We still cannot get India, her people and her needs out of our system. However, it would now probably take more than a Miracle for us to return there to work because we are not getting any younger, being only six years away from retirement. But then Abraham was seventy-five years old and Moses eighty when they received God's call! What poses the greatest problem nowadays for foreigners contemplating service in India, is the difficulty of securing visas and residential permits, unless, of course, the applicant has very high qualifications. In this case, he or she may be welcomed with open arms. Further to that, the call to Christian service must now come from the indigenous church, and rightly so.
Several years after returning from the field, we had the joy of making stopovers in India, travelling to and from Britain and the USA during visits to our scattered family, now permanently residing in those three countries. Time permitted me only to touch down briefly at Bombay. Ruth, however, was able to get right through to Daulatapur to spend a few weeks with "Moussi" and our Indian family. She even was able to reach Rigalto Bank, where she found the little hut all spick and span. It had been kept in constant readiness, in anticipation of our return.
In this year of writing, we anticipated spending six months at the Leprosy Research & Training Centre, Karigiri, Tamil Nadu (South India), preparation for the work to which we had been invited by our good friend, Dr. Ivan Collett. Ivan and Maria are currently serving in Bangladesh through the indigenous organization, ASIA-CONCERN, being seconded by The Hansen Institute. Ivan was in desperate need of one to head up a Leprosy Control Program in Sylhet District and thought I could do the job. After all, we had done that work in India, under Ivan's direction.
ASIA-CONCERN accepted our applications, arranged for our medical checks, passed us fit to return and booked our flight to Madras. The ASIA-CONCERN Personnel Officer even wrote advising what household equipment we should take and then, right at the very last moment, the whole thing was cancelled. ASIA-CONCERN informed us that the Government of Bangladesh now obliged them, to recruit "experts", meaning doctors with at least a MBBS Degree. I doubt if a doctor would be prepared to give his or her valuable time and expertise to go to such a backward place to do the work of a paramedic.
Needless to say, all of us were very disappointed.
The shock of having to change our plans at the eleventh hour was so stunning
that I broke out in a nasty rash on my face, necessitating a visit to the
doctor who prescribed a course of tranquillisers. That time, God apparently did
not work his Miracle and yet, we were so very sure, deep down in our hearts,
that we were being called back to India. It looked as though God was
deliberately closing the door, in spite of a special prayer meeting Maria
Collett arranged with the Baptist
Maria had been on furlough, visiting her mother at the time and was so sure that we would get to Bangladesh, that she went ahead and told us what household things to bring and that is Faith. She believed that the Lord was only delaying our departure from Australia that we might complete this book which, most likely, would not have been finished had we returned to the field at the time.
Our dream of returning to "The Field" now seemed totally impossible, without a Miracle, because, at my age and with so few financial resources, there was no way I could take a MBBS course, to satisfy the Bangladesh Government's criteria.
A strange thing happened in August 1981, on the very day we were initially scheduled to fly to Madras en route Karigiri, if we had secured the required medical degrees. On that day, we received two telephone calls inviting us to consider other fields. One was to head up a rural development project at Shrigonda in Western India and the other challenged us to consider operating a twenty- four-hour-a-day "Crisis Centre" at Port Hedland, on the western coast of Australia. What does one do in such a situation when, with Christ, our hearts bleed equally for India and her people as well as for Australia's neglected indigenous folk in their desperate struggle for land-rights, self- determination and a racial identity?
It may seem old-fashioned to say it, but all those years abroad had taught us that, in such crises, the solution is to seek the Lord's guidance in prayer and so, after again committing our future into His hands, our minds were reconciled to accepting, as His will, whatever decision is ultimately reached. After all, one thing is certain; all Christians - every sister and brother in Christ - as "missionaries" in particular, have no rights. We are all "sojourners", on constant call and must ever be sensitive as to where the Lord is leading and available to go whenever the Call comes.
Just what were we to make of these two Calls? While the invitation to the Indian field was a great temptation, there was a language problem for, in that part of Maharashtra Province, Marathi is spoken, rather than Hindi and this would have posed quite a problem for us at our age. Yes, it looked as though all those twenty-five years we had spent working amongst India's aboriginal folk, was simply a period of training for the ministry God had called us to at Port Hedland.
But Port Hedland, also, presented a very real problem in view of Ruth's chronic asthma condition, which required her to avoid such places, notorious for dust. Had the Lord taken this into account? And so it was that we declined to accept both these invitations, in spite of the fact that the Impossible Dream was still haunting us.
Settling back into our native country has been almost as traumatic as adjusting to the Indian culture for the very first time. Starting a new life in Australia, with virtually nothing in terms of material possessions, has had its problems, but the Lord more than compensated us for all our losses. All the riches in the world could never buy the wealth of experience we had gained during our missionary career in India. No amount of money ever could purchase the treasures we had found in fellowship with our Indian friends for whom living means "opportunities for Christ" (Phil. 1:24 The Living Bible). With them, we had found the "SECRET OF LIFE" and no amount of philosophical argument and debate ever could convince us that we had not experienced the Miraculous.
Miraculous as it was when the Spirit of God entered the human scene in the person of Jesus Christ, that initial stage of the Incarnation is only part of the Gospel story. Although the works of Jesus were marvellous when he raised the dead and fed the five thousand, those miracles, geographically limited as they were, are nothing when compared with what the Lord is doing today. Now, throughout the whole world, in the lives of those women and men who give him opportunity, he is performing the "GREATER WORKS" he promised to do through his followers. (John 14:12). We hope that, through this book, many may be encouraged to draw on that unlimited source of Miraculous power - JESUS CHRIST.
No amount of mere human energy and resources ever
could have sustained us through all those trials and sufferings in India and
for so long a period - twenty-five years. It is our observation, since
returning to Australia, that such tribulations are not the exclusive privilege
of overseas missionaries to endure. In fact, it can often be far more difficult
to communicate Christ in a hedonistic Western society, with its sensual gods of
sumptuousness, self and sex, than in the darkest depths of
"heathendom". Those years spent in India have given us an opportunity
to observe missions both from within and without the
"The day of missions belongs to the past,"
we are being told. And - "Young people no longer are being challenged to
evangelise." Don't you believe it! Nothing could be further from the
truth. Dr. Kenneth Scott Latourette, the late renowned
Some of these indigenous groups are passing through times of bitter trial and need all the encouragement the more established churches can offer. Missionaries are still needed to work within these cultures, but now in PARTNERSHIP. To identify in body, mind and spirit with churches in the less affluent areas of the world, calls for youth with Christian humility, dedication, compassion, self-sacrifice and guts. Christian women and men are no less missionaries, ministers and priests when they serve in the spirit of Christ in "secular" capacities, perhaps as agriculturists, engineers, educationalists, social workers or in the medical field.
Any dedicated service that helps less fortunate people in a positive, constructive way, also helps the Lord to come into an incarnate encounter with those in need. Organizations such as WHO, UNICEF, PEACE CORPS, RED CROSS, WORLD VISION and OXF AM, to name only a few, are excellent avenues through which the missionary of today may exercise his or her Christian ministry - incarnately. Constitutionally, the ACDP functions irrespective of caste, creed, race and sex/gender, but I am sure that Christ often had a far greater opportunity to use us spiritually through the Project's "secular" concerns than when we were in traditional "mission" service. And this is in spite of the fact that there were times when, in the ACDP, we could not be evangelically vocal in our serving.
It is perhaps ironic that the vast majority of
inter-denominational missionary societies stem from what may be called the
"Evangelical-Fundamentalist" section of the
Happily, in recent times, there has been a shift in emphasis. Evangelicals are now expressing concerns, not only for the victims of Communist atrocities, but also for the millions who are being persecuted, tortured and killed under the capitalist systems of certain Latin American countries, for example. They have come a long way since the days when sections of the church took advantage of the aggression perpetrated under Western Imperialism, particularly in China. During the terrible famine through which we passed in 1967, the Conference of Evangelical Christians in India was challenged to launch out into a caring ministry that some of its older, more conservative members once might have considered the domain of secularists. So it was that the CECCR (Conference of Evangelical Christians Committee on Relief) was born.
The change has come none too soon. Robert S. McNamara, former President of The World Bank, has likened our planet to a space ship in which a quarter of the passengers are travelling in the lap of luxury, in super first-class accommodation, while the rest sweat it out in steerage, reminiscent of the slave ships that once plied the Atlantic. Some of these slaves in the bowels of the ship are our own personal mends who enjoy a proper meal only once every second day. They are numbered in the one third to one half of the world's less fortunate who constantly suffer from hunger. It is estimated that, each day, at least ten thousand people die through starvation or mah1utrition-related sickness.
I believe that the Evangelical Movement, in spite of
its fears of the "Social Gospel" and "Liberation Theology",
has provided the
Moderate Evangelicals and Ecumenists have a joint
role to play in the life of the
My fervent pray is that, through his touch, they may
be brought together. Not only do they need each other to clarify for themselves
their own universe concepts of the Gospel, but the
Ironically, both groups claim to have "faith" in Christ, but this is another word that needs to be understood in the context of the Gospel. "Pisteo", in the Greek New Testament, covers a whole range of meanings from a simple intellectual assent to deep personal commitment. Some Christians claim they have "faith" that Christ existed as a person, even as a miracle-working God, but he is "way out there" or "up in heaven", far removed from the human scene with its economic exploitation, racist attitudes, social & sexual discriminations and personal heartache.
At the other end of the spectrum are those for whom "faith" is commitment, not so much to a Person, but to the type of life Jesus lived in human relationships. This latter group of "Liberals", who often are kinder and more tolerant people, generally moves on a much higher moral plain, with real social concerns that issue from a more Christ-like spirit. Often, however, some find themselves lacking the charisma that drives the Conservatives with an all-consuming passion, which, in terms of personal relationships, does more harm than good!
To "come alive" or be "born
again", what these opposing, weaker sections of the
On the other hand, some Ecumenists, who over-stress a theology of secularisation, often have served in such a horizontal dimension, that they have failed to tap the Source of Life -Jesus Christ - the very heart of the biblical "message" - the "Word become Flesh" (John 1:8). But combine the ministries of both - the vertical and the horizontal - with a balanced emphasis on the Incarnation and the Atonement and you have a CROSS and all the Power that goes with it. (Phil. 3: 10).
The world's needy people are still crying out for
servants of the Cross - for women and men who are called to the ministry and
mission of the
How may we define a "missionary?" He or she
is one who is "SENT" by the Lord. The word is derived initially from
"APOSTOLOS," a Greek word which, in turn, was translated into Latin,
providing the root of this much misunderstood and often maligned title. Its connotation
is often so out of context, by reason of the
The word in its verbal form, "Apostellein", appears over one hundred and thirty times in the New Testament. It differs somewhat in emphasis from another Greek word, "Pempein," which could be used even of a mother sending her child to the market on a simple errand. "Apostellein", however, implies a Royal Commission - an ambassadorial dispatch - with all the special gifts and credentials that are bestowed upon those so endowed. From the moment I felt the Holy Spirit's call to India through dear old Penry Perry, when he yelled into the phone, "When can you go; when can you go?", I knew I was destined to be a Missionary. And from the time when Ruth received those little Indian coins, she also, was conscious of a Commissioning that cannot be explained away as a mere natural phenomenon. Out of these experiences, we would like to share a few observations that may help any potential candidates called to a cross-cultural ministry.
Happily, the days have passed when missionaries took on the role of leaders in the pioneering way we set about establishing churches in Surgapam and more so, when our predecessors, at the beginning of the century, founded churches in Palamghat District, Bihar. Those methods may have been valid and appropriate for the times, but for women and men called to serve on the "Mission Field" today, a new and more humble attitude is required. It may be necessary for the modern evangelist to work under the administration of indigenous churches, being subject to all their different cultures and economies, with related rules and regulations.
The new type of Missionary of our day must have an
entirely fresh approach to missions. This often requires a complete
re-appraisal of the relationships between Christianity and non-Christian
religions and of Western culture with those of Africa, Asia and other
"third-world" nations. It may require the assimilation of cultural
practices that are completely at variance with our conventional way of living,
remembering, of course, that all changes are made within the broad Christian
ethic. Gone are the days when missionaries went out in a Western life-style to
redeem the "depraved pagans". The situation has completely changed
since William Carey sailed for India at the end of the eighteenth century. The
Modern-day missionaries also must value the fact that, in the scriptures of all the major religions, there are precious treasures of truth that Jesus, for sure, would appreciate. In our ignorance, we sometimes equate the doctrinal tenets of non-Christian faiths with some of the diabolical practices associated with extremist, fundamentalist adherents of those religions. If you have read the Koran, you will know that, in those holy pages, there is no mention of Bridal Infibulation, which along with circumcision, is the nightmare of millions of Muslim women prior to marriage. Their torture continues right through life, so long as they are married and every time they give birth. Female genital mutilation, including clitoridectomy, without anaesthetic and sometimes even the resewing of the vaginal orifice following each copulation, is still practiced in all those countries where Islam has spread, from the west coast of Africa, through Sudan, Somalia, Pakistan, India, Malaysia, to mention only a few areas where the United Nations appears to be turning a blind eye. Remove Jesus from this world and there is not much hope for women!
Unfortunately, missionaries sometimes have been charged with trying to change cultural practices of those of other faiths!
Over-zealous missionary crusaders, particularly those of evangelical fundamentalist persuasion, often have misunderstood the meaning of "conversion", thus giving it rather negative connotations, completely out of harmony with the spirit of Jesus. Such concepts are often a reflection of the missionary's own concept of God. We have to ask ourselves, "Does God act UPON history in a unilateral way, or does he act IN history and, more particularly, THROUGH people, who give history meaning and purpose? This raises the whole question of the Inspiration of Scripture and whether or not God dictated his policy from above - inerrantly. My conviction is that he exercises his redemptive role IN and THROUGH those women and men who are humbly sensitive and responsive to his love, ultimately exemplified in the person of Jesus Christ - "High and Lifted Up".
Incidentally, we have used many male pronouns to
describe Deity, but it should be understood that God is not a male, or, for
that matter, a female. In a patriarchal society, the Jews had no other way of
describing "HIM" as a caring, supportive person - a
"Father". You will find that those who believe in the complete
inerrancy of the Bible, find it difficult, if not impossible, to give women totally
equal status with men. It is ironic, incongruous and ludicrous that, while
Jesus Christ was the first real "Women's Libber" in a truly positive
sense, the fundamentalist section of the
In biblical times, the first religious exercise of the day for the Jewish fundamentalist male, was to look to the hills and thank Jehovah or Yahweh, that he was not born a Gentile, a slave, a "leper" or a woman! These four groups were imagined by the Pharisees to be under "The Curse", totally depraved, beyond all hope and with no potential for goodness whatsoever. Sadly, such false concepts of God and his creatures still prevail on some mission fields where conservative "Swordsmen of the Word" do battle to convert the "Gentiles". Having been for a time ostracized "beyond the pale of Israel" and segregated "without the camp" (Lev. 13:46), I have sensed both how the "accursed heathen" must feel to be under the fiery onslaught of Christian fundamentalists and how Jesus must have felt at the hands of his inquisitors.
But Christ, "though rejected by his posterity as an impractical dreamer and executed by his contemporaries as a dangerous anarchist and blasphemous madman, was greater than his judges!" (George Bernard Shaw). Jesus was a revolutionary who, in a positive, constructive way, defied the religionists of his day by himself becoming a "Curse" (Gal. 3:13). He did what no average, respectable Jew would even think of doing: He reached out in love and compassion to those under this imagined "curse" and identified with them in a totally non-judgmental manner. "He became sin for us" (2 Cor. 5:21). Jesus, in fact, had no need for Jewish baptism, which was reserved only for Gentiles and those conscious of their unworthiness. But he had such a concern for sinners that, deep down in his heart, he felt that he was one of them and must share the consequences of their sin.
The secret of a successful Christian ministry is in having this same "mind" of Jesus (Phil. 2:2), " who thought equality with God not a thing to be tightly retained but, of His own volition, emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant (doulos) - literally a slave." And being born in human form, He identified with needy people to the point of death until He was born in them and they in Him. Herein is the dynamic of the Gospel, the Secret of Life - the making of the greatest-ever Miracle. And this is the Christian's greatest privilege - to share His reproach - "without the camp" (Heb. 13:13).
To summarize, Ruth and I would like to highlight those basic Gospel truths we have tried to share, in case they may be of help in your own missionary work, whether at home or on some foreign field. Assuming that, through the in dwelling Spirit, you have that "mind" of Christ, you will be a "Possibility Thinker" always looking for the good in others, even if only the potential for goodness. Such a positive attitude towards others, whatever be their moral status, is a basic prerequisite for any who would dare to be a Missionary. This calls for a "gracious" identification with people - all people - even those regarded by society as delinquents and by the state, as political enemies. It involves a "becoming all things to all people" (1 Cor. 9:22), within the limits of the Christian ethic.
However, if suffering love be not the motive, all our
identification may be no more than mere "strategy", void of spiritual
power. Sensitive people outside the
As Christ "became sin for us", (2 Cor. 5:21) so we have to become sin for others. We are now "Bread" to be broken and consumed by the sins of the world. This spirit is exemplified in Moses' willingness to be "blotted out" for the sake of his people (Exod. 32:30-32); in the prophet's feeling that, like those of his people, HIS lips, too, were unclean (Isaiah 6:5) and in the ministry of Paul who wished he could be "cut off from Christ" for the sake of Israel (Rom. 9:3). No amount of human effort, technique, strategy, propaganda, business acumen or organisation, can substitute for identification with Christ in the "Bloody Stream of Human Suffering".
Most Christians are prepared to admit that the
To fathom the depths of Christ's incarnational involvement in our human dilemma we need to understand that he, too, was truly human, tempted in all points like as we, yet without sin (Heb. 4: 15). Some theologians so etherealise the incarnation that we can derive no strength from his temptations. It was an agonizing experience for him to realize that his life's work was to culminate in torture and death. Can we blame him for wanting to "throw in the sponge"? As the hour of his flogging and crucifixion drew nearer, he even conjured up ways to escape from it all --- "Father save me FROM this hour - let this cup pass FROM me" (John 12:27) -- were his prayers that remind us never to minimize the HUMANITY of Jesus. His sufferings were REAL!
Significantly, in Jn. 12:27 and also in Heb. 5:7, one small Greek word, "EK", adds a rich meaning to Christ's prayer. Normally the Greek word" APO" is translated "FROM", but when "EK" is used, the meaning is "OUT FROM" or "THROUGH". Jesus was not seeking escape from the Cross or asking to be spared the suffering but rather that "through" taking upon himself the world's pain and heartache, he would be fulfilling his ministry. .
The same applies to us today. The life we have received is not for us at all. The one who seeks salvation only for his own gratification cannot claim to have a valid Christian experience. We have a missionary obligation to share the Treasure with those who know Hint not, however, we are given this Treasure in "Earthen Vessels" which must be "BROKEN" to enrich the world (2 Cor. 4:1-10). Paul, in this passage sums up the ministry as "bearing in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus that the life of Jesus may be manifest in our bodies". Moffatt renders it -- "may come out of our bodies".
The Treasure comes out for the world to behold His Glory, when the earthen vessel is broken, humbled before God and people. The fragrance of Mary's jar of precious ointment filled the house (John 12:3), only when the jar was BROKEN at the feet of Jesus (Mark 14:3). The perfume of His knowledge is spread through us only as He "LEADS US IN TRIUMPH" (as bond slaves in a Roman triumphant procession), thus "CAUSING US TO TRIUMPH" (compare the RSV and the KJV translations of 2 Cor. 2:14-16). There can be no harvest until the seed loses itself in the darkness of the earth (John 12:24). So Paul could say, "Death is at work in us but life in you" (2 Cor. 4:12). "Do not be ashamed of what I am suffering for you, which is your Glory." (Ephes. 3:13).
The incarnate Christ in us means that we too, in a secondary sense, have become the "BREAD OF LIFE". But what Christ gave to the world was "BROKEN" bread. We are to be broken (in service) of our own volition and consumed by the sins of the world before the world may "SEE" Him. Although the disciples walked with the Lord on the road to Emmaus, they did not recognize Him until the bread was broken (Luke 24:35).
In today's society, there seems to be no shortage of "bread" in the form of church buildings, religious verbiage and much feverish evangelical activity. But what our society desperately yearns for - perhaps unconsciously so - is "BROKEN BREAD" in the person of Jesus Christ, "High and Lifted Up" in the lives of his followers (John 12:32). Ignatius testified to the Christians who tried to hinder his martyrdom - "I am the wheat-corn of God. Let me be ground by the teeth of wild beasts that I may become the pure bread of Christ. "
CHRIST'S UNIQUENESS IN THE CROSS
It is just this emphasis and this alone, that can preserve our distinctive witness to Christ as the "ONLY NAME". Without the deepest meaning of the Cross, our faith will soon become just another religion. As of old, so today, the Cross is the stumbling block (1 Cor. 1: 23). Many may feel that our emphasis on communication in mission, whether at home or in a foreign land, is a ministry beyond that of the average Christian. Certainly, in our own strength, it is impossible for any of us to live the Christian life. It is only through the Miracle of His indwelling Spirit, through the "New Birth", that we can possibly take up His Cross. For the making of a Miracle in your life, you have to begin by sharing with others what measure of Grace you have received. It may only be a smile or a cuddle but that's a good start.
When the Lord gives us His Holy Spirit, He gives only that measure which we can appropriate and SHARE WITH OTHERS, just the "guarantee" or "first instalment" (Arrabon) of our inheritance (Ephes. 1: 14). But if we are to go on with the Lord, to experience His Miraculous Healing Power, thus to qualify for a second instalment, a third and so on, to claim the full Inheritance, we must invest our spiritual resources in human relationships.
Initially, in fulfilment of an Impossible Dream, we set out in search of life's Meaning and Purpose, only to find the Secret in Jesus, who said..."If only man will let himself be lost for my sake, he will find his true self' (Matt. 16:25, N.E.B.)
T .E. Trench sums up very beautifully and ever so succinctly, the fulfilment of our Impossible Dream: -
"For we must give, if we would keep
That Good Thing from above,
Ceasing to give, we cease to have,
Such is the law of Love.
It was not until this manuscript was completed and until the Authors had given up all hope of ever returning to "The Field", that Ruth and Keith received their next assignment - to ASIA- CONCERN - being seconded by The Hansen Institute to conduct a Leprosy Control Program in Bangladesh, in collaboration with the Government of that country. How did God overcome the problem of having to provide "experts" when those he had chosen were only Para-Medics? How did God fulfil this Impossible Dream? It only required a Miracle - No problem!
In April 1982, the Authors left for India to take a Leprosy Para-Medical Refresher Course at Salur, Andhra Pradesh, followed by, of all things, the Medical Officers Course at the Schieffelin Leprosy Research & Training Centre, Karigiri, near Vellore, Tamil Nadu, India. This is the same leprosy orientation course prescribed for fully-fledged MBBS doctors and is recognized by the Government of India. This was more than just unreal and qualified the Authors to meet the Bangladesh Government's criteria for "experts".
In January 1983, Ruth & Keith took up their new appointments under ASIA CONCERN, Bangladesh. With both Indian Govt. & Bangladesh Govt. accreditation, Ruth became involved in Occupational Therapy and Keith as Sector Head & Leprosy Control Officer, then Project Director (Admin.) and finally, as Director of Health Services (Leprosy & TB)
In June 1988, they retired from The Hansen Institute after both receiving Australia Day Honours Awards of MEMBERS OF THE ORDER OF AUSTRALIA (A.M.), for "Service to Agriculture and the Management of Leprosy in India and Bangladesh".
P .S. -- Dear Reader,
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