A Tale of Two Missions

I have had the joy of working alongside brothers and sisters in dozens of ministries in the U.S. and overseas.

God has shown me mercy by teaching me lessons about Gospel and diaconal ministry through these experiences even when the ministries with whom I worked were not governed well or when I lacked the maturity to govern myself well. Through the good, the bad, and the ugly, God has honed what became the missiology of Sweetwater, that is, how we approach the proclamation of the Gospel and attend to the physical needs of hurting people. Here is a tale of two missions that exerted major influence on my philosophy of Christian outreach, specifically, our structural emphasis on prayer. In order to preserve anonymity, I’ll refer to one mission as West and another East because they were located in the Western and Eastern Hemispheres.

The countries where West and East operated were both suffering under the weight of diverse forms of crushing and ubiquitous poverty: monetary, governmental, environmental, societal, and spiritual. During my time with these ministries, there were significant physical and spiritual challenges to both the local leaders and me personally. Sickness, major logistical obstacles to ministry advancement, and even death threats. At West, I commented more than once to my wife, “Where Satan’s footsteps fall, there is chaos, destruction, dysfunction, and fear in the footprints. That is what I see all around. Believers here are losing battles left and right. We are losing battles. Satan seems to be winning. His flaming arrows are not being snuffed out; they’re sinking in and burning.”  At East, my host family faced many obstacles as I helped them open their public work in a new community. Immediately, there were major infrastructural problems with the new living quarters that had to be addressed. There was also significant opposition from local leaders who perceived us as a threat to their power structure. Within weeks we were receiving death threats that proved legitimate when we learned from our dairyman that he had been hired to poison our milk (he told the conspirators to pound sand). I developed P. falciparum malaria and amoebic dysentery and nearly died from hypoglycemic shock from a bad combo of medications that had been prescribed by a well-meaning but ill-informed doctor. In short, Satan’s fiery darts were coming in hot and heavy.

At West, the staff did not pray in earnest. The enemy was on the attack, we were back on our heels – and I was part of the problem because I was too weak and immature to take a stand and call the believers to fasting and prayer. I acted cowardly. At East, for every dart the Enemy threw, we made two prayers. It didn’t matter when or in what form the attack came, we were victorious over the Devil’s schemes. One of the principal troublemakers in the town later became a friend of the ministry when he realized that even the national government was noticing the success of the small but very effective mission as they addressed practical needs in the community. I didn’t die from malaria. The infrastructural problems were resolved and in a manner that enabled the development of connections in the local community. The motto of East’s ministry was “By Prayer” and my host family demonstrated that this was a conviction from God’s holy word, not an empty platitude. They prayed with fervor, they prayed often, and they prayed over details many wouldn’t think to cover because they knew to whom they were praying.

Satan is the principal enemy of the children of God and he is real. He is not a figment or an impersonal force. He is a created being with real ability to harm. He is described by Jesus Christ as the Father of Lies (John 8:44), by Paul as a belligerent schemer (Eph 6:11-16), and by Peter as a “roaring lion” who seeks to devour God’s people (1 Peter 5:8). He is also utterly unable to do anything to anyone without God’s permission. For one stark example, see Job 1:6-12 and 2:1-7. We can infer from I Peter 5:6-11 that at least one purpose God has in allowing Satan to test believers for a time is that it drives us into deeper intimacy with God in prayer as we see with increasing clarity our dependance on God for survival and the sure hope we have of being face to face with our Savior in our resurrected bodies.

Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. To him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen.

Some of you have followed Sweetwater and are committed to pray for our team and those to whom we proclaim the Gospel and with whom we engage in the development of water strategies, research, and education. Thank you! Some of you follow our work but are not yet praying consistently for Sweetwater and the people we serve. There are myriad people and organizations you could pray for. Are you praying according to the conviction of the Holy Spirit working through the Scriptures? If you are, and your prayers do not include Sweetwater…praise God that you are being obedient in prayer! If you are not praying for Sweetwater but you are convicted that you should be, then heed the Spirit’s call, repent of your casual attitude towards the Lord regarding prayer, and get to work. Not for my sake (though I’ll be really thankful) but for God’s glory. We need mature believers to join the Executive Team as members of the Board of Prayer. We also need Deep Divers, prayer warriors who commit to praying on a regular basis for the day-in-day-out work of Sweetwater.

I have seen God work miracles through prayer so frequently and with such worship-inspiring gusto that I am rarely surprised anymore, for better or worse. I witnessed it at the East mission and I want those who follow Sweetwater to see what I saw.

Stay up and watch with us in prayer and be amazed at the work of God!