Why Would An American Pastor & His Family Leave Home and A Great Church To Go To A Third-World Country and An Unreached People Group As Missionaries?

This is a great question and let me tell you--we have been asked it many a time. To answer it, let me break it down into three smaller bite-size questions...Why Missions?, Why Us?, and Why Now?

Pondering these three questions are what God really used to help Nancy, myself, and our family come to the decision to leave the pastorate to pursue overseas missions in Cameroon for the purpose of reaching an unreached people group with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

The first question--Why Missions? is pretty cut and dry. Missions is near and dear to the heart of God and because we love God whatever is near and dear to His heart is near and dear to ours as well. As John Piper puts so well, "Missions exists because worship doesn't." So, if we want to see God worshipped in all the people groups of the earth we will be interested in missions because that is what the great task of missions is all about--engaging unreached people groups with the Gospel of Jesus Christ so God gets the glory and they get eternal joy.

But what about the second question--Why Us? I mean, why leave a successful pastorate, a church that we love and loves us, people who are growing under our ministry, and the place we call home within 15 years of when most people in the U.S. retire to go to a place that many have never heard of? What in the world would possess a middle-aged couple with four kids still at home to leave all that they know, are comfortable with, and enjoy, not to mention their three older kids who are out on their own to go to an unreached and really unengaged people group to tell them about Jesus, see people come to Christ, disciple them, and start a church multiplication movement among them?

Well, I think the answer is in the question. We wouldn't be asked the question if we didn't want to go and that's the answer--we want to go! Listen, if you want to do something that not very many people want to do and in fact would not give a second thought to--maybe you should. Maybe the fact that you want to do it is indicative that God has given you a desire that is not, for lack of a better word, "natural" or "normal". Our desire to go to Cameroon and give ourselves to this challenge of reaching an unreached people group with the Gospel for the glory of The NAME is the driving force behind our going.

Secondly, we have the ability to go. Many people at our age are saddled with any number of encumbrances that prevent them from considering missions. We aren't. We are not in debt. We are not caring for aging parents. We are in excellent health and we have no binding commitments that would tie us here. All-in-all, we are free to go.

So, we have the desire to go, the ability to go, and finally--the tools to go.
We have ministry training, education, skills, experience, and the battle scars to prove it. Whereas, we have a great deal to learn about Cameroon, missions, and the unreached people group we want to live among--we are not novices when it comes to ministry. Therefore, who better to go than a couple who have taken a few laps around the block?

The last question--Why Now?--is not hard to answer when you consider that I just turned 50 last January. What that practically means is that the time we have to invest in missions is realistically between 15 to 20 years. Given the fact that it can take anywhere from one to three years to raise support and at least a year to pursue language school and hopefully pass I am looking at being almost 55 years old by the time we would get to Cameroon. While Nancy and I are hopefully getting "better", we sure aren't getting younger and thus the reason why now.

So with all this in mind, the real question we were left with was not Why Missions, Why Us, and Why Now? but rather "Why Not Missions, Why Not Us, and Why Not Now?"

REACHING THE FULBE~A Vision of The Possible

The Situation In Africa Among The Fulbe:

Well over Thirty-million unreached Fulbe people live in north-west Africa. They, for the most part, have never been engaged with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. These thirty-million people live in thousands of villages and small towns scattered throughout the “bush” in countries such as Cameroon, Nigeria, Chad, Niger, Mali, Senegal, and the Central African Republic. These are thirty-million unreached Muslim people who because of geographic, cultural, logistical, and climatic challenges as well as the fear of religious persecution have been neglected and left without a Gospel witness. These thirty-million Fulbe people make up one of the largest blocks of unreached and unengaged people groups in the world.

The Situation In Cameroon Among The Fulbe:

There are over 1.6 million Fulbe people living in Cameroon--most of whom have never been engaged with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. There are no churches or pastors among the Fulbe in Cameroon. However, since Cameroon is presently not a closed country, there is a huge opportunity to engage these people with the Gospel, see people brought to faith in Christ, discipled, and a church-planting movement begun among them. Thus, there is a need for pioneer church-planters to go to Cameroon to engage the Fulbe people with the Gospel of Jesus Christ and to be the workers God's Spirit uses to establish a church-planting movement among the Fulbe people that extends from Cameroon to Northwest Africa.

My family and I believe God is calling us to go and become one of these pioneer church planting families who will go to Cameroon and live among the Fulbe so as to engage them with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. During our first term, we are planning to start or oversee an existing orphanage in a small Fulbe town or village in the midst of a high concentration of Fulbe villages. We will use the orphanage as a means of being a blessing to the people as well as a platform by which to engage them with the Gospel and ultimately plant indigenous Bible churches among the Fulbe people of Cameroon.

In order for us to live, serve, and provide for the orphanage's needs in Cameroon we need to raise monthly financial support. Some of this support will also be used to start a school for the orphans as well as in community development projects such as digging wells to provide fresh water to the villages. Presently, God has provided us with about 68% of our support needs through the generous giving of our home church, Covenant of Grace Bible Church, and individuals who have a vision for pioneer church planting among the unreached. Once our monthly support and outgoing expenses* are raised and we complete our French studies, Fulfulde language & culture acquisition studies as well as tie up our loose ends here in the States (ie: selling or renting our house, finishing our ministry at COGBC, etc.)we will board a plane for our new home and ministry in Cameroon. We are hoping to leave for Cameroon by the Fall of 2011.

*Outgoing expenses are those funds needed for flying us all to Cameroon as well as for moving, shipping a vehicle, purchasing equipment and supplies to live and minister in the "bush" of Cameroon, and to build or refurbish a place to live.

How You Can Be Involved:

1.Pray-Pray-Pray. Unless God opens the eyes of the Fulbe people to their need of Christ no one will be saved. This is His sovereign work and unless His Spirit gives the Fulbe people eyes to see, ears to hear, and hearts to believe our work will accomplish nothing in terms of their salvation. Please pray for our safety, health, strength, endurance, patience, wisdom, love, and for our last remaining support to be raised. Finally, pray for the Fulbe people to receive us as we care for their orphans and that God would use us to see a church-planting movement begun among them that extends beyond the 1.6 million Fulbe of Cameroon to the 30 million Fulbe of Northwest Africa.

2.Give if you are able and sense God calling you to be involved as a “sender” in this great work of engaging and reaching the Fulbe people with the Gospel. If you do decide to give—you can go to our mission agency's website at www.cten.org to find out how you can do this on line or you can call Commission To Every Nation at 1-800-872-5404. As an extra blessing, your gifts are tax-deductible. Please make sure to designate your gifts for Mark & Nancy Waite/Cameroon.

3.Come and join us. If God plants this desire within your heart and you are a hearty sort who likes a challenge and lots of elbow room with more than enough people to yourself to reach for Christ (1.6 million goes a long way)then prayerfully consider this as a worthy endeavor for your life or a portion of your life.

If you would like to know more please contact us at markwaite@cten.org

From Mexico To Africa With Love

Eight years ago, Mark & I stood on a vacant lot with Julian & Beatriz Roblez in Mexico, and joined hands with them to pray for God to bless their "ministry dream" and fill that empty lot with a church, Bible Institute, and an orphanage to minister to the people of Anapra, just outside of Juarez, Mexico.

This past weekend, our family had the privilege of visiting our dear friends in Mexico and saw how God has blessed and multiplied the service of these faithful servants. Today there is not only one church, but 8 churches, 3 Bible Institutes, and one orphanage spread throughout Juarez and other parts of Mexico as a result of that original dream. They also have sent out and support 5 missionaries that are reproducing similar works throughout Mexico! In essence, they have begun a "church-planting movement" that is extending from Anapra throughout Mexico.

Our friends invited us to come down and share with their churches about our "ministry dream" of seeing a "church-planting movement" begin among the Fulbe people in Cameroon, West Africa. It was so special to us to meet with them, this time surrounded by their church, Bible Institute classrooms, dorms, their home and the orphanage...seeing the reality of God's blessing upon their ministry. Their prayers for us as we embark upon our calling, touched our hearts greatly. If that wasn't enough, we were surprised when they presented us with a "love gift" and expressed their intent to partner with us in getting us to Africa. Their outpouring of love overwhelmed our hearts greatly, and reminded us of the Macedonian churches, who "Out of the most severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity...They gave as much as they were able, and even beyond their ability...entirely on their own, urgently pleading with us for the privilege of sharing in this service..." II Corinthians 8:1-4

What an encouragement they were to us and a reminder to us that God WILL provide for us in some very special and unexpected ways!

Goers, Senders, & Those Who Pray

A quick perusal of much of what is written about missions, including my own stuff, would give the casual and even more particular reader alike the idea that the main characters in fulfilling God's great commission to make disciples of all the nations are the "goers". That is, those people who actually leave home to go to a new and different people group with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Certainly, it goes without saying that without the people who go--missions would not happen. That is why God specifically calls people to go and take the Gospel to faraway places and peoples.

However, without people who assume the roles of senders and encouragers, there would be very few, if any, goers. And if the truth be known, the unsung hero's of God's great plan to bring people from every people group to Himself as joyful worshipers of His glory are the people whose faces are never seen on missionary prayer cards or DVDs but without whose faithful, consistent, and sacrificially generous support there would be no prayer cards, DVDs, or missionaries sharing the Gospel with those who have never heard it.

So, a big thank you to those of you who so graciously and generously support, encourage and pray for missions and missionaries. Without you, there would be neither. Your work in supporting those who go and those who want to go is the work of the Great Commission. In fact, your work is on two fronts, in the sense that while you are sending and supporting those who go to faraway places to share the Gospel--you stay home to do the same in places just as needy and oftentimes harder to reach.

Thanks for your work and for making much of Jesus at home and abroad.

Retirement & Missions

Retirement, while a relatively new phenomenon in terms of world economic history, was known and even desired as far back as the early 19th century in Great Britain. Back then it was called "A Sabbath Evening". This term betrays the fact that at this time in England's history, biblical terms were still used and applied to the cycle of human life. In the case of retirement, it was felt that after a man had lived 60 years, having worked the vast majority of them, he was due a Sabbath rest just as God after taking six days to create the universe also rested on the seventh day.

However, as is true today, many of those who took this "Sabbath Rest" or retirement at age 60 found life so empty and utterly boring that they either got sick and died or wished they were dead. One such man was Charles Simeon, the pastor of Trinity Church in Cambridge. He, like many others of his generation had planned a very busy and challenging work life up until he turned 60. After that, he promised himself a Sabbath evening [retirement] in which he would relax and simply enjoy a life of leisure. Well, God had other plans for Simeon. In 1807, after twenty-five years of hard work and at the age of forty-seven, still thirteen years from his planned retirement, he became ill and had to leave his post. During these thirteen years of exile from his work and ministry Simeon repented of his desire to turn in his divine commission in order to sleep in and and enjoy a life free of challenges that benefited others.

Then, the miraculous happened. At age 60, when he had planned to retire his health was restored and Simeon went on to enjoy sixteen more years at his post at Trinity Church in Cambridge. According to Simeon, these were the most productive, enjoyable, and satisfying years of his entire work life.

Many of you reading this may be wondering why I would be taking a shot at this whole concept of retirement. Let me clarify for you that what I am taking a shot at is the mind-set that the vast majority of Christians have, which is that we must reward ourselves in this life with twenty or so years of leisure and relaxation in the last lap of our lives. Now, if this life was all there is and if God had not given us a race to run, a task to complete, and a commission to accomplish--I'd agree that rewarding ourselves for all our days on the job isn't a bad idea. But, knowing that God has given us a race to run (Hebrews 12:1; 2 Timothy 4:7) in which we have been given the responsibility of having some part in seeing disciples made from among all the nations (people groups), it seems to me that just walking off the track and out of the race after lap three with one more to go is a waste of our lives as well as a pretty poor statement regarding how much we value Jesus.

As John Piper writes in his excellent book, Let The Nations Be Glad: "What a strange reward for a Christian to set his sights on! Twenty years of leisure while living in the midst of the last days of infinite consequence for millions of unreached people. What a tragic way to finish the last lap before entering the presence of the King who finished so differently."

I wonder, if the reason why most Christians have this mindset is because they really don't believe that their reward is on the other side of the grave. In fact, if the truth be known, for unbelievers, retirement is simply their substitute for heaven. Isn't it a shame that so many believers have bought into this and because they have done so are wasting the last and in many cases, the very best chapter of their lives?

You see, I am not suggesting that at age 65, we all keep on working at our careers. What I am suggesting is that at age 65, we change gears and invest our resources, newly obtained and enjoyed time, and our seasoned experience and wisdom in God's great cause to make His Great Name known among all the peoples of the earth. Perhaps, the greatest missionary force upon the earth, which has the potential of doing more to finish the work of world evangelism than any other is made up of Christians who only have to pay .59 for a cup of coffee at McDonalds when they ask for the "senior discount".

My own thoughts about my last lap, which is approaching faster than I ever imagined is that as in any race I have ever run, the last couple miles are for closing the gap between where I am and the place I want to be when I cross the finish line. Life should NOT be a play-it-safe journey to the grave with the intention of leaving behind a hefty bank account, lots of toys and no broken bones but rather a skid in sideways--an empty wallet in one hand--God's Word in the other--body thoroughly used up, totally worn out making much of Jesus and screaming, "Wow, What a Ride."

The "In-Grown Church" & Missions

According to the Center For The Study of Global Christianity based out of Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary there are approximately 30,700 full-time Christian workers serving in ministry capacities within the unevangelized world made up of 38 countries where less than half the population has heard of Jesus. The total number of people in these countries who have not been engaged with the Gospel of Jesus Christ in a tangible way number almost 2 billion people (1,629,375,000 people). But, of the 30,700 full-time Christian workers serving in these countries only 10,200 are church planting missionaries involved in trying to engage and reach the 6,600 unreached people groups that make us this almost 2 billion people with the Gospel so as to make disciples and start indigenous reproducing fellowships of believers who can evangelize their own people groups.

In other words, the other 20,500 Christian workers are involved in medical work, education, orphanages, community development, business development, and crisis intervention and rebuilding projects. Whereas, all of these works are valuable, necessary, and often provide viable means for church planting frontier missionaries to share the Gospel the disparity between the number of support workers and those workers directly involved in making disciples and planting churches is incredible.

But, as wide a gap as these statistics present consider this. The number of full-time Christian workers serving throughout the world is 419 million. Of these 419 million full-time Christian workers throughout the world only 10,200 are presently involved in working among the 6,600 unreached people groups of the world as disciple makers and church planters. This means that 0.02% of the total number of full-time Christian workers in the world are working among the unreached people groups of the world as frontier disciple making and church planting missionaries.

More incredulous than this is the fact that of these 419 million full-time Christian workers in the world--418,693,000 are serving in what is known as the Reached Christian World. In other words, 99.98% of all the full-time Christian workers in the world are serving in nations and people groups that have already heard and are hearing the Gospel of Jesus Christ and who already have churches and other organizations in place which are capable of evangelizing the lost.

And thus, as incredibly unbelievable as it sounds, less than 1% of all the full-time Christian workers in the world are engaged in taking the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the unengaged and unreached peoples of the world.

In case you are wondering how well the Church in the United States is doing--there are about 1 million full-time Christian workers serving throughout the world and in the United States that hail from the Untied States. Out of this number only 9000 are involved in direct disciple making and church planting work among unengaged and unreached people groups. Thus, again slightly less than 1% of all the full-time Christian workers in the world that are from the United States are directly involved in the work of fulfilling our Lord's Great Commission to "make disciples of all the nations".

Perhaps, the more direct application of Matthew 9:37-38 to the church of the 21st century is not so much that the need is for more workers as much as for more workers to leave the comforts of the farmhouse and get out into the fields. Missionary leaders have estimated that if they had a minimum of 90,000 more workers to go as pioneer disciple making church planters to the unengaged and unreached people groups of the world that they would have the means of sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ, making disciples and planting enough churches that then would be able to reach their own people for Jesus Christ.

Perhaps, instead of praying for more workers, the Church needs to rethink Missions and what "Great Commission Missions" is all about and begin to encourage and send its workers out of the farmhouse and barnyard and into the fields that are already white unto harvest.

By the way, over 163 billion dollars per year is spent on Christian ministries to Christians throughout the world. 13 billion is spent on missions. Thus, only about 8% of all the money collected by churches and other Christian ministries per year is used to fulfill Christ's Great Commission.

Does anyone else see a problem here?

BOOK REVIEW - Apostolic Function in 21st Century Missions by Alan R. Johnson (William Carey Publishers)

This a book review by Trevor Johnson, a friend of mine who is left last week with his pregnant wife (Teresa) and two toddlers for their second term in the jungle of Papua. I agree wholeheartedly with him that this is a great read--but since I can't improve on his review--I have printed his for your reading pleasure.

Not that I want to review his review but I do want to make a point of emphasizing his point that whereas, a church's involvement in local food pantries, pregnancy centers, and even relief for the suffering in Haiti is biblically warranted, necessary, and deserving of our involvement and support--it does not replace the missionary mandate to that church to go to all the people groups and make know the Gospel of Christ. These ministries as wonderful as they are do not replace the Great Commission, which requires the church "to find the darkest holes of the world and stick ourselves in them. All barriers to the Gospel must be crossed and every dark region lit with a Gospel witness".

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Church historian Stephen Neill once remarked, “When everything is mission, nothing is mission.” Alan R. Johnson heartily agrees. Johnson, a missionary in Thailand, advocates a renewed focus on the “where” question of missions, and a renewed prioritization of frontier missions among the least-reached.

Don’t let the term “apostolic” fool you. Johnson is not advocating the return to the office of Apostle, using the term, instead, in a functional sense. Being “apostolic” means to “function in the manner of the Apostles” in our ever-outward, pioneering compulsion. As God’s “sent out ones,” we drive forward, intent on crossing every ethno-linguistic boundary with the Gospel. While pastoring existing churches might be needed until indigenous leadership can be raised up, the great need in missions consists of going to where the church has not yet been established and planting – for the first time – local manifestations of Christ’s universal Church within unreached “nations” -ethne - mentioned in our Lord’s Commission.

The apostolic role of the missionary is reflected in the very term itself, the Latin missio being derived from the Greek apostello, denoting a “sent-out one.” Missionaries, thus, are not merely those who go. They are those who are sent, emissaries of the Gospel, sent out for a special cause, the outward and propulsive impulse towards the uttermost parts of the earth.

While canned food drives and local crisis pregnancy centers deserve our help, too, these serve as poor replacements for our primary drive towards the ends of the earth and to all the nations. Our task is to find the darkest holes and to stick ourselves in them. All barriers to the Gospel must be crossed and every dark region lit with a Gospel witness.

While many US churches are advocating becoming more “missional” those churches most closely aligning themselves with this newly coined adjective are often the last to send workers overseas to the least-reached, instead, preferring local missions and – in consequence – failing to have anything but a local mindset, enslaved to the winds of culture.

While many opportunities exist for Western pastors to play roles in established Third World Churches, we must be careful not to fall into the trap of viewing missions through the lens of the pastoral ministry, white Anglo pastors pastoring brown Third World Churches. We must strive always to be passing the baton, in the manner of II Timothy 2:2, to faithful local men in a replicational, multiplicational way – making disciples that can make disciples, reaching the lost to reach the lost..

For this reason, We must prioritize frontier missions and we must also value the principle of indigeneity, attempting, in all that we do, to equip local believers, pass the baton, and see the Gospel blossom on native soil.. What we need in missions is not exported pastorates among already “churched” areas, but apostolic pioneers to the very edges of Gospel accessibility.

I love this book, The Apostolic Function, and I give it away to many pastor friends. If you don’t read this book, but merely study the articles mentioned in Johnson’s footnotes, this by itself would be a mini-course in missiology.

From a Papuan tribal ministry context, I highly suggest studying Johnson’s interaction with the people-group concept and the phrase panta ta ethne (all the nations) contained in the Great Commission (pages 121-126). Are we to prioritize reaching merely the maximum number of individuals with the Gospel, or is there also a warrant for reaching the maximum number of peoples (note the plural) with the Gospel, such that we desire to plant a beachhead of Truth across every geographical and ethno-linguistic boundary where Christ is not known? Read the book and decide for yourself.

This is a book well worth its price ($ 14.39 at the William Carey Library, www.missionbooks.org), and well worth the cost of gifting this volume to your key supporting pastors.