Missionaries Have Problems Also
Missionaries get hurt and have problems too. That may sound like a strange thing to say. You might say, “Of course they do! They’re also human!”
My mind goes back to a particularly difficult time in my life, when a lot of challenging circumstances were occurring and I decided to be ‘open and honest’ in my next letter to prayer supporters. One dear friend replied in amazement and was quite stunned by the revelation that “missionaries have hard times too!”
The reality is God is working in all our lives, even when we are going to those people who have never heard (or, have heard multiple times). We might complain and say to God, “You know, if You just gave me a bit of a break I could accomplish so much more for You! If there was more money; if You would only give me team mates whom I understood or who were like me, the work would go so much better! And God, what’s with all the sickness we seem to be battling?!?”
The fact is God is “training our hands to war and our fingers to fight” (Psa cxliv 1). He is making us like Jesus, and sometimes ‘iron sharpening iron’ and trials are the only way to prune fruitful vines so they produce more fruit. We also have to learn how to resist the devil’s attacks through sickness, financial attack, etc.
We just have to come to that place of “counting it (those trials) all joy” because of what God is up to. We have to see, with ridiculous thanksgiving (joy), the Hand of God at work and know He is faithful and can make a whole people turn to Him in seconds, so our complaints about lack of finance, disputes with colleagues, and general mumbling to God about how He could do things better another way, are just not going to help.
By the way, don’t think that my wife and I are going ‘through it’ right now. We are not. We just have found ourselves in places so far on this trip (nearly 60 days into our 270 days of trip total) where we have been able to be a listening ear, a praying partner and, hopefully, an encouragement to those around us who are feeling like they are on an anvil being bashed by a Heavenly Blacksmith instead of resting in a Loving Father’s grace and goodness!
The reality is He is with you! He’s got your back.