from pre-field preparation in linguistics and in language and culture learning. It is a big mistake for any missionary to go without adequate preparation, and teens will encounter the same difficulties in language and culture adjustment as their parents. Over the years, several teens have taken some or all of the Advanced Missionary Training courses at BBTI along with their parents. (Their homeschooling may have been somewhat curtailed or even postponed. In other cases, however, the teens took BBTI classes in the morning and worked to complete their high school course in the afternoon.) Young people that do this go to the field with confidence and skills that help them learn and adapt more quickly. They look at the new culture and language as a challenge, a very achievable goal, instead of a dreaded ordeal. One ten-year-old boy took the phonetics course with his parents. Once on the field, he quickly learned a difficult tonal language that he is comfortable speaking twenty years later.

The worldwide adolescent population is over forty percent. In some countries it is much higher. Young missionaries have more potential to reach those young people than their parents. If young people arrive on the field with a positive attitude and learn the language, they can be a great asset to the Lord. Their few years on the field can be a happy and fruitful time, and they may even return as adults to continue their missionary work.

July 20, 2021 No Comments

I wanted to tell my language helper that we were finished for the day. But instead of saying “ta so” (we are finished), I said “ta sio” (go away). Thankfully my helper had a sense of humor and informed me that my way of dismissing people was probably not the best if I want to have friends. At times, living and learning in the village is very frustrating, but God is very abundant in His grace. —Cara

July 13, 2021 No Comments

Yesterday, one of my fellow students said to me, “Tu es belle.” I responded, “Oui, c’est vrai,” because I thought he was saying the weather was beautiful. He chuckled a little. I replayed the short dialogue in my head because his chuckle seemed out of place, and it was an unusual way to remark about the weather. As I thought about what he said, I realized he was telling me I was beautiful (I was dressed up for church). My response was, “Yes, it’s true.” That was a bit humbling, especially when at that point I didn’t know what to say.Do I say, “Sorry, I thought you said something else,” or do I just let him think I’m conceited? —Becky

July 6, 2021 No Comments

I was helping to clean the kitchen after a meal in Peru and called for a rag—or so I thought. The co-laborer to whom I was speaking stopped, looked at me quizzically, and burst out laughing. Since I had asked for a “tropa” instead of a “trapo,” she thought I wanted a “troop” of soldiers to help us clean the kitchen! —Cheri

June 29, 2021 No Comments

Lungandan, a tribal language of Uganda, has many short affixes which give an utterance its meaning. These often string together to form long words which are difficult to read; and correct placing of word breaks is very important. When reading a passage in church, a native who was a poor reader caused some laughter and irritation. He sounded out a few syllables, returning to the beginning and adding a bit more each time until he could read the entire phrase. It came out: Awo Yesu which means “Then Jesus;” Awo yesuna— “Then he is pinching himself;” Awo Yesu n’abaga—”Then Jesus is chopping;” Awo Yesu n’abagamba— “Then Jesus saith unto them.” At one point, some in the congregation wondered aloud if Jesus were a butcher rather than a carpenter. What must they have thought about why he would be pinching himself!

Raising Missionaries

June 22, 2021 No Comments

Rachel, Nate, Sophie, Theodore, Delbert, Cory,and Myles nicelandshavers@outlook.com

by Nate Shaver

The first missionary family I remember meeting was going to England. I was four or five years old, and they had come to our house for dinner. My parents, desiring to influence their children towards missions, regularly hosted missionaries, and I remember having missionaries to Mexico, France, Philippines, Australia, Russia, and other places coming over to eat. I was eleven when, during our church’s missions conference, I met a missionary who was going to Iceland. I spent the entire week at his table asking him questions, and God planted the seed for Iceland in my heart.

Years later, the Lord began directing me and my wife to move from our place of ministry. Since I had already wanted to be a missionary for twenty years, we immediately started praying for clarity with a focus on missions because where we were serving, a Baptist church was located every couple of blocks. God was bringing the need for Iceland into focus. There is only one missionary and one work in a country the size of Kentucky. As we started to feel God leading in that direction, we prayed for open doors if it was God’s will for us to go there, and for closed doors if it was not his will. We were excited to see God make obvious his will for us to head to Iceland.

It is special to see how God specifically worked to bring me and my wife to this place of being missionaries. I know for a fact that missions conferences, having missionaries in our homes, long distance correspondence with missionaries, and going on missions’ trips all had an impact on us. Our children will grow up in Iceland as “missionary kids,” but that will not automatically make them aware of their responsibility for reaching the world for Christ. It will be the emphasis and focus we put on the task that God has given us that will keep their eyes toward the uttermost. We are excited to raise our children on the mission field, and although we do not know exactly what will happen, we do know it is exactly where God wants us to be.

Spring 2021

Ten Years Later

A Fire in my Heart

West Coast Bajau of Malaysia

Playing it Safe

What the Zealous Can Do

The Pamari

Missionary Grandmother

The Price of Preparation

Something to Smile About

The Bunu of China

The Deaf Will Hear

The Missionary’s Middleman

Faithful & Fruitful in Africa

Language Learning

Willing to Sacrifice

Tharu

Valor in Venezuela

The Status Quo Must Go!

Rukai—Taiwan

Mau Malinké of Côte d’Ivoire

Darkness and Death

Luobohe Miao of China

Luobohe Miao of China

We Sold the Farm

Raising Missionaries