Of course this sort of thing not just happen automatically, but the wonderful thing is that it can happen! After lots of research and study, better ways of evangelizing certain groups have been developed, and they are working. Ask me about this face to face next time we meet! Looking closely at the situation showed that a new Bible translation was needed. The Lord has already used the New Testament of that translation wonderfully, and good progress is being made on the Old Testament translation. So many really serious questions - linguistic, theological, and missiological - arose in the process, it has been very challenging for our people to be right there on the cutting edge, providing the Word in a culturally relevant form to faithful men and women to bring people to the Lord and start new fellowships!

Sometimes this closer look at the situation meant the best thing to do is stand by godly, influential, and effective servants of the Lord, and be a friend near at hand. I have certainly received far more than I have given to my pastor and his family. People will occasionally ask if we do church planting. I’m glad we don’t, because if I were a church planter, then I would have probably ended up being a “competitor” (although we would never use such a worldly term!) to this man and his ministry. Instead, our family was able to join them as friends and co-workers. Good thing, too, because he has been a great church planter, pastor, then leader of his denomination, and now leader of a large Bible school. What a great thing to know men like this and serve them. What a great strategy!