Jim Smith began searching for the “true, living God” as a high school student. He believed there was a god but did not know if that being was the god of Islam, Judaism or Christianity.
After graduating, Smith entered a small Alabama university and attended Bible studies to find the truth. Although he considered himself “completely lost” and “clueless,” many Bible study leaders assumed he was a Christian and asked him to explain different topics.
Finally Smith met a young man who taught him the Bible and his life changed forever.
“God just lifted the veil (from my eyes), and I could truly see that Jesus is alive and He is the true, living God,” he said. “Three weeks later, I got baptized. I got on the phone and called my friends and family and told them Jesus lives, and I’ve been on fire ever since.”
Unlike Smith, Morris Jones gave his life to Christ at age 5 but became “completely dissatisfied” with his spiritual walk many years later. Although he felt he was “doing all the right things,” Jones knew God was not first in his life. He wanted to be “sold out.”
“(God) showed me that I was relying on the security of money and a job,” Jones said. “I started to see how He never asks us to do something that we can do (in) our own power. Being His disciple meant that you must jump in with both feet and trust Him.”
As God began working in the lives of these men, neither knew what to expect. Yet both said they began feeling a strong desire to reach the lost for Christ. Although Smith worked in international business and Jones in optical engineering, God’s call became so clear that both realized they were being called to the missions field.
A short while later, Smith attended a Southern Baptist seminary and Jones began taking seminary courses online. Within a few years, the men and their families moved to East Asia to do Christian work.
Jones and his family moved to East Asia two years ago to plant churches. Although the people are “willing to listen,” he has realized it usually takes repeated teachings on the gospel before they believe.
“Their knowledge of the Bible is none at all,” he said. “When we witness, we have to start out with creation and lead them all the way to the resurrection of Christ. For some, we have to explain what a cross is.”
Jones’ wife, Linda, said international missions became a passion for her when her family hosted a young couple affiliated with the North American Mission Board during a church missions conference a few years ago.
“Their passion inspired me to rethink what I was doing for the Lord,” she said. “I began to feel like I was not really making much of a difference. The Lord started to open my eyes to the lost world.”
Assigned to a different part of East Asia, Smith and his family have lived in a small, remote market town for four years. His wife, Pam, said that soon after becoming a Christian, she felt called to missions during a service at the seminary with her husband.
“Though I always served Christ wherever I went, it was then that I bowed before God and said, ‘not my will but Yours,’” she said. “Just as God led someone into a remote part of the world to share Christ with me, God was leading me to [East Asia] to share with those He is calling to salvation. …
Christ gave me the passion for those who have never heard and the peace to take the step of faith.”
Despite being the only foreign believers in the area, the Smiths have trained other local believers to work among the more than 1 million unreached people in the town.
“A lot of people want to obey Jesus and go make disciples but they don’t know how,” Smith said.
“You don’t have to have a secret formula. It’s just literally teaching them to follow Christ through the Bible.”
To help his target group understand his message, Smith wrote training materials in “simple Chinese.”
Because some people in the town cannot read well, he also drew cartoons and created audio recordings to convey the message.
“Cartoons are big over there, even for adults,” Smith said. “So I started drawing cartoon characters in simple village scenes. These characters apply God’s Word into their lives. … [T]hey can understand it.”
In the future, he hopes to create discipleship tracts using the cartoons and a DVD to teach people to share their faith.
The Smith and Jones families eventually met, and both are now in Alabama on stateside assignment.
EDITOR’S NOTE — Names have been changed due to security concerns.
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