June 01, 1991 by Greg Parsons

A short time ago, one of our former staff members came to visit us on his furlough from overseas. I've been on staff here for nine years. During my earliest years, he was also here. I can remember when his children were born. I remember how proud we were when he started two of the key programs here which are still going on. It was wonderful to learn how God is using him now.

Sam (not his real name) works in a country where you can't be a "missionary." (The buzz word today for this kind of country is Restricted Access or Limited Access, or more recently, Creative Access..) Sam has developed relationships with various people in that culture who are open to Christianity and are not that committed to their prevalent religion.

Beyond that, he has developed relationships with leaders within that religion. When he spoke to our staff at the Center, he shared how that had happened.

You could see big smiles all over the room, especially from those who knew Sam. We could see how God was working in this particular relationship and in general, through Sam and his family. We could see how God had answered prayer--the prayers that many of us had made, especially during our regularly assigned four-hour prayer watch in the prayer room which is manned 24 hours a day. Those of us who had known him had often prayed that God would use Sam to somehow make a breakthrough in this part of the world.

Dozens of people who have served here have gone out ,like Sam. Some serve in administrative roles with other missions or universities. Many are working in very difficult and sensitive cross-cultural areas.

Hearing about people who are learning about God for the first time causes me to pray more. It puts fire under all I do and what the Center is all about.

Over the years, some on our staff have been "chomping at the bit" to get out "to the field." They want to get in on the action. For me, it makes me want to help more people to get out there. I guess you could say that I'm sold out to mobilizing the church, to working behind the scenes. While we often pray, talk, plan and work toward that end here at the Center, we also have a great opportunity to disciple people here in Pasadena to be part of that process.

Each of us can have an impact on what God is doing around the world. Some of us will actually go to see a church established in an unreached people group. Some of us are behind the scenes making sure, with God's power, that people are moving forward from wherever they are to where He wants them. Many of the people involved directly or indirectly with reaching unreached peoples come through the Center at some time. Some have been on our staff or are with us right now. Others may join us in the future. Many come for only a few weeks or months before going on overseas or into some crucial mobilization post here at home. Either way, we're committed to the process of training, encouraging and furthering these people in God's purpose. That is what this issue of Mission Frontiers is about.

But there is a problem.

It is hard to get people to fully understand this type of work and support it. It is too "behind the scenes." A few of our staff work behind the scenes on a publication like the Global Prayer Digest. Others are even further in the background. You might say they are really behind behind the scenes. They are helping with our Maintenance department or in our University's dormitory. These roles are crucial to the work we do here, but the mission policies of many churches limit support for this kind of work to lower levels, or they are so committed to the priority of being "overseas" that they cannot see how necessary it is for others in work of this type to help get them there. (See Mission Frontiers Vol. 10, No. 11, page 7 for a further discussion on this and other related issue.) There are, of course, unreached peoples here in the U.S. And there is also the crucial job of mission mobilization that has to be accomplished here. But it is often very difficult for a staff member to get support for either of those ministries!

During World War I, Winston Churchill was taken to the coal mines to speak to the miners. Understandably they were in awe for him to even be there, yet they too needed motivation to press on in such a behind- the-scenes task. Churchill told these miners: "We will be victorious! We will preserve our freedom. And years from now when our freedom is secure and peace reigns, your children and your children's children will come and they will say to you, 'What did you do to win our freedom in that great war?' And one will say, 'I marched with the 8th Army!' Someone else will proudly say, "I manned a submarine.' And another will say, 'I guided the ships that moved the troops and supplies.' And still another will say, 'I doctored the wounds!'

"They will come to you," he shouted "and you will say, with equal right and pride, 'I cut the coal! I cut the coal that fueled the ships that moved the supplies! That's what I did. I cut the coal.'"

Pray with us as we serve, often behind behind the scenes, to fuel a movement so that the Unreached will be reached. Let me know if you or your church wants to be linked with someone on our staff through prayer or financial support. We have many key staff struggling with support that is too low. And there are bright, qualified, young people, eager to serve Christ at the Center, but find it difficult to raise support for various reasons. Keeping in touch with someone on staff this way will provide you and your church with a close touch with what is happening and what needs to happen around the world.