Your Voice

Your Voice

Madagascar prepares to send missionaries

By Barbara Singerman

International Mission Board

In October of 2019, my husband, Jeff, and I set out on a remarkable journey.

I cannot speak to leafy golden hues or trees of burgundy brilliance dancing in the cloudless skies. We were far from our rainy or dry central African home and even further from countries with dramatically changing seasons.

Instead, October found us on the island nation of Madagascar, where the sun reflects off rice fields in cultivated areas, burns against the desert grasses, touches the baobab trees’ reaching fingers and barely glances the rainforest floor.

Malagasy Baptist leaders invited International Mission Board (IMB) personnel to participate in an inaugural event: Baptists from Madagascar taking first steps toward sending their own indigenous missionaries.

IMB representatives led the group through discussions on topics such as a biblical overview of missions, recognizing those who are called to go, training methods and facets of support.

Through leading discussion, IMB personnel allowed for local leadership to adapt biblical missional knowledge to their cultural context.

Gathered with the Baptist leaders were Malagasy Baptist church planters, who know well the extreme hardships of going to the unreached in difficult places.

Bush taxis may bounce, lurch and throw passengers against each other for 10 long hours to cover only 90 miles.

Where the bush taxis can’t go, the church planters pedal hard-seat bikes countless miles.

Where bicycles can’t go, they walk rough paths.

Some travel four days on foot and pass through dangerous forests rife with criminals to reach their target peoples. Where they cannot walk, they paddle dug-out canoes.

When they sleep, they sleep on the ground using watermelons for pillows. Their wives struggle to help place food on the table for their families when they are away.

One beautiful young woman, with her 3-year-old hiding behind her skirt, shared her contribution to the family needs. “Every day I make hundreds of fried meat pies to sell. The oil splashes on me and is scarring my face.”

Another said, “My husband and I live in one room. That room is our bedroom, living room, church and Bible school.”

A common vision brought these Baptist men and women together. Their desire is for the Malagasy people of Madagascar to know Jesus Christ. They have counted the cost and are willing to make sacrifices to accomplish their goal.

As the conference was drawing to a close, the participants — deeply struck by the lostness in their country — gathered around a large drawing of Madagascar.

Carefully, they mapped out the areas of their work. Stepping back, the gathered believers examined the large areas with no evangelical work. Nothing. They suspect that no voice is proclaiming Christ and that lives are being lived and lost, eternally, without Jesus.

In quiet reverence, they dropped to their knees and earnestly prayed to the Lord of the harvest.

I felt incredibly privileged to participate in this event — to see men and women desiring their nation to know Christ, seeking to send out missionaries from their poverty, falling on their knees in humble supplication that Christ be made known.

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Don’t give up the window seat

I will never forget my first commercial flight. I booked months early so as to claim a window seat in order to experience what I knew would be the wondrous sights.

Fast forward several decades. I still book early but now my goal is an aisle seat for more leg room and for getting off the flying cattle car as soon as humanly possible.

Somewhere along the way, I traded the thrill of the ride for personal convenience.

The sad reality is that many have applied this same course to life — trading joy for just an existence. We have lost the awe of simple things.

I have four strategies for realizing the more abundant life of which Jesus spoke.

First, never stop learning. If a University of Mobile graduate walks across the stage thinking he or she knows it all, we have failed.

Second, never stop laughing. We have got to stop taking ourselves too seriously.

Third, never stop leaning. This is not a lazy dependency but rather a trust in others and especially in Christ.

Finally, never stop loving. By this I mean love what you do, love people and, most importantly, love God.

It’s time to reclaim the window seat.

—Lonnie Burnett

EDITOR’S NOTE: Lonnie Burnett is president of University of Mobile.

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By Vance Pitman
“Unburdened: Stop Living for Jesus So Jesus Can Live through You”

It is impossible to be right with God and not be right with God’s family.

Chairman Tony Perkins
U.S. Commission on Int’l Religious Freedom

All who value religious freedom must stand firmly against anti-
Semitism and other forms of religious hatred to prevent the horrors of the Holocaust from being repeated.

Russell Moore
President, Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, SBC

If Roe v. Wade is overturned — and please God may it be — and if state legislature after state legislature decides that the atrocity of abortion should be ended in their states — and please God let them do that, let us all live long enough to see that — that will not be the end of [the pro-life movement]. That will be the beginning of it. It means that we have to have an infrastructure in place to be able to love and to care for people that we don’t even know about right now.

Rabbi Jeffrey Salkin
Hollywood, Fla.

You have heard the phrase “OK, boomer.” It basically means: Get out of the way. Whether those words come from a dismissive 25-year-old, or from a dismissive 45-year-old who thinks that he or she is doing wise church or synagogue planning, it not only hurts, it is counterproductive.  News flash. We [Baby Boomers] are now on the brink of retirement. Many of us stand to inherit significant money. Many of us have nice pensions. (Others of us don’t.) We will have a lot of leisure time. We are still (mostly) healthy. We are smart. We read — as in: books. We are part of the world. … As the psalmist wrote: “Cast us not off into old age.”

Christie Gambrell
Executive director
Christian Women’s Job Corps of Rusk County Henderson, Texas

It’s great to see [participants] become someone that they didn’t think they could be. It’s because somebody believed in them and somebody invested in their lives. That’s what Christian Women’s Job Corps is all about.

Maurene Guffin
Gardendale, Ala.

Love TAB!
Keep up the good work.

Angela Williams Gorrell
“Always On: Practicing Faith in a New Media Landscape”

Jesus is the standard by which humans judge our participation in the kingdom of God. We read the rest of Scripture, our own lives and our communal life together in view of how Jesus lived, with special attention to how Jesus listened and yielded to the Spirit. Jesus helps us to imagine what is possible.

Pastor Juan Sanchez
High Pointe Baptist Church
Austin, Texas

In God’s kingdom, all are family, all are equal, all are of worth and have dignity — male/female, young/old, black/white, Asian/Hispanic, rich/poor, citizen/immigrant, born/unborn. Let us dignify and celebrate such life!

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From the Twitterverse

@scottdawson

A discerning leader communicates what must be known. A deceptive leader doesn’t share the whole picture. A discerner may not share everything but will communicate the essentials. A deceiver will only share what is advantageous for personal gain.

@ThomRainer

The sound of crying children in church can be a blessing. If you don’t hear them, your church may be dying.

@BarnabasPiper

If Jesus spent three years pouring into Judas’ life, what are the implications for Christians and “cutting toxic people out” of our lives?

@trillianewbell

Today, I resolve to find the evidence of God’s beauty and grace reflected in those around me.

@BillyGraham

“Many Christians who profess Christ do not live as though they possess Him.” #BillyGraham

@carmenlaberge

Jesus talked a lot about His impending death and the reality of mortality. So why do we, as Christians, shy away from the topic? We know we’re all going to die, why don’t we talk more about it? #HealthyFaith

@jasonkeithallen

I love pastors. They often receive unjust criticism. Large-church pastors are often accused of pride and ambition. Small-church pastors are often accused of lack of gifting and ambition. I know hundreds of pastors and find these stereotypes almost always untrue. Love your pastor.

@DanaWatson

1. People die. (Heb. 9:27)
2. Money can’t stop it. (Matt. 19:16–30)
3. Tomorrow isn’t promised. (Prov. 27:1)
4. Life is fragile. (James 4:13–15)
5. Put your trust in Jesus. (John 14:6)

@bobgoff

When you’ve got a guide you can trust, you don’t have to worry about the path you’re on.

@PaulTripp

On your worst day Jesus won’t walk away, won’t suspend His promises and won’t replace His mercy with judgment. Grace.