The Kind of Faith I Want
People think that Chris and I are "super Christians" just because we're missionaries.
The funny thing is, an experience that demonstrated to us that we didn't need to be "super Christians" in order to be missionaries is just the thing that made God's call clear to us. For as long as we thought you had to be a super Christian, we were completely turned off to missions. Our coworker Rich's testimony played a big role in Chris's change of heart especially. Chris thought that if God could turn an unbelieving accountant into a missionary, perhaps He could use Chris too.
We depend on knowing that God will use us in spite of ourselves as motivation for prefield and ministry. Every once in a while, though, I get a reminder that just because God doesn't require me to be "super" doesn't mean that he isn't asking us to remember how super He is.
One month we had no funds to make our house payment because Rory had quit his full time job. We prayed in the morning that God would provide that day as the bill was due the next day. That night in the pouring rain, a gentleman that we hardly knew from our church drove up and handed Rory an envelope saying, "God says Hi. He put you on my heart this morning; I thought you could use this." Later when we opened it, there was more than enough to pay house payment and also next week's electric bill. No more worrying about "how" we were going to make our bills. He is the GREAT provider!
Our prefield director recently asked us to share an answer to this question: What has been your greatest God experience in pre-field? What you read above is an answer from another prefielder.
This is the kind of faith I want to have. We have a plan in place right now that has Chris and I both working until we have enough prefield funds to cover what our salaries cover. In general, it's a wise plan; certainly God has provided our jobs for a reason. But we also want to commit to fulltime prefield ministry as soon as possible. And if God calls us to it "before we can afford it," I need to remember just Who the "super" One is.