This is an exciting time for us. As previously mentioned, last night we hosted our regular "Mission Packing Party" at our house, and God blessed us with a very fruitful time.
As a reminder, this event is when the Bibles, Bible reference works, and Bible study aids supplied by your faith, prayers, and sacrificial gifts are sorted, packed, weighed, and prepared for their ultimate destination which this time is Cameroon, West Africa. Once in Cameroon, our ministry will begin in earnest. From the very first day, we have conferences, church meetings, home meetings, and evangelistic meetings scheduled. When we arrive in country, I tell my hosts that we minister on the "sucked orange principle." I first heard this term from Leroy Eims, the staff evangelist with the Navigators when I was in the student ministry. I asked him about his schedule when visiting our campus, and he replied, "John, when I leave your campus, I want to look like a sucked orange!" This is what we tell our hosts.
We do not arrive as missionary tourists but as laborers in the harvest fields of the world. We do not arrive as missionary entrepreneurs but as laborers in the harvest fields of the world. We do not bring items to sell to those to whom we minister but rather to give. As our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ taught His disciples, "Freely you received, freely give. Do not acquire gold, or silver, or copper for your money belts” (Matthew 10:8-9). More and more I meet missionaries who share with me great “deals” for offsetting their travel expenses. Bring a laptop and sell it; bring this or that and sell it. The mission calling is a high and holy calling, and we do not use it as a means to engage in commerce. We arrive full and leave empty. We arrive with boxes of Bibles, Bible study aids, Bible reference works, handouts and ministry supplies and leave with none. We arrive with a full budget supplied by your gifts, and we leave it all in Cameroon. We arrive spiritually prepared and expend ourselves on the field. Our heart is as the great missionary Paul who wrote in 2 Corinthians 12:15 "I will most gladly spend and be expended for your souls.” Similarly, we desire to give of ourselves completely as laborers in the harvest fields of Cameroon.
This next Tuesday we will be departing for Cameroon to minister the Word of God. There are six goals that drive our ministry focus whether at home or overseas.
1. Preaching the Word - We are committed to the power of the holy, eternal, inerrant, written Word of God - both preached and taught. Our constant prayer before our message is "O Lord God, bless now Your holy Word. . ." Please ask God to give our team boldness as we preach His Word faithfully and unashamedly as we know that it is the key both to evangelism and life-transforming teaching.
2. Baptizing the Converted - Nothing could be clearer in Christ’s Great Commission. Yet more and more I find para-church and church ministries indifferent to the command to Baptize the converted. Baptism by no means saves. Baptism, however, is not a cultural or denominational anomaly - it is the command of God. As you pray for the preaching of God’s Word, ask God to use us as an instrument to call those who have never heard the Word nor been baptized into His kingdom, and ask God to use us to bring those who have strayed from the ordinance of Baptism back to the commands of Christ.
3. Discipling Parents - We will be giving both the Family Discipleship Seminar and the Marriage Covenant Seminar in Cameroon. In addition, we will be teaching in churches and home groups on marriage and family. Petition the Lord to use us as instruments to bring families into conformity with the Word of God.
4. Mobilizing Teams - Richard Smith will once again be traveling with us with his wife and children. This modern day “Aquila” is a great example of a layman devoted to the teaching and preaching of God’s holy Word. As Aquila fulfilled his call 2,000 years ago, as Methodist laymen spread the gospel throughout the world 200 years ago, so today godly men like Richard, his wife Kathy, and his adult children Andrew and Amanda give of their time and resources to teach the Word of God. As you pray for the Smiths, consider your own life and what God would have you do in the harvest fields of the world.
5. Raising Up Leaders - We will once again be speaking and teaching at the national laborers’ conference in Cameroon. Ministers, staff, pastors and spiritual laborers from all over Cameroon will be there to be equipped in the Word of God. Richard and Kathy Smith will be ministering with us, and their adult children, Andrew and Amanda Smith, will be directing the children’s program. This latter is an important ministry. Participants are the children of the ministers and staff. Andrew and Amanda will not only be discipling children, but training their parents as well in the ministry of Family Discipleship.
6. Supplying God's Word - Every trip we train others in the use of study Bibles supplied by your faith and sacrificial gifts. For this trip, GCI had built into its budget to pay for Kathy Smith’s airfare so that they could travel and minister together. Richard emailed me to say that God had provided and released this money to be used in the ministry in Cameroon. Yesterday I took these funds to a Christian bookstore and bought leather study Bibles for the pastors attending the Family Discipleship Seminar. How I praise God for the faith and generosity of the Smiths. They are indeed a modern day Aquila and Priscilla.
The objective is always men consecrated to God. Please pray, as Christ prayed, that the Word of God which is preached, taught, and supplied would set men and women in Cameroon apart for God's glory and His service.
As always, I close with a deep and abiding thankfulness for your sacrificial and effectual prayers which empower and drive this ministry ever forward in the cause of Christ.
By His mercy, II Corinthians 4:1 Rev. John S. Mahon Grace Community Int.
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