Pastor Randy's Blog

They Live To Accomplish HIS Purpose

The last couple of weeks have been interesting ones for missionaries in different parts of the world.  I want to talk about three people that today have given their lives to extend the Kingdom.  One is a 27 year old, single girl living in Cairo, Egypt.  One is a married couple past retirement age who began serving God full-time in Mexico after his retirement from his insurance business in the US.

I have mentioned my cousin Jessica a couple of times in passing lately.  She is the daughter of my Uncle Mark, who passed away when he was only 31 years old, and she was only 4 years old herself.  She has spent the last 2 years living in Cairo working as a schoolteacher, but in reality she lives there to do all that she can to share the gospel with Muslims in Egypt.  Before moving to Cairo, she lived in St Croix, Virgin Islands at the FWB church working to help as a missionary there.  She is quite an amazing gal, huh?

Doing that work in a Muslim country is dangerous, especially for a young single woman. It can even deadly. We are not especially close because we have grown up in different generations and different geographic regions.  But I am very proud of her.  When all this craziness broke out in Egypt the past couple of weeks, others encouraged her to come home (understandably, IMHO).  But here is what she wrote via e-mail:

The Pastor of the local fellowship here has encouraged us to seize this window of opportunity to be the light in the darkness, which was the very basis of my original calling here.

I believe whole-heartedly that I am in the center of God’s will, which as you know is the safest place for ANYONE to be.  I am blessed beyond words with a wonderful, very caring and wise team in my chr and community; as well as the Egyptian local chr I serve with who have been an amazing blessing to me.  It is a privilege to be with and serve Egyptian believers and be able to identify with the country in their time of need and suffering.

Paul writes, ‘…I go… not knowing the things that will happen to me… except that the Holy Spirit testifies… saying that chains and tribulations await me. But none of these things move me…’ (Acts 20:22-24 NKJV).  I do not expect that I will be chained or in jail during this time, but, I stay here, not knowing the things that will happen to me.

I write you with a joyful heart even today as I had the opportunity to present a friend with a “special book” that I pray leads and guides her life to PEACE, TRUTH and LOVE.  She asked me if I had this book to borrow, and as we were at a bookstore at the time, coming across a copy in the used book section was an absolute miracle.  I know that my purpose in being here is for His kingdom and I stay with a glad heart and a supernatural peace that He is protecting and sustaining my everyday.

Notice the “CHR” a couple of times in that e-mail?  Not typo’s.  Those stand for “church” but she does not risk sending that word out via e-mail.  Later in her e-mail, she writes that she has had a chance to give a “special book” to a girl.  Obviously, that is the Bible, and yet she cannot say that in the e-mail either!  How different we have it here in the USA!

Don’t misunderstand me, I am not saying she should or shouldn’t stay.  But I love her living her life in this way: She does not place the opinions of others before God’s calling on her life.  She listens to HIM and then she listens to THEM.  Here’s a link to what I said a week or so earlier via my Twitter Account.

http://twitter.com/RPfromEHC/status/32456099323973634

I take pride that my cousin obviously lives to accomplish HIS PURPOSE.  Few of us can say that is our main and overriding goal in life, can we?

Then, on the other end of the globe and age spectrum, you have the Bivens.  Some of you have met these wonderful people, and may recognize them by seeing their faces.

They serve in Mexico, which has recently become a very hostile and unsafe  environment.  Over 30,000 people in Mexico have died in the last couple of  years’ drug war.  For perspective, that is about 5 times the amount of the war in  Afghanistan and Iraq over the past 10 years or so.  I wanted to share her recent  post with you because I felt like there was a definite parallel with the Bivens and  the missionaries recently killed in Mexico.  Many of you (like me), have a heart for what’s happening in Mexico.  The story about these missionaries that were shot at, rammed with a truck, and eventually the wife was shot in the head and died as she was being life-flighted to a hospital.  It all happened about 30 miles south of the Pharr International Bridge, the very bridge that we almost always use ourselves.

The parallels between Bud and Ruth Bivins and this couple really are pretty striking.  They both serve and work with missionaries near Tampico/Altamira, twin cities down about 8 hours into the interior of Mexico.  BTW, Altamira/Tampico is the city where Mano Con Mano was before it was bulldozed, and it also is the home of the 2 churches we just helped with toys.  One of those churches we gave over $400 USD toward the church’s first nursery.   Here is Ruth in her own words:

For the past several days there has been a lot of news about the missionary lady who was shot in the head and died. We did not know the couple, although they worked in the Altamira area for 30 years. If folks are not Free Will Baptist, we rarely have the opportunity to meet them. The husband has been interviewed a couple of times. You may have seen the interviews on television. He mentioned after her funeral that they had agreed not to be taken alive. So, when they approached a roadblock set up by a drug cartel, he ran it. They were then followed by three pickups that tried to force them off the road. When they kept speeding away, they were fired on, and she was killed. In our opinion they made two bad mistakes.

Bud asked a Federale officer, like our Highway Patrol, what to do if they tried to stop us. He said, “Don’t run or they will start shooting.” They ran and the results are tragic. And, they were driving a nice truck, a four door, ’08 Chevy pickup. Most likely, the men wanted their pickup. It is a diesel truck, so it is very likely they would have let them go once they found that out. The drug traffickers do not like diesel vehicles, since they have access to plenty of gas. We have heard many stories of people who had their vehicles stolen and they were left standing, unhurt, by the side of the road.

We drive an older, 2 door pickup, with a cumbersome, shell camper on the back, and Bud never washes it. We drive that same highway and have been stopped twice. Both times Bud talked to them, and they let us go. The first time the man insisted that there is a charge for Americans traveling that highway. Finally Bud handed him $3 that he had in his shirt pocket. “Well, I can buy a Coke with that,” he said. And they left.

The second time Bud got out and went back and asked them why they keep stopping us when they know that we are missionaries, we are working trying to help their people, and we don’t have any money. It was the same vehicle that had stopped us before, but a different man. When he heard that we are missionaries he told us to go on. You have to understand that we carry money down for the school each time we go, but, not in my purse or his wallet. It is well hidden. We feel that we are doing what God wants us to do, and the center of His will is the safest place for us to be. But, we do covet your prayers…

As you read their separate accounts, did you notice both of them had a statement in common?  ”Being in God’s will is the safest place in the world to be.”  Seriously now, just how cool are these people?   Death does not scare them – probably because they are already dead to this world!  I hope they inspire you the way they do me.  They are real life heroes of the faith.  I’m proud to say I know them, and wish my heart was more like theirs.

Jessica, Bud, Ruth, if you guys by chance read this blog, I want to say thanks.  Lives lived like yours inspire the rest of us to do just a little more than we are comfortable doing.  You elevate us by your example, and we are better for it!  More importantly, God’s Kingdom moves forward because of people like you, who inspire people like us.