Alabama to Africa, seniors serve as Christ’s hands, feet

Several years ago, Arthur Parker, a missions volunteer and member of First Baptist Church, Robertsdale, found himself in Romania as part of a missions team focusing on evangelism, medical aid and construction work. While working at a medical clinic in Barila, Romania, Parker befriended members of another group of volunteers from Spokane, Wash.
   
A few months later, Parker got a call from the sponsors of the Spokane missions team.
   
They asked him to go back to Romania to oversee the construction of a 48×140 metal building that would be used as a farm warehouse and office complex.
   
Parker agreed to go, but the trip was unlike any other missions trip he had undertaken.
   
First, Parker was alone, without his wife, Kathleen, or any other American volunteers to help. Language was also a barrier.
   
Unlike previous trips to Romania, Parker had no interpreter to help him communicate with the Romanian workers. The young farm manager could speak a little English, but very little.
   
And although the prefabricated materials for the building were ready, the equipment the laborers had to work with was in poor shape.
   
Parker said he cried with frustration when he arrived and tried to get started. But his tears of frustration soon gave way to prayers of thanksgiving as the project continued.
   
“Through my hand-waving and God’s work, we got that building up,” Parker said. “Even though it was difficult, that experience showed me that I could go into any country in the world and get by with God’s help.”
   
Many people think that the call to missions is for the young — for energetic teenagers or young adults who receive a call to vocational missions. But when hurricanes strike or remote churches in the jungle need evangelists, it is often senior adults who respond to the call.
   
Senior adults fill a great need in the missions field for many reasons. Retirement provides many seniors with time to commit to missions work.
   
With children raised and out on their own, retirees often have fewer day-to-day family responsibilities, and many see missions work as an opportunity to meet and help others while seeing different parts of the world.
   
Most importantly, missions work provides senior adults with opportunities to share God’s love with others.
   
“Our main purpose is to spread the gospel,” Parker said. “We don’t force ourselves on anybody, but once they welcome us in to help, we have the opportunity to witness to them and pray with them. It’s a wonderful experience to see people come to Christ.”
   
Grady Fuller, a missions volunteer and member of First Baptist Church, Russellville, has been involved in international missions work since 1994 — the year he turned 70.
   
In the last 10 years, his volunteer work has taken him to more than 11 countries, including Ghana, Ukraine, China, South Africa, Taiwan, Venezuela and even the United Arab Emirates.
   
In his work, Fuller has seen devastating poverty, disease and suffering.
   
However, he has also found a world very open to hearing the gospel. He suspects that his age has been a help rather than a hindrance because so many cultures revere the elderly.
   
“In India, I would be on the trains and buses going place to place, and people would go out of their way to do nice things for me,” Fuller said.
   
Fuller has also found that God will work in people’s hearts regardless of the circumstances.
   
As a Gideon, one of Fuller’s primary goals on his trips is to distribute Bibles. However, on one trip to Argentina, his local host informed him that he would be the evangelist at a church that night. Fuller quickly told the man that he was not a preacher.
   
The church did not have a pastor, however, and Fuller was scheduled to fill the pulpit. At the end of the revival, 95 people accepted Christ.
   
From then on, Fuller said, he was open to whatever job the Lord had for him.
   
Parker advises people who are interested in volunteer missions work to let their church or associational staff know since these are the people who often hear about projects first.
   
Many Christian agencies also have Web sites where volunteers can learn more about their programs and find out how to participate. Missions-oriented friends can provide helpful contacts as well.
   
Sometimes getting started can be the hardest part, and both Parker and Fuller agree that the expense and risks of missions work can be daunting at times. But the effort is worth it, they say.
   
“There’s a lot of hard work to be done, and you have to be dedicated,” Fuller said, “but the greatest benefit of missions work is the joy of it.”
   
“It can be expensive, and it is definitely a sacrifice,” Parker said, “but it’s a great blessing, too.”