Oh the Times...They are a Changing

11/22/09

It’s 112 degrees in Asuncion, Paraguay, in the shade, and it feels so strange to look around at the street signs to see the famous Coca-Cola Santa smiling with rosy red cheeks and a bottle of Coke in his hand. All over the city, small lights blink in a multitude of bright colors and tinsel hangs across frost sprayed windows. Merry Christmas is posted everywhere as shops try to draw in the crowds wearing shorts, tank tops and flip-flops. It is so strange. Things don’t seem as I remember as a kid. Christmas was cooler and there was a familiar sense of security and expectation in the air. Santa always seemed to be just ahead of us when we awoke to find stockings filled and incredible things around the decorated tree. When I was younger, my world was safer, smaller and always predictable. Much has changed!

We cannot ignore the fact that there are 6.7 billion people in the world, millions who will go to bed hungry, abuse of power, prostitution of innocent children, millions without clean water to drink, unemployment, people losing their homes, their jobs and worst of all…their hope. But God is not wringing His hands over the situation and we…Christ Followers…have a gospel to share.

The longer I am involved in mission and the more I travel, I realize that it is also a costly Gospel. More saints have been martyred for the Gospel in the last 10 years than during the past 100 years. God is calling normal people to press on with an abnormal message of love and forgiveness that comes through a Savior that demonstrated how we too were to love others so that He might draw some. The message is clear and costly. This Gospel cost Christ his life…it cost most of his disciples theirs and is still calling men and woman boys and girls to an uncompromising lifestyle…that cost them dearly.

Mission also has financial cost, but again, I do not think that God is wringing his hands up in heaven wondering how He will reach all the ones that He intends to reach. The cost of mission around the world has not suddenly caught God off guard while He attended to the more pressing issues…as if there is one.

We want to thank you for spending time and energy praying for the ministry of Envoy International. We have seen incredible growth in the interest of world missions in many parts of the world. As the West and Europe are losing ground in the spreading of the gospel, God is raising up missionaries from Africa, Korea, India and certain areas of Latin America like never before. But in Paraguay…believers are taking baby steps as the Christian population of 6.5 percent begins to realize that they too are to be sending folks out in this costly endeavor, and that is why we are in Paraguay for the fourth time. Building relationships and training nationals to “GO,” cost money, time and energy. Thank you for letting us be your eyes and ears and mouth around the world. Thank you for remaining faithful and giving, some of you sacrificially; supporting this ministry that God has called us to. Your commitment to us is crucial and will reap enormous benefits as we continue to challenge people around the world to do something different…something that matters…something that is costly.

God Bless….Wick