This was found when going through my old correspondence files. It is a letter I wrote to CCM supporters upon returning from my around-the-world trip in 1981. It is still relevant today.
May 14, 1981
Dear Friends:
It has been close to two months since I returned from a nine-week round-the-world trip. Certainly God was in it. He directed my steps daily. Here are a few observations out of many things I learned while I was gone.
Many years ago, Jesus' statement in John 4:35 impressed me as a truth that was always true. "Do you not say 'four months more and then the harvest'? I tell you open your eyes and look at the fields. They are ripe for harvest.”
If is always true, then it is true in every society at any given time. Over the years I have found it true. Again I found it true in Japan, Korea, Egypt, and Germany as people came to the Lord. Others had sown; I was there for the reaping. I believe it is far truer than missionaries or native Christians believe. We are still saying, “Four months more and then the harvest."
Cairo is dirty with clean dirt and dirty dirt. It is a city of 10 million people, many of them unemployed, and there is much poverty. Garbage is collected by 50,000 people who recycle it and live on it. Many of these are little children.
Germany, on the other hand, is super clean. I saw a truck with a mechanical brush scrubbing the white posts along the highway. Then I saw a man scrubbing a stop sign.
In both of these countries, the spiritual darkness was oppressing. It forced me to modify a view that physical cleanliness was the result of being spiritually clean. I still think that there is a relationship, but not one of direct cause and effect.
I had fellowship with missionaries, both long-term missionaries committed to solid church planting and fast hit-and-run evangelists. The biggest problem was not difference in method but relationships, mostly within missions and within families. I visited missionary children at their schools and separately in Japan, Korea, Philippines, Thailand, and France, and found much bitterness toward parents. As a corollary to bitterness, I saw some rebellion.
This confirmed an impression I have had for some time that many mission boards and missionaries who are sent out think that the Great Commission is primary, that it is more important than personal godliness and certainly more important than loving time with their children. It also confirmed an impression that an American cultural Christian education was more important than keeping the children with the parents. These two false priorities cause families in many cases to be unnecessarily separated.
Concerning methods of evangelism, there seemed to be two extremes:
1. Too much identification with the attitudes of the local church
2. Too little identification with the culture of the people
In the first instance, we have examples in Japan and Egypt. The native church has a survival mentality rather than an attitude of "Give me this mountain” (Joshua 14:12). In Japan, it is an acceptance of the culture as something the Gospel cannot penetrate except in little ways. In Egypt, it is fear of the Moslems and fear of the government that causes a hesitancy of witnessing to Moslems. When missionaries identify too much with the local church, they are also affected by these attitudes. Consequently, conversions are relatively few.
In the second instance, we have missionaries who put a heavy dependence on the distribution of truth by mass literature distribution without taking time to love the people or the person. The truth is thus truncated. It is given without the power that is part of the Gospel. Consequently, there are few conversions. In an endeavor to reach the whole, they take a shortcut. They trade quality for quantity. A good biblical example is found in 1 Thessalonians 1:4-8:
"Knowing, brethren beloved by God, His choice of you; for our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction; just as you know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake. You also became imitators of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much tribulation with the joy of the Holy Spirit, so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia. For the word of the Lord has sounded forth from you, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place your faith toward God has gone forth, so that we have no need to say anything."
I had prayed before I left the States for an opportunity to witness to a Pakistani on the plane. In a wonderful way, He answered that prayer twice. Kelly and I sat on either side of a Pakistani attorney from Manila to Bangkok. I was able to give him I Dared to Call Him Father by Bayles Sheikh, and later I sent him an NIV Bible and The Life of Jesus the Son of Mary in Urdu. His name is Mohammed Lalif Baig. He lives in Fafsalabad. I have written to David Mitchell in Islamabad to follow through on the witness.
Then from Berlin to Paris I sat with S. A. Hosiin from Karachi. He also received a copy of The Life of Jesus in Urdu. His brother teaches at the University of Wyoming. He was going on to the States to visit his brother. I gave him a note so he could pick up a free Bible at the Watering Hole Bookstore in Laramie.
I had prayed and asked others to pray that I would not get tired and that I would come home refreshed. Thank you for praying, because I did come home refreshed.
The time with Heather was a time of special happiness. She has given herself to the people. The eight Ethiopians (seven of them Muslims) who received Christ were made ready by her loving attention. By the time you receive this, she will be on her way home. Please continue to pray for her.
Hundreds of God-directed events happened during those nine weeks, all of them wonderful. Thank you for your prayers and gifts.
In the Lord Jesus Christ,
Jim Wilson
May 14, 1981
Dear Friends:
It has been close to two months since I returned from a nine-week round-the-world trip. Certainly God was in it. He directed my steps daily. Here are a few observations out of many things I learned while I was gone.
Many years ago, Jesus' statement in John 4:35 impressed me as a truth that was always true. "Do you not say 'four months more and then the harvest'? I tell you open your eyes and look at the fields. They are ripe for harvest.”
If is always true, then it is true in every society at any given time. Over the years I have found it true. Again I found it true in Japan, Korea, Egypt, and Germany as people came to the Lord. Others had sown; I was there for the reaping. I believe it is far truer than missionaries or native Christians believe. We are still saying, “Four months more and then the harvest."
Cairo is dirty with clean dirt and dirty dirt. It is a city of 10 million people, many of them unemployed, and there is much poverty. Garbage is collected by 50,000 people who recycle it and live on it. Many of these are little children.
Germany, on the other hand, is super clean. I saw a truck with a mechanical brush scrubbing the white posts along the highway. Then I saw a man scrubbing a stop sign.
In both of these countries, the spiritual darkness was oppressing. It forced me to modify a view that physical cleanliness was the result of being spiritually clean. I still think that there is a relationship, but not one of direct cause and effect.
I had fellowship with missionaries, both long-term missionaries committed to solid church planting and fast hit-and-run evangelists. The biggest problem was not difference in method but relationships, mostly within missions and within families. I visited missionary children at their schools and separately in Japan, Korea, Philippines, Thailand, and France, and found much bitterness toward parents. As a corollary to bitterness, I saw some rebellion.
This confirmed an impression I have had for some time that many mission boards and missionaries who are sent out think that the Great Commission is primary, that it is more important than personal godliness and certainly more important than loving time with their children. It also confirmed an impression that an American cultural Christian education was more important than keeping the children with the parents. These two false priorities cause families in many cases to be unnecessarily separated.
Concerning methods of evangelism, there seemed to be two extremes:
1. Too much identification with the attitudes of the local church
2. Too little identification with the culture of the people
In the first instance, we have examples in Japan and Egypt. The native church has a survival mentality rather than an attitude of "Give me this mountain” (Joshua 14:12). In Japan, it is an acceptance of the culture as something the Gospel cannot penetrate except in little ways. In Egypt, it is fear of the Moslems and fear of the government that causes a hesitancy of witnessing to Moslems. When missionaries identify too much with the local church, they are also affected by these attitudes. Consequently, conversions are relatively few.
In the second instance, we have missionaries who put a heavy dependence on the distribution of truth by mass literature distribution without taking time to love the people or the person. The truth is thus truncated. It is given without the power that is part of the Gospel. Consequently, there are few conversions. In an endeavor to reach the whole, they take a shortcut. They trade quality for quantity. A good biblical example is found in 1 Thessalonians 1:4-8:
"Knowing, brethren beloved by God, His choice of you; for our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction; just as you know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake. You also became imitators of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much tribulation with the joy of the Holy Spirit, so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia. For the word of the Lord has sounded forth from you, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place your faith toward God has gone forth, so that we have no need to say anything."
I had prayed before I left the States for an opportunity to witness to a Pakistani on the plane. In a wonderful way, He answered that prayer twice. Kelly and I sat on either side of a Pakistani attorney from Manila to Bangkok. I was able to give him I Dared to Call Him Father by Bayles Sheikh, and later I sent him an NIV Bible and The Life of Jesus the Son of Mary in Urdu. His name is Mohammed Lalif Baig. He lives in Fafsalabad. I have written to David Mitchell in Islamabad to follow through on the witness.
Then from Berlin to Paris I sat with S. A. Hosiin from Karachi. He also received a copy of The Life of Jesus in Urdu. His brother teaches at the University of Wyoming. He was going on to the States to visit his brother. I gave him a note so he could pick up a free Bible at the Watering Hole Bookstore in Laramie.
I had prayed and asked others to pray that I would not get tired and that I would come home refreshed. Thank you for praying, because I did come home refreshed.
The time with Heather was a time of special happiness. She has given herself to the people. The eight Ethiopians (seven of them Muslims) who received Christ were made ready by her loving attention. By the time you receive this, she will be on her way home. Please continue to pray for her.
Hundreds of God-directed events happened during those nine weeks, all of them wonderful. Thank you for your prayers and gifts.
In the Lord Jesus Christ,
Jim Wilson
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