“There is no price too high to pay for proper preparation.” This is the conclusion of veteran missionary Jon De Rusha, Asian Field Administrator with Baptist Missions to Forgotten Peoples. He goes on to say, “We first arrived in the Niger in 1971. We, along with two other families, were there to reach the Taureg people of the Sahara. To our knowledge, the Gospel had never been preached to these people. At first, we did not know they even had a script of their language, Tamachek. Later, we learned there was a script but very few of the Tauregs could read it. We went with a minimum of French language study, no linguistics, no proficiency in Hebrew or Greek, no understanding of translation principles, etc. At that juncture in the history of Independent Baptist missions, I am not sure how much awareness existed among us as to what preparations were necessary to accomplish the objective. Once we were there, we realized quite pertinently just how unprepared we were.”

No doubt the testimony of Brother De Rusha is that of hundreds of other missionaries before and after him. Two years after he went to Africa, the Baptist Bible Translators Institute began offering specialized preparation for Baptist missionaries. It continues forty-six years later with an even better Advanced Missionary Training (AMT) program. Often, we hear missionaries on the field, retired missionaries, or those who have left the field prematurely say, “I wish I would have known about BBTI before going to the field!” Some admit, “I knew about BBTI but didn’t want to spend nine months preparing.” When explaining our AMT to a new missionary candidate, he will invariably say, “Yes, that sounds good. I know it would help me, but I can’t take the time.” The missionary knows it takes time to prepare financially, but he needs to realize it also takes time to prepare linguistically. There is a price of time to pay for preparation. But no price is too high if it enables you to survive and succeed in your mission.

It is estimated to cost $350,000 to $500,000 to train a single Navy SEAL or Army Ranger. Nevertheless, our government believes the mission is worth the price. We want our soldiers and sailors to survive and succeed in the mission. No price is too high to properly prepare them. Each year, over 20,000 US students begin medical school. If they earn the MD title, they could spend over $2.5 million dollars, approximately $50,000 each year! And they will probably graduate with a student load debt of $170,000. We all want the best possible doctors; we believe that no price is too high for their preparation.

So, what about the preparation of those who are expected to do a work a thousand times more important than that of a doctor or a SEAL? How are we preparing the missionary who does the most important work on this earth? A missionary receives a few Bible classes, some courses in missionary history and theory, and maybe a year in language school; and we think he is prepared. Brother Jon De Rusha had all this, and he considered himself unprepared.

Consider the need. There are over 7,100 languages spoken today, and Jesus expects His Gospel to be preached in all of them. There are probably 6,000 of these languages that have no language schools. Many of them are unwritten, meaning they have no grammar books, teachers, and certainly no Scriptures. The BBTI graduate has training to learn any of these languages and cultures. He knows how to develop an alphabet and write the language. He knows principles of Bible translation. He has training to help others become literate. His mission is the establishment of a truly indigenous, Bible-believing church. With proper preparation, he has a good chance of survival and success.

No price is too high to pay because of the value of the sinner. We may doubt his worth, but God doesn’t. Jesus shed His blood for every single sinner. We believe in Heaven; we must also believe in Hell. We believe that without the new birth, a person will not see the kingdom of God but will be cast into the lake of fire. The heathen are lost, and the Gospel of Christ is their only hope. They are not going to be reached by the unprepared missionary who is unable to communicate in their language and culture!

No price is too high to pay because of the value of the servant. He is literally one in a thousand. A thousand other young people have not surrendered their lives to serve on the mission field; but he has. A thousand others will avoid missionary service at all cost; he has chosen it! The Army Ranger has chosen to risk his life and serve for a few years on a foreign field; the missionary choses to do this for a lifetime. The least we can do is send him well prepared. To send an ill-prepared family to the field is unnecessary and unfair. It is unnecessary because training is available. It is unfair to the missionary, to the churches that send him, and especially to those who are so desperately in need of his message!

No price is too high to pay because the Saviour is worthy. The goal of missionary work is the glory of God. He is not glorified when people live in ignorance of Him. He is glorified by lives changed by the Gospel. He is glorified when people turn from idols and serve Him, the true and living God. People won’t understand the Gospel, be converted, and glorify God if the missionary’s message is unclear. The missionary is an ambassador of God. He owes it to God and to his people to go to them with the best possible preparation. Unwillingness to pay the price necessary for proper preparation might reflect lack of dedication to the mission.

It is especially necessary for the pastor to educate himself and know exactly what training is needed and where it is available. He must not allow a precious missionary family to leave without it. Proper preparation should not be a suggestion but a requirement. The mission is too important. Lost souls are too valuable. The missionary is priceless. And God is worthy of our best!

The Good News of Christ is by far the most important message that one human can give to another. Thank God for anyone who makes a great sacrifice and goes to a foreign country to preach the Gospel! Upon arrival, the missionary makes a critical choice: whether he will struggle to learn the language now and preach later, or whether he will begin preaching now through an interpreter and learn the language later—maybe. Surely a message is more clearly understood and better received if delivered directly in the heart language than one that is delivered through an interpreter. That should settle the issue. However, some may argue that quickness is better than clarity and expedience is preferable to effectiveness.  I will declare emphatically that time and effort invested first in language and culture acquisition is a minor sacrifice when compared to the value of a clear message. Also, the effectiveness of the words delivered from the mouth of the missionary to the ear of the recipient without the middleman trumps any reason the missionary may give for relying on an interpreter.

Does your pastor speak to you through an interpreter, or does he speak English? How long would you attend a church where the pastor could not teach, preach, and converse in your tongue? Is there anything that makes an American more deserving of this blessing than someone on the mission field? And suppose you and your wife were having marital problems and needed counseling. Would it be okay if an interpreter relayed your problems to the pastor, and then his advice came back to you through this middleman?

How many friends do you have that cannot speak your language? Shouldn’t the missionary be a friend to his people? Shouldn’t he build strong, personal relationships with them, gain their confidence as a friend, and then win them to Christ? The missionary who cannot speak the language will not be pestered by people coming to his house asking questions or just hanging out, but this avoidance is not good. Communication should occur in the parlor as well as in the pulpit. The missionary who uses an interpreter to say, “I love you,” may be implying an unwanted message. The people may think, “Then why don’t you learn our language?” We often hear it said about immigrants in our country, legal or otherwise, “If they are going to be here, they need to learn English!” Salsa for the goose is salsa for the gander!

If an interpreted message is acceptable, perhaps the missionary could simply email his sermons to the interpreter on the field each week. A missionary may not be required at all; a pastor could do this. Thousands of dollars could be saved by not sending an American to live on the foreign field. For a little extra, the interpreter might agree to go door to door in the place of the missionary and witness to the lost.

A missionary to Mexico felt that he was too old to learn Spanish, so he hired an interpreter. After some time, he discovered that the man in the middle was of the Church of Christ religion. He was turning the message of salvation by grace into one of works and water! The brother decided to learn Spanish! This is not an isolated case; many good messages are lost in the translation.

If the message goes out in our words, it is also going out in our American way of thinking. American thinking may not translate well. Even if much of the message is understood, the people are not as likely to relate to it because it is still a foreign message.

In the early 90s, when the Iron Curtain came down, an American missionary to Mexico decided to move to Poland. He spoke perfect Spanish, but that was of no help in Europe. Upon arrival, some fellow missionaries told him, “Peter, we have a guy here who knows English. He can interpret for you, and you can get right to work.” Peter said, “No way, José. I won’t preach until I can preach in Polish!” Within six or seven months of diligent language study, he began preaching in Polish without an interpreter.

Suppose it took longer, maybe a year or two, before a missionary could preach in a new language. Is that too big a sacrifice to make for Jesus and for the people he loves? It is predictable that if he begins with an interpreter, he will never wean himself away. Many have said, “I will just use an interpreter for a little while so I can start winning the lost, and then later I will learn the language.”  That is like a young person saying, “I won’t smoke cigarettes forever, just for a little while.” Once you start using cigarettes or interpreters, it is hard to stop.

Real communication involves not only a message going out, but also feedback to the speaker. When your children played church, you probably heard some bad doctrine. The little preacher may have said, “You need to be good so you can go to heaven when you die!” (I hope you know that is bad doctrine.) You got this feedback because you understood your children’s language! Children will have some error in their thinking, and hearing the error shows where more teaching is needed. So, during family devotions, you teach again the truth of salvation by grace. The missionary that does not learn the local language does not get feedback. People may be talking about his teaching, but the discussions are always in their language. Therefore, the missionary is unaware of any misunderstanding and cannot correct it.

Related to this lack of feedback is the very common problem of syncretism. This is a mixing of pagan beliefs with Christianity, resulting in a religion with a Christian façade but little change in core beliefs. A person may do Christian things like attend church services, carry a Bible, recite prayers, etc. without having a real conversion.

What is the advantage of a missionary leaning on an interpreter instead of learning a language? He does begin to preach more quickly, and he may avoid the embarrassment of bilingual bloopers. But there is always a middleman between the missionary and his people. Wouldn’t everyone be better off without him? Let’s cut out the middleman!

The status quo, or the state of affairs, concerning world evangelization may be acceptable to many, but is it acceptable to God? After all, it is His work; He allows us to share in it. We may be content for things to continue the way they are, but is God’s will being done on earth as it is in Heaven? Alexander Duff (1806-1878), missionary to India, said, “We are playing at missions.” He said that about his generation; what would he say about ours? He might say, “The status quo must go!” If the status quo is not working, then God help us to do things differently.

No honest observer could say that we are fully obeying the command of Christ to preach to the nations. There are thousands of ethnic groups that are still unreached; many of them are totally unengaged. Paul strove to preach where Christ had not been named (Romans 15:20). That was two millennia ago. Surely, there could not be people today who have not heard the name of Jesus! But there are. Jesus said that we are to preach His gospel to every creature, and still there are billions that have never heard it. The way things are is not the way things should be. God help us when the Coca Cola company has put their product in almost every community in the world, and we have not preached the Gospel in these places! Our status quo preaching needs to go!

The number one priority of a Christian should be the Great Commission of Christ which is, “Go ye therefore and teach all nations…” But is it? We have rhetoric such as, “Christ’s last command is our first concern.” But is it? Is the average church member reminded from the pulpit what his priority is supposed to be? Churches are busy with programs, and pastors have many topics to deal with. The squeaky wheel gets the grease, but the missionary wheel doesn’t usually get much grease. It needs to be a big wheel and it needs to squeak loudly! Our low-status quo missionary priority needs to go!

Low missionary priority is reflected in our lack of prayer. When was the last time you heard a prayer request for God to send out missionaries from your church? It’s not wrong to pray for the sick, but that gets most of the attention. Occasionally someone will request prayer for lost souls. That’s good, but what about praying for lost sheep without a shepherd in India, Siberia, Albania, or a few hundred other countries? Jesus did not suggest that we lift up our eyes on the fields; He commanded it (John 4:35). He did not suggest we pray for laborers, He commanded it (Matthew 9:38). A church prays for a pastor, and soon God sends one. It prays for a new van, and before long one is in the parking lot. The church might even go to the throne of grace for funds to build a multi-million-dollar family life center, and God provides! So, why isn’t God sending out missionaries from our congregation? We aren’t asking Him to! Our status quo praying needs to go!

God commands us to go. But the status quo says to wait for God’s call. God says to present your body a living sacrifice, and then you will know His perfect will (Romans 12:1-2). The status quo says little about surrender or presenting our bodies. It says, “Do what is in your heart to do, what you want to do.” (Our generation seems to be comfortable with this.) It also says, “Be very careful not to go to the mission field unless you are 100% sure you are called of God.” Ask any young person, even one at a Christian college, “Why don’t you go to the mission field?” The answer, almost without exception, is, “I’m not called.” The young person cannot give you a scripture verse, and he cannot tell you how he would know if he were called. He simply doesn’t feel called. He will probably add, “I’d be willing to go if God wanted me to.” Would we be out of place to ask, “Have you presented your body a living sacrifice? You say you are willing to go; have you told God? Have you asked God to let you go?” The status quo says to wait for a call and then surrender to it. God tells us to first surrender. Our status quo of presenting our bodies must go!

Jesus never told us that paying to take the Gospel to the regions beyond would be easy. Sending missionaries to the field and keeping them there is expensive. How much expense is too much? What did it cost to rescue those boys in that cave in Thailand last year? The cost was not a consideration. Nobody said, “They aren’t worth what it is costing us.” The status quo mission giving is very low. Status quo Christians have money for what they consider important. Many churches do not even teach or encourage personal missionary giving. The church may give a small percentage of its income to missions, but the people themselves give nothing directly to send missionaries. “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” (Luke 12:34). It may take a missionary three or more years to raise needed support. Some give up from discouragement and never reach their field. Many go to the field under supported. Our status quo paying needs to go!

Finally, the status quo missionary preparation needs to go. We are sending missionaries with little or no special training in language and culture learning. A missionary does not have to speak with a distracting foreign accent. He should never bypass language learning and resort to using an interpreter. Lack of specialized training limits the missionary to the few languages that have language schools and leaves thousands of languages untouched by Baptist missionaries. Our missionaries, with very few exceptions, do not translate Bibles because they have no training in linguistics and Bible translation principles. Archilochus wrote, “Men do not rise to the level of their expectations; they fall to the level of their preparation.” Advanced training is available; the problem is that the missionary and his pastor either do not know of its existence and importance, or they do not want to invest the time and effort to get it. Our shameful status quo missionary preparation needs to go, too!

The Bible has led the best-seller list since its release. Someone has always wanted it and has, at times, been willing to pay a very dear price for it. It is said that a hand-written copy of the Wycliffe Bible cost the equivalent of a year’s labor! Can you imagine anyone spending $60,000 for a Bible today? Throughout the world, people without a Bible vastly outnumber those who have it. You may have three or four Bibles! There may be more Bibles in your house than in some entire cities!

There are multitudes who have not even a verse of the Bible simply because no one has ever translated it into their language. The number of speakers may be ten thousand or ten million, but nobody quotes John 3:16 in it! Languages have diversified since the tower of Babel until today they number 7,100. No one has paid the price—admittedly a high price every time—to put God’s Word into approximately 4,000, or 56%, of these tongues. Someone must translate it for them. Why have the hundreds of thousands of gospel-preaching churches in the world not produced 4,000 Bible translators to accomplish this task? Perhaps these churches have never been informed of the need or challenged to meet it. Oh, but this ignorance and lack of concern could not possibly exist in the fundamental, Bible-believing, missionary-minded churches of America, could it? Let’s find out. With your pastor’s permission, take a survey of church members and ask how many languages are spoken today and how many of these languages have at least some part of the Bible. Ask how often they pray for laborers for the unreached, Bibleless people groups of the world. To further test your church’s concern level for Bibleless people groups, check to see how many of your missionaries are in some way involved in Bible translation or what percentage of the mission budget goes to Bible translation. To further prove the pathetic priority level given to Bible translation in our circles, contact every fundamental Baptist college you know and ask them if they have courses in linguistics and Bible translation. Either we change the way we do missions, or 56% of the world’s language groups will live and die without the Bible and the salvation it offers.

Another category of Bibleless people are those with languages that have small portions of scripture and a work in progress. Workers involved in the translation know that such a thing as a Bible exists, but the group, as a whole, knows nothing of it. The people do not, for the most part, have God’s Word, but they have hope of getting it. Unfortunately, (in our opinion) most of this work in progress is being done by people translating from the Critical Text using a method known as dynamic equivalence. The result is usually a paraphrase more like the Living Bible than a formal translation such as our Authorized Version. Let’s pray that more works will be established by Bible-believing missionary/translators using the correct text and method and an adequate number of trained native helpers.

Some languages have a well-translated Bible, perhaps translated two hundred years ago. However, it is not in use and is probably out of print. The language may have changed so drastically that the grammar, vocabulary, and orthography would not be recognized or accepted by its speakers today. The people may not even know of its existence. These are also Bibleless people. However, they are not completely hopeless. Someone could learn this language in its modern form, and using this antiquated Bible as a basis, produce a good, usable revision. Not everyone can endure the hardships of pioneer Bible translation work, but surely someone could handle a project such as this. Can the Lord find ten righteous people out of ten thousand Independent Baptist churches to go after ten such languages?

There is another very large group of people living and dying without the Bible, but they do not have to. Their languages have the Scriptures, but they don’t. Many of them don’t know what a Bible is or understand why they need one. There is likely no where to buy a Bible, even if they could afford it. Theoretically, there is hope for these people; practically, they are not much better off than the native who speaks an unwritten language with no Scripture. If, however, someone would pass by their houses, distributing Scriptures, they would no longer be Bibleless. Around 1970, God began raising up local church Bible publishing ministries. Missionary representatives raise funds from churches to purchase paper and equipment to print Scripture portions. Missionary printers put God’s Word on the paper—whole Bibles, New Testaments, or John-Romans booklets. If the ministry has sophisticated equipment, it binds, trims, and boxes these portions. Otherwise, this work is done by volunteers. The cost of supplies is great, as is the cost of shipping the Scriptures to the foreign field. On the field, there must be a like-minded man who is willing to receive and distribute them. The portions are free, and most people, even many Hindus, Muslims, Buddhists, Communists, Catholics, etc., would gladly receive a Scripture portion. These portions must be smuggled into some places, but the honorable ministry of Bible smuggling has been practiced for centuries. (It would be wonderful if there were someone in every place to teach these scriptures; hundreds of thousands of workers are needed.) Local church Bible publishing is a wonderful ministry in which many churches can cooperate. Unfortunately, this work is being done in a very small number of languages. With enough men and money, this could change.

Yes, most of the 7.5 billion souls on this planet are living and dying without the written Word of God, and it is not God’s will (1 Timothy 2:4)! The question is whether you and I are personally doing something about it. Could you live among a remote tribe in Indonesia, learn the language, reduce it to writing, and then get a Bible translation work in progress? Could you learn a new language and then guide a group of workers in revising an archaic Bible? Could you put your time and resources into a local church Bible ministry and raise funds for paper or join a group that is distributing Scripture portions on the streets of a foreign country? Wouldn’t you like to go to Heaven knowing that you put the world’s most precious treasure in the hands of a Bibleless soul?

What are you going to be when you grow up? Do you remember being asked that question as a child? (If you are forty and still being asked that, you might have a problem!) A child dreams of becoming a hero: cowboy, fireman, doctor, nurse, sports superstar, astronaut, etc. His dream changes often; as he moves into adolescence, the dream becomes more serious. The young person may even begin to prepare to make the dream a reality. This is certainly not a bad thing. We encourage young people to study and work hard to follow their dream, to become something and someone useful to society.

If the young person is a Christian, he may conclude that his desire (dream) comes from God and is God’s will for him. He may even proclaim, “This is what God has called me to do.” After all, he is going to use his honorable profession to provide for his family, to help others, and to support the work of God. He may even give to send out missionaries.

Some of us can’t help but question if God would call so many to be doctors, lawyers, truck drivers, builders, oilfield roughnecks, computer programmers, car salesmen, pastors, police officers, and a hundred other things, but call very, very few to preach Christ beyond our borders. As the world population expands, our missionary force shrinks. That God would not call enough missionaries seems strange. The dreams of his children are being realized, but the desire of the heathen for a better life now and for Heaven when they die is not being realized. The problem must be with God’s people, not with God. It may be that most of God’s people are not listening for a call or expecting one. Would they even recognize it if it came? Perhaps some have been given a distorted view of the call. They see it as some supernatural, spine-tingling, irresistible, overwhelming, emotional experience that irrevocably propels a special, super-spiritual Christian to the regions beyond. Since it doesn’t happen to them, they conclude that God has not called them to be missionaries. They may honestly believe they have good reason to stay home.

A common attitude seems to be, “Lord, if you want me to go, make me.” Why not rather, “Lord, if you don’t want me to go, please stop me.”? It could be that God simply is not going to show His will to a Christian who is unwilling to sacrifice his personal desires and do His will. I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. God shows us His will after the sacrifice and transformation. Our thinking is backward; we want to know His will first so we can decide if we will surrender to it or not.

The time has come for young people (and some not so young) to lay their dream on an altar and go to the mission field for the glory of God and the salvation of the lost! What dream or desire is too wonderful to sacrifice for Jesus? What goal could possibly compare to preaching Christ to those who have never heard His name and the joy of seeing them one day in Heaven? What profession could compare to translating the first Bible in a Bibleless language?

You may say, “I would not feel comfortable in a foreign country.” Well, sacrifice your feelings and your comforts along with your dream! You say, “I don’t know if I could be happy away from family and friends.” There is room on the altar for your happiness, too! Sacrifice your happiness and God might give it back to you. Missionaries are not unhappy, miserable souls that hate the place God has sent them. They become comfortable and enjoy new people, languages, and cultures. Speaking of happiness, Jesus died for all and desires their eternal happiness. Don’t you think all should hear about it?

Perhaps you say, “What if God doesn’t want me on the mission field?” Maybe He doesn’t. But you will never know until your dream is nailed to the cross. God can close the door to keep you from going or show you clearly that He has something else for you at home. Say with Isaiah, “Here am I; send me.” Or with Saul of Tarsus, “Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?” God is still accepting volunteers! “Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross,[and sacrifice his dream] and follow me.” The heathen sit in darkness and perish in Hell while we pursue our dreams. Meanwhile, we have a perfectly clear command: “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations.”

The missionaries you meet all gave up their dreams. Very few of them dreamed all their life of being a missionary. They don’t go to another place because they have nothing else to do with their life here at home. Anyone who can learn a new language and communicate well in another culture could surely make it big in business or politics. Anyone who can endure the hardships of deputation and the foreign field could succeed in just about any profession. (And earn a lot more money!) The missionary sacrificed his dream; would you sacrifice yours, too?

In time of war, soldiers put their dreams on hold or give them up forever. Brethren, we are in a battle to liberate souls that Satan has taken captive at his will. The call (or command) to arms has gone out. The pagan who trusts Christ couldn’t care less if the messenger was a draftee (called) or a volunteer; he just praises God that someone finally brought him the Gospel! (But, oh that the messenger would have arrived before his mother and father died!)

A man once told Jesus that he would be a disciple, but only after he cared for his aging father and collected the inheritance upon his father death. (Some of that is found between the lines.) Jesus told him, “Let the dead bury their dead: but go thou and preach the kingdom of God.” We might say it like this: Let the world do what it can do, and you do what the world cannot do–preach the Gospel. In other words, let the world chase its dreams; you sacrifice yours!