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Merry Christmas to our Missionaries
Posted by Roger Ferrell in Uncategorized
Here at sbc IMPACT!, we get visitors from all over the world. Check our visitors map and see that folks have joined in our community here from all continents and hemispheres. Many of these are missionaries who discovered our blog over the last four months, and perhaps join us to get a bit of home and some encouraging words from time to time.
Our SBC missionaries serve all around the world, many in places where it is impossible to get a Christmas tree, to hear Christmas carols, or to watch It’s A Wonderful Life seven times in a row. Some will not have traditional foods for Christmas dinner, most will not see a Christmas cantata, or children’s pageant or a live nativity. And they may miss these things this Christmas. Some are cold, some discouraged, some in places where their lives are in danger. And yet all of them will in some way celebrate the birth of Christ tonight and tomorrow.
So I am writing this post on Christmas Eve to say to our IMB and NAMB missionaries: we love you and appreciate you this Christmas and always. Wherever you serve, and wherever you are from, know that there are Southern Baptists who honor you and consider you heroes. We pray you will enjoy sharing Christmas with friends from your church or ministry or if you are in a closed country, then we pray you will treasure the celebration of the birth of Christ with your family. We know it is a sacrifice for you to be away from those you love and the places you call home in order to serve the one who loves you most, who calls home those who are away from Him. And so, we just want to wish you a Merry Christmas, and let you know we are thinking of you and praying for you during this season. I say “we” because I know our contributors have a great heart for missions and missionaries (one of them, David Rogers, serves with the IMB in Spain and all of us are involved in missions in some way) and I know many of them and our “regulars” will want to post their own Christmas messages to you in the comments on this post.
I will let them speak for themselves, but as for me and my house…
My children and I will spend some time today praying for you, and I will tell them that there are people serving God all around the world who are following the example of Jesus: leaving a place of great love to go to a place of great need, to sacrifice for those who may reject them and to carry the gospel to those who need to hear it most. I will tell them that you are my heroes, and that if they would not waste their lives, they would do well to emulate you and be imitators of you as you are of Christ.
Merry Christmas, beloved ones. Hold fast, and do not lose heart. God is not unjust and will not forget the work you are doing and He will accomplish his purposes in your life and ministry. May the God we call Immanuel, God with us, be with you this season and may he bring you great joy, even as you share the great joy that is for all peoples: “for unto you is born this day in the city of David, a savior who is Christ the Lord.”
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Thanks! I’m here in the States this year enjoying friends, family, and football (a winning combination).
Thank you the kind and encouraging words. They are much appreciated. May you and all those at SBCImpact! have a FELIZ NAVIDAD from the Muses in Ecuador.
I’ll add my word of gratitude and a very, “Merry Christmas!” to all of our missionaries and families serving and sharing the Good News worldwide.
My prayer is that more of our folk back home will pray, support you, and “load up and go” to serve at your side.
“And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.” – Matthew 24:14
Kevin,
Glad to hear it! That would be American football, right?
Guy,
Feliz Navidad to you, too! Your blog is such a blessing, and we appreciate the work you do there and how you share it with others through stories and writing.
How do they celebrate Christmas is Ecuador? Any special traditions?
Geoff,
Merry Christmas to you, too!
Definitely American football
Basketball is the popular sport in the Philippines, but American football isn’t such a big deal there. It is nice to be able to watch the bowl games.
Let me add my Merry Christmas to all of our faithful readers. May God richly bless you this Christimas season and in the coming New Year!
Les
Thank you for your kind Christmas wishes, your support, and your prayers. We are proud to your missionaries serving our Lord in Canada. Many times people ask how it is best to pray for missionaries who are on the field and away from their families. Let me encourage you to pray for these three things:
(1) Pray for our physical safety. Most every field has physical hazards that place our lives in danger (e.g. political/social, disease, war, etc.). Here in Canada, the weather poses some very real physical dangers.
(2) Pray for our emotional stability. Difficult cultures, financial pressures, family issues, weather, and a host of other things can place a strain on a missionary’s emotional well-being. Please pray that we would remain strong emotionally and be able to focus upon the task at hand.
(3) Pray for our spiritual vitality. Herein is our life. Please pray that we would remain spiritually strong under the multitude of temptations we may face. It is true that our true enemy is not flesh and blood, and our enemy waits like prowling lion seeking to devour God’s servants. Pray that we would be ever-growing in our faith and faithfulness to our Lord. For we can do all things through Christ who gives us strength, but apart from Him we can do absolutely nothing.
Thank you so much for your support through the LMCO, your encouragement, and most of all, your prayers. Christmas greetings and blessings from the Peacocks in the Great White North.
Kevin,
This past Sunday we had good friends (and missionaries to Ottawa) Jason and Carrie Byers with us in worship. Have you met them yet? They are a great couple from Georgia who have been serving in Ottawa for a year and a half. Jason is the pastor of Celebration Church there, a church started with university students. I hope you will get a chance to meet each other.
Thanks for letting us know how to pray. I served in Maine for 6 1/2 years and can second your comments about the weather.
Merry Christmas!
Roger,
I haven’t met them personally yet that I know of, however, I do know of their fine work in Ottawa. Canada is a pretty big country, and we are separated by about 3500 miles. We are a pretty small family in our Canadian Convention, though, and our fellowship is a lot stronger than our geography indicates. We’ve been praying for God to start a new work in Ottawa for university students for quite some time now. I’m convinced that we can reach this world for Christ simply by claiming our Canadian university campuses for Christ. I’m sure our paths will cross sometime soon.
Blessings to you on this wonderful Christmas day.
Kevin
The Christmas play was cancelled by the Chinese Communist officials and the Buddhist village headman. The new believers were devestated and kept asking why? This is in an area where heroin trafficking and addiction, prostitution and human trafficking, as well as a rampant aids epidemic and other tragedies are what is common. Why did the government refuse the villagers from having a simple Christmas play in a home in the village with their friends? Why is that what is most concerning them this December? That is what the young SD believers asked.
We talked about Habbakuk, Job, Jesus, Paul, Peter and others. The faith we know of from scripture is a faith that threatens worldly powers. It is a faith that calls for allegiance that cannot be bought or bullied. We shared with the believers that even in the Revelation those with God struggle with the question of why the righteous suffer. There is coming a Day, and that Day will be fierce. Until that time we are privelaged to fight the good fight, giving love back to those who are petty, cruel and ungodly. We rejoice this Christmas because we have a hope worth celebrating.
Thank you for the Christmas greeting. The SD send heartfelt thanks to brothers and sisters who have given to help them join the cause of Hope. Keep giving your prayres and all else God calls you to give as we rejoice together.
Merry Christmas from China
Friends,
My heart has not been the same since reading Safely Home by Randy Alcorn, a novel about the underground church in China. I recommend this book to you with all my heart and ask you to pray every day for the persecuted church in China.
Will you stop where you are today and pray for Di Xiong and the church in China? Pray the the Holy Spirit would work in the hearts of local officials and Buddhist leaders. Pray for strength for the believers and for God to work supernaturally to protect them, encourage them and draw new believers to their fellowship.
Di Xiong,
Merry Christmas to you, my friend in Christ. They may not let you have the Christmas play, but they cannot stop Immanuel, God with us, from dwelling in your hearts. May He fill you with hope. I am praying for you today and calling on our church here to pray for you as well.
We will pray. How else can we help? What do you need?
Pray for 10 people waiting to be baptized. It is a difficult decision. They are part of house churches in the village (as opposed to being part of the single government church with a building that is more than 40 miles away). There have been death threats in the past, as well as people being jailed, fined, beaten by electric batons, evicted from their land, ostracized by relatives…
By the way, these are house churches with elders/overseers/pastor-shepherds. The first completed book of the Bible we helped them translate was Titus. It explains what to do with a bunch of believrs: put things in order by having men who have character and can teach truth and defend against error, and servants with character and faith to help. Men lead younger men, women lead younger women, all learning to be disciplined in living a life of sacrificial love and mercy (since we too were once foolish without Christ).
The former village buddhist temple leader is now the lead elder in the area in question. He has refused to sell expensive documents used for rituals back to the village saying that instead he would give them Jesus without cost to them. They are not happy with him.
The difficulty with the believers is the temptation to compromise with the government church and accept controls on when/where and how they meet. It is the same since the days of George Blaurock, Michael Sattler, Menno Simons, John Bunyan, Roger Williams etc. Pray that they will be idealists more than pragmatists, people of faith not fear, seeking the Kingdom of God and his righteousness first trusting for the stuff to fall in place as needed.
I will give an update as it unfolds over the next few days.
Shalom