Looking back over 45 years of ministry with AIM in Africa, Jesus’ parable in Mark 4:26ff comes to mind: “This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how.”
How can God use two very ordinary human beings to do Kingdom work? How does the change of the new birth come about? All and only by his Spirit. And yet, what a privilege to be a part of it. Paul said, “we are co-workers together with God…” If we can say that, it’s like a six year old boy proudly showing off what HE made with his dad!!
27 years working with 2 unreached Kenyan people groups, the Turkana and the Pokot, then 14 years training African missionaries at the AIC Missionary College in Eldoret, Kenya, and lastly a 5 year “PostScript” in South Sudan --
Ray knew early on that he wanted to follow the footsteps of his parents and grandparents with AIM in Africa. At the annual mission conferences, he was drawn to the work in Kenya’s “Northern Frontier District” where Dr. Dick and Joan Anderson had opened the work with the Turkana. He decided that engineering would be a good college major for a missionary who had to build his own house, develop his own water system, provide his own power, and the same for churches, schools, and hospitals. Once he got to John Brown University, a Christian school in Arkansas, he decided to add a Bible major as well which added an extra year to get his degree.
It was during this time that God put on his heart a surprising burden: going to China as a missionary! Not that China was even open to missionaries, but would he be willing to go? He struggled with this for most of that semester. Finally, he said, “Yes, Lord, You are the Master. If you want me to go to China, I will go.” Only then did God give him peace about pursuing the path back to Kenya.
Ray was right that engineering would come in handy in a pioneer mission situation, but he found himself baffled by the Turkana people who were so different from the Kamba people where he grew up not far from Nairobi. On his next Home Assignment, AIM encouraged him to go for graduate level training in cross-cultural ministry at the School of World Mission in Pasadena, California.
It was there he met Jill at her home church. Jill had had a calling to missions as a child and committed her life to missions in junior high. Now she was out of college and comfortably working, living with her parents. Ray showed her his slides of the deserts of Turkana with a rough, nomadic people. He followed this with his statement that he was a missionary for life, and no woman would change it.
Jill responded, “It’s been nice knowing you.”
Ray asked her to pray about it. She did, and 7 months later in September 1973, they were in Turkana as man and wife! In the years that followed they had three children: Patty-Leigh who is in British Columbia with her Canadian husband and 2 children, and Daniel who is now involved in disciple making through development work in Africa with his wife and 2 children. In Jill’s third pregnancy the child was stillborn due to abruptio placentae, and Jill nearly lost her life in the ensuing complications. The third child, a boy, died at birth and was buried in Kenya.
In 45 years we have seen immense changes, and we ourselves have greatly changed. We went through exciting times of much fruit, and hard times of little visible fruit. But our greatest joy has been seeing Jesus change so many lives, set captives free, turn darkness to light:
For example, a Pokot woman,called Mama Muko. During a very dangerous birth, God answered prayer for a safe delivery. As weeks went by, she and her husband came to church to hear God’s word. One day we heard she had a painful infection. We went to her hut, expecting to find her in misery. Instead, her face beamed! “I’m really saved!” she exclaimed. “During this sickness, I have never gone to the witchdoctor. When there is too much pain to sleep, my husband prays for me. We are really saved.”
Or Musa Long’ok, the son of a local Christian. He came to Christ at a young age, and as soon as he finished primary school (8th grade) at age 15 he wanted to go to Bible School. We advised him to go to high school first. Four years later and with his high school certificate in hand, he joined a group of young men going to the county seat in hopes of getting a job in the government. But before the day was out, he showed up at our door. “I started the journey, but I kept remembering that God called me to be a pastor. How do I apply to Bible School?” Musa and his wife now pastor the church at Amaya, East Pokot.
Another Pokot youth, Isaac Amoni, was baptized while in the youth group. He went on after high school to military officers’ training. One day as a Captain he found himself in a desperate situation with his unit along the Ethiopian border. His commanding officer wanted all the men to take drugs to be brave enough to face a hopeless battle. Finally, Amoni, took a stand for Christ who delivered him from death (both kinds!) and brought him home with a glowing testimony.
Though the Turkana, who became Christians in large numbers, were exuberant, it was sometimes difficult to see the changes in them. They live a nomadic, survivor-life in a barren semi-desert. There was no word for ‘thank you’ in their language, and in their custom, they based friendship on the sharing of material goods. They had a dramatic way of speaking – “Why don’t you help me? How can you be so stingy?” – which was a constant culture stress for us. But as we adapted to their ways and learned their language, we came to appreciate their “forthrightness” and know how to handle it.
Still, it was with great joy when we visited 40 years later, on our way to South Sudan, and found a vibrant church. The believers had multiplied. They welcomed us with gifts instead of aggressive begging! They gave glory to God that the Gospel had come to them.
Even at Missionary College, besides the blessing of seeing people come to Christ through our students and graduates, we still got to participate in evangelism as the whole school went out on Wednesday afternoons to the surrounding slums and villages on the outskirts of Eldoret town.
One day, we revisited a woman who was a brewer of local beer who had 9 children by 3 different fathers. We had been to her shack before, but she was never interested. That day she declared, “This is the day I’m getting saved.” She got rid of her business and never looked back even when she struggled to pay the rent and keep a roof over their heads. Now she has a permanent home of her own. Some of her children have good jobs. Others are in colleges. The Lord has been her strength through all the ups and downs.
It was during our time in East Pokot that the need of Unreached People really burdened me. One day, at a Pokot Christian home fellowship, as the men balanced on their short, one-legged stools, and the women sat on cow hides with their legs straight out in front of them, Makilap asked us some pointed questions: “How did you find out this good news about Jesus?”
“Our parents told us,” we replied.
“And how did they hear about Jesus,” he persisted.
“Their parents told them,” we said, wondering where this was going.
Looking at us ever more intently, Makilap asked, “So why did it take so long for us to get the Gospel?”
Why, indeed! What Christian can answer without a sense of deep reflection?
Not surprisingly, through the years our daily prayer time as a couple has taken longer and longer as our prayer lists have grown and grown. We pray for some special ministries on Mondays, the Pokot on Tuesdays, the Turkana on Wednesdays, the Missionary College and graduates on Thursdays. And of course, everyday much time is taken up for the needs right in front of our eyes here in South Sudan, a land torn by conflict.
Besides praying for the Christians in the Africa Inland Church (AIC) of South Sudan, we pray for the people groups still unreached and for our AIM team reaching into them: Lopit tribe, the Laarim, and the Diding’a. And we pray for more workers, both AIM and AIC and others to go to the Toposa, Logir, Lokwa, and more. This week Jill was helping lead a women’s Bible Study here in Torit town. A Laarim woman in the group asked for prayer that the Gospel would come to her tribe. She was so excited when I told her that the AIM team of 12 missionaries had entered there last year in 2016. Already they have seen over 50 professions of faith. She lifted her hands in praise to God!
Do missionaries ever retire? Ray is now 72 and Jill is closing in on 69. Though our hearts are still in the work, and though we love working alongside the younger AIM workers, our bodies are definitely deteriorating! We plan to retire to AIM’s Retirement Center in Minneola, Florida, by May 2018, after our next and last home assignment. There we will join with others faithfully praying for AIM and Africa. We believe that God has a ministry for us as well in that local area. And it is also our hope that we will be able to make short-term trips to Africa maybe to fill in for other missionaries from time to time.
So much was different 45 years ago: Africa, life, ministry, mission policies, home country culture, communications, and much more, but God and his Word remain the same. In all those years we grew and we were constantly learning new things. We were seeing more and more of a bigger picture of what God is doing in his grand scheme of bringing redemption to the world. Our small story is part of the bigger stories of many people we have come to know, of bigger stories of nations and organizations, and of God’s overarching Story that is taking us to God’s purposed conclusion at the end of the age.
Matthew 24:14 says, “And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.”
So, was it worth it – to be a “missionary for life”? I can’t help but grin as I type those words! Yes! A million times Yes!
* Reprented with permission from Africa Inland Mission - Fall Winter 2017