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This is why we are here in this world. We must never lose sight of this.
To those of you who serve on the "front lines" I want to say, "May God bless you, keep you, renew you and inspire you as you labor for Him!"
Blessings!
K 
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Posted 07/10/2009 04:21am
Author: kreynolds
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Today, I salute two of my American ex-pastors who came to Singapore who showed me by example how they lived out the following hymn:
Out on the highways and byways of life,
Many are the weary and sad;
Carry the sunshine where darkness is rife,
Making the sorrowing glad.
Make me a blessing, make me a blessing;
Out of my life may Jesus shine.
Make me a blessing, O Saviour I pray,
Make me a blessing to someone today.
Tell the sweet story of Christ and His love,
Tell of His pow'r to forgive;
Others will trust Him if only you prove
True every moment you live.
Make me a blessing, make me a blessing;
Out of my life may Jesus shine.
Make me a blessing, O Saviour I pray,
Make me a blessing to someone today.
Give as 'twas given to you in your need,
Love as the Master loved you;
Be to the helpless a helper indeed,
Unto your mission be true.
Make me a blessing, make me a blessing;
Out of my life may Jesus shine.
Make me a blessing, O Saviour I pray,
Make me a blessing to someone today.
He was our pastor in the 1950's and he went to glory just five years ago. Here are only two examples of his personal sacrifice and love for the people he served:
- It was one hour to midnite and a little boy he had seen only once before knocked on his pastor's apartment door. "Mama is sick and we need help." the little boy said in faltering English. Pastor straightaway changed out of his pyjamas and drove his Volkswagon van to her home with her little boy - he carried the child and climbed 10 storeys to her one-room apartment unit, carried her down 10 storeys and brought her to hospital in his SPEED-THE_LIGHT van, and carried her into the emergency ward, stayed through the night with the little boy as mama underwent an emergency operation, bought supper and breakfast for the little boy and prayed and comforted him, then brounght him to pastor's home to stay after her condition stabilized and she was safe in the ICU. He was compassionate to the widows, the lonely, the fatherless, the sick and was available at all times to visit,comfort, pray and anoint with oil, to protect in family violence, and to present the gospel. That little boy became a minister of the gospel.
- I was President of the Christian Fellowship at high school. The fellowship meeting started at 1.30pm and he was due to speak an evangelistic message at 2pm. We were shocked to see Pastor when he arrived at 2.05pm -his shirt and pants were all torn in shreds and bloodied and muddy and his tie was askew. He carried his torn Bible and still preached the Word. Five persons were saved that day. It had been drizzling and he drove a scooter to school. As our school was on a little hill he had to drive up the two-way muddy road. A car in the opposite lane had skidded and run into his scooter which was a write-off. He fell and but for his quick mind to roll over to the side of the road he should have been run over by an oncoming lorry. He walked up the hill and came to speak for he knew souls were more important than how he looked. He was always there to support his church youth wherever they were in ministry in schools, camps, tracting on the streets or at street meetings.
She was 100 years and 7 days old when she passed away on December 11, 2008. Just a few examples of her dedication as I knew her since the age of five years till her death and we corresponded from whereever she was:
- Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Ipoh, Penang, New York, San Francisco, Oakland - she started Sunday schools to minister to poor children during weekdays and these later brought their famililes to the Lord, and pioneer churches were founded. She ministered to the Chinese in Cantonese and learned their strange ways and superstitions, which were converted with her teaching them the Word, to the ways of the Lord
- in Cuba, she and her husband ministered to the indentured Chinese men, who arrived without their women-folk, as labourers before Castro took over, and she sent me photos of how hard the indentured life was and the work she was doing to minister to them and to save some.
- at the age of 92 when she was in Singapore - I asked her why she was in a hurry to return to the States. To extend her driving license she said, as she needed to drive to home visit. Her best friend's last wish to just have a time out from her retirement home and have an ice-cream was met. They sat in her car enjoying their ice-cream in a shopping mall car park when a freak accident killed her friend- she had to drive to encourage and comfort the lonely, elderly and sick. She squashed both feet in that accident and doctors said she would never walk again. I received a letter from her - "I must walk again or else how can I continue home ministry?". She walked beyond medical doctors' expectations in shoes that were so cumbersome and she travelled to Singapore/Malaysia at least once in two years from Oakland, many times alone from the age of 90 years to visit and encourage the churches she founded on their anniversaries and preached. Each time she made it a point to visit my home to enjoy a feast of durians with my family and to catchup where each member was on our spiritual journey, what problems we had faced since we met, challenges in ministry as I shared my work plans with her and she blessed every family addition and dedicated each to the Lord to the third generation at the end of each fellowship time.
- I was at her last public service in San Francisco last November, when she took the challenge of reciting Psalm 100 from a few young people and then preaching from it- an inspiration to young and old present to hide God's word in our hearts even to our old age.
-In a letter which I received from her in the 1980's she wrote that she was preaching in a New York Chinese pioneer work on Sunday mornings and preaching in San Francisco on Sunday evenings. I asked how was it possible with the distance in between and of course at that time she had to tell me that there was a time difference between New York and San Francisco.
- Through the years, she was my spiritual mentor and she inspired/encouraged me to share the gospel and show compassion to all nationalities, to rich and poor, down-trodden whereever I went on business travel in the offices, airports, in the hotels, on airplanes and public transport, visiting tourist sites (she witnessed to many on the Great Wall of China which she climbed - no mean feat - after she was miraculously healed of cancer in the 1970's.) and on the streets and shopping malls. She challenged and made me accountable to her for we shared many heart-warming and chilling experiences of ministry till she was called home. She sent me her first missionary status update by email at the age of 98!
I have shared two ministers' lives which impacted my life and taught me the need and satisfaction of ministry outside the four walls of the churcn. I hope this sharing will encourage all in ministry to be as dedicated as them.
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Posted 07/10/2009 05:45am
Author: ptl2008
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You could say that I serve in the "front lines" since I serve with a street ministry that runs an overnight shelter, a drug and alcohol rehab, and provide subsidized housing for the poor and disenfranchised. I thank you and kreynolds for your kind words, exhortations, prayers for it can indeed be a difficult ministry.
Nevertheless, there is a tendency to place greater import and to romanitisze one form of ministry over another. Whether it is the missionary who serves abroad in hostile and sometimes primitive environments or in ministry such as the one in which I serve, we all serve, or rather MUST serve. The reality is that the "front lines" is all around us. it is in a broken home next door as children struggle and blame themselves for their parents' breakup. It is in the home facing financial ruin due to poor judgment in the past and an economy in chaos. It is in the classroom and school halls where young people feel stupid, ugly, unwanted, left out and alone. It is an elderly person alone and afraid. It is in a young man or woman uncertain of the future, struggling with relationships, studies, and career, worried about the mounting debts of his or her student loan. It is in the teenager struggling with raging hormones and drastic physical and psychological changes as he/she deal with emerging adulthood. You will see it in the unchurched and the lost, oblivious to the lie that Satan has sucked them into, seeking fulfillment in material things, strange religions and doctrines, partying, sex, alcohol, and drugs. You will find the front lines in the tired faces of single parents trying to do their best to make ends meet, worn out, stressed out, and exhausted. The front lines are in our hospitals as living fetuses are aborted each day, harvested for 'medical purposes', where the sick and terminally ill lie alone in poorly staffed wards. You will find it in the age worn fraces of the elderly, alone in a wheelchair of a "retirement center" deserted by family and friends, just wanting someone to take him/her out to the park. You will find it in our prisons, our community centers, our schools, our office buildings, our malls, our factories, and our parks. The front lines is in stately homes with four and five car garages and in filthy tenement apartments. It is in the stretched limousine crossing a bridge and in the homeless huddled under that bridge. You will find it at home and in our churches.
God has equipped and gifted each of us to serve in different capacities. He has called us to different ministries and we all must serve as He has called. Romans 12:1-8 tells us:
1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. 2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. 3 For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith. 4 For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function, 5 so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another. 6 Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, let us prophesy in proportion to our faith; 7 or ministry, let us use it in our ministering; he who teaches, in teaching; 8 he who exhorts, in exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness.
The point is that the harvest is plentiful and the workers are few. We ALL have to a purpose in His Kingdom. Hurrah to B2Y well said!! Let us get off our pews, out those doors of our churches, casserole or tool box or brief-case or diaper bag in hand and let our light shine out into a drakened world.
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Posted 07/10/2009 06:23am
Author: arisensleeper
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Thank you all for your incredible words of inspiration and exhortation. As brother "arisen" says, we all have a job to do and for most of us it is NOT to go to Siberia or other uttermost parts of the earth nor is it to drop everything and start a church on the corner. I daily thank God for those who hearkened to God's call and do those forms of service, but there are a million and one ways to give and serve besides these.
Did you know that many locales have discontinued "meals on wheels" types of services for the homebound sick and disabled due to the economic crisis? What a wonderful way to serve, to take meals to those who cannot physically get out of their homes. Many times just seeing a smiling face helps these people want to live another day. The same thing holds true for visiting the elderly in nursing homes. There is no place, including prison, more lonely than many of the facilities frail and elderly folks are thrust into in their advanced age. Many of these people had no money so they are put in the bottom of the line facilities. Their families don't care about them, their friends have all died or in other facilities and their care is horrid.
What about the single mom who works two jobs to provide food for her kids all because dad ran off with another woman. Did this person bring on her woes? Of course not. Yet, so many times she is judged as some type of horrible person for not having a dad to help raise the kids. There are a million ways to help a person like this if they will open up and allow it.
The point is that service is not limited to outreach programs but is in reality the response within the heart to God's call to action. Whatever God puts on your heart to do--DO IT and be blessed for your giving.
Thanks,
B2Y
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Posted 07/10/2009 07:17am
Author: blessings2you
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Well said borther!!
If we were to think about it, we were all horrible people to begin with and without the atoning blood of Christ we are all the same. I also want to say that sometimes it does not even need for someone to open up and allow themselves to be helped. Once we were trying to help an elderly lady in our church neighbourhood but let us just say that she was a very sour person and she kept refusing us. Well all of us older, wiser, more mature guys sighed and said "what can you do but pray." Then the 14 year old son of one of the guys simply started going over to her house every Saturday and mowed her lawn. LOL he prayed like crazy as he was doing it because he heard us say that she may call the cops on us if we stepped on her property again. Took him nearly all summer but one Sunday she turns up in our church and has been coming ever since. Today, you will never know her from the sour little old lady that she was. She is grammy to all the kids and her pockets and purse are always full of candy. And that 14 yea old boy? He is in the first year of university studying engineering so he can go work in the third world for Christ.
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Posted 07/10/2009 07:57am
Author: arisensleeper
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Just made me think of this - a preacher once told us to look out of the windows and the doors of our church and he asked us if we knew what we were looking at... the answer, our missions field!
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Posted 07/10/2009 12:21pm
Author: doulos
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