Page 139 - The Poetic Books - Student Text

Obedience in missions and social justice has always been costly, and always will be. In
the village of Miango, Nigeria, there is an SIM guest house and a small church called Kirk
Chapel. Behind the chapel is a small cemetery with 56 graves. Thirty-three of them hold
the bodies of missionary children. Some of the stones read: “Ethyl Arnold: September 1,
1928 – September 2, 1928.” “Barbara J. Swanson: 1946-1952.” “Eileen Louise
Whitmoyer: May 6, 1952 – July 3, 1955.” For many families this was the cost of taking
the gospel to Nigeria. Charles White told his story of visiting this little graveyard and
ended it with a tremendously powerful sentence. He said, “The only way we can
understand the graveyard at Miango is to remember that God also buried his Son on the
mission field.”
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The pagan world questions such sacrifice. Since all that we get is here, what is the use of giving
something here for something impossibly future? Knowing Christ and the certainty of his eternal
presence makes up for sacrifice now. “If I fought wild beasts in Ephesus with no more than human
hopes, what have I gained? If the dead are not raised, ’Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die’ (1 Cor.
15:32).”

We might add also the power of hope to change the direction of life now. Realizing the frustrating nature
of each day and finding hope in Christ speaks volumes. The average person is “surprised that you do not
join them in their reckless, wild living, and they heap abuse on you (1 Peter 4:4).” A different life fairly
shouts of Christ. We are saying that abnormality stretches out on every side. We are saying, “I could not
stand this world if this comprehension was not present. In this world a person can only be complacent if
he or she is young enough, has money enough, is well enough, and at the same time lacks compassion
for those about him. As soon as we face reality, the obscenity of the present situation strikes us in the
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face.”

Ecclesiastes is a depressing book filled with hopelessness. Perhaps for that reason the believer should
read it carefully each year. The despair reminds us of people everywhere without Jesus Christ.

This past April [1993], four hours outside of Bangalore, a local Hindu priest – who was
also the town mayor – gave permission for the JESUS film to be projected onto the
temple wall. That night, more than 500 people gathered to watch one of the first
showings of the JESUS film in the Lambadi language. At the close, among the dozen who
raised their hands to indicate their desire to know Jesus, was the Hindu priest.
Afterwards, he talked privately with a team member and, with joy, said that he now
knew that the Savior lived within him.
“You are welcome here,” he told them repeatedly, inviting the team to come again and
show his village JESUS.
One rarely forgets the need to move quickly in India. One thinks immediately of some
of the religious and political challenges churches there face. But beyond that are
personal reasons.

222 Ibid., 346.
223 Francis A. Schaefer, A Christian View of Spirituality (Westchester: Crossway Books, 1982), 374.
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