The
Patrick (Not his real name) is a full time Missionary that Ministers to anyone who will stand still long enough to hear the message. This group is about 75-80 % late teens & young adults, tho there are families and even singular Grannies & Gramps there too. Babushkas and Dadushkas. (Sp?)
Now keep in mind that these people are like our own children … Family for sure and we are doing the best to stay in communication with them. E-Mail was antiquated and not reliable then, tho I communicate today with another spiritual son & his family in
Some how … … … some way we made contact with other Missionaries on their way there or going back there after a Sabbaticals, along with Business people endeavoring to set up trade with the Belarussians and they carried the funds and little essentials into them for us. Keep in Mind that ACI, which was at that time headed up and ran by Ken and Carol Meeks at that time was a big part of this and because of their experiences were really a big help.
Now let me get to “The Secret” of being a ‘Cowboy Missionary’!” and my experience the first time.
I was just talking to my neighbor (Who God is moving in his life now after knowing him for over forty years.) that there is a hole in every human being that is to be filled with only the presence of God. I was telling him (And he Knew … ) how for so many years I tried to cram anything and everything into it and never got any satisfaction till I recommitted myself to Christ. My wife and I did that in December of 1977. I pray that this will happen thirty years later in my neighbor’s life.
Sometime in 1993 The Spirit of God Placed … … ‘A Knowing’ deep down inside of me to assist my Friends & Family to get on down to Chisinau the Capitol of Moldolva. The Ministry was doing so good and growing in
When I told my wife that God had called me to the Mission Field she was incredulous and I could see the heels digging in. Nonetheless, I sat down to my Radio Shack Tandy that my brother in law gave me when he got his super 286 and wrote the second paragraph of my Deputation Letter. It went something like this:
If you think that this is just another preacher trying to get into your billfold, then before you read another word, … throw this into the trash can.
I showed this to the lovely wife of my youth the next morning and she said, “Oh Yea! That is going to get you a lot of support!”
Nevertheless, before we went to Church that morning, she told me that should our Pastor concurred that she would support me in the move, tho she would stay and keep the home fires aglow.
Our youngest son flat out told me that he did not want me to go over to that dangerous place. I had to remind him that a few months before that one of our neighbor’s son up the street was blown away by a ‘drive by’ down the street. Of how his mother and I ducked and hid behind the decorated rock portion of the exterior wall up in our bedroom one night when a drive by filled the neighbor’s car across the street with lead.
I just knew that I would be safer over there in Russia than here at home! The only real danger was to the hair on the back of my neck when I found myself in some bizarre situations.
Moving along! Keep in mind that I did not know how God was going to do this, only that He was going to do it! After the Service we went up to our pastor and my wife is watching both of us very closely, as I told him that I had been called to Missions and the need to assist getting the Moldolvian Ministry going. Without any hesitation, he was in agreement and we also agreed that Minsk was the home camp till the timing was right.
That afternoon after I drafted the 1st and 3rd paragraph, ( it was about 2 pages after it was done.) we went up to the High Desert where there was a family gathering, It was probably a birthday. When we went in some of my brother’s in-laws were already there and we had not seen them for a while. Before we even sat down, I was asked directly, without hesitation what I was up to these days. Keep in mind it was only the night before that I had received the calling.
Funny you asked, I replied. I have been called to Missions. To Belarus and then to Moldolva to assist some friends in the ministry that they were called to. Directly, without hesitation, I was told, “We want some of that!” and we soon had the 1st $1,000, as an emphatic GO! During the middle of the next week and I still did not have the Deputation Letter written yet, we found ourselves out of town at some friend’s that we never saw unless it was on the week end. We had fellowshipped with them before they move away and were like Family too. The 1st thing he said, (as it had been a while since seeing them too.) directly and with out hesitation, “What are you doing these days?”
I am not being repetitious or redundant in making these connections. You have to hear this being ‘screamed’ at me with Spiritual confirmation. When I told him in few words what was happening, he responded emphatically, “We want some of that!”
In the mouth of two or three witnesses, let every word be established! Deut. 17:6; Deut. 19:15; Matthew 18:16; 2 Cor. 13:1; 1 Tim. 5:19; Hebrews 10:28;
Having a tenacious character, there was nothing that would stop me now! By The Way! In these later years I am still being honed, as even the God Given tenacity, with out the explicit direction of The Holy Spirit, blinds one to the obvious opportunities. However, Learn I Will! In JESUS’ Name! Hopefully without, as much self effort. IYKWIM? It is so much easier to do it by HIS numbers!
Cutting to the chase! Well next week MORE! “The Secret” of being a ‘Cowboy Missionary’! Part 2. And ‘The Tent Makers'
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