This Sunday is unique for us. We have had Robert and Emma Becker with us as interns in Argentina since February. They have jumped in and served since the day they arrived. I am very thankful for them. We hate to see them go, but their 6 month internship has come to an end. This Sunday, Robert will be preaching and Emma will give a testimony during the evening service. After the service we have our monthly fellowship to celebrate all the birthdays and anniversaries from the prior month.

The Beckers will be leaving on Tuesday morning. Pray with us that God will bless this Sunday and continue to guide the Beckers as they prepare for the mission field.

A call to missions is a call to prepare. The “surrender” is really just the start. We have looked at different aspects in preparing for the mission field, including deputation, but I would like to focus on deputation a bit more.

The truth is that deputation is not broken. Deputation works, but it is work. In other words, deputation is not a Sunday morning, Sunday night, and Wednesday night part-time job. It is a full-time job that should be worked everyday. I have read posts from other missionaries who want to debate how deputation is not the way to raise support and that there needs to be a better way, or that there must be a better way to improve deputation. They don’t ask me, but if they did I would tell them that the reason deputation is not satisfactory to them is because they are not working hard enough. With just a hand full of questions, this can be proven. “How long have you been on deputation?” “How many hours do you spend calling churches each day?” “How many days do you call 9 hours or more?” “How many scheduled meetings do you have for next month?”

If God has called you to be a missionary and you are on deputation, it is important that you work hard!

The push back will be that I am “taking God out of deputation”. I am not. The only way a missionary ever does anything is because of our God. Jesus made very clear that apart from Him, we cannot do anything (John 15:5). The idea that faith in God does not propel us to action is contrary to the teachings in James 2. It is also contrary to logic. If a believer’s child was in a pool and in danger of drowning, would the believer pray to God to save his child and sit and watch to see how God may do it? No. The believer would beg God to save his child as he ran out and jumped into the pool to pull his child to safety. That is logical and that is biblical faith. Beg God, believe God, and work hard believing God is going to carry out His plan!

Preparing for the mission field is working hard and that is not just on the mission field, but on deputation as well.

Tomorrow is a special day for us at Faith Baptist Church. Yesterday was Friend Day in Argentina. We will be celebrating the day tomorrow at the church. 1,000 invitations have been given out. Even more have been invited. We are praying for a great day. Please pray that way with us. This is our big push for the month. We are trusting that God will use this special day.

In the past two weeks we have had two new visitors to our Friday night youth nights. Please pray God blesses and works in the hearts of these two young men!

In August we will be holding English classes. This has brought a lot of interest. Of course the goal is not to teach English but to share the truth about Jesus and the salvation all can have through faith in Him. Pray that God uses each of these special events.

“I can’t believe I am finally going to leave for the mission field!” Most missionaries can relate to this sentiment. Years of preparation, a decision was made to plant churches in a foreign land, thousands of miles were travelled and hundreds of churches have been visited and it is finally happening. The missionary is so excited! But to arrive to the mission field, there is a lot of preparation that must be done in order to leave. So what does this involve? Here are a few questions to help prepare for departure…

• How are you getting your possessions to the field (through bags or perhaps shipping a container)?
• What are you going to do with all of your possessions you are not taking?
• Where will you stay your last nights in the states?
• Who will you be with your final day/night in the states?
• Who will take you to the airport?
• Where are you going to live on the mission field (which specific house or apartment)?
• How much money do you need to pay for furniture you need to buy, a house to rent (many times you need money to pay up front when renting a house as a foreigner)?
• How will you set up?
• Who is going to pick you up at the airport on the field?
• When will you start language school? Where? With who?
• How will your kids do their schooling while on the field?

These questions need answers and these answers are not always easy to decide, but they are necessary. There is also the “saying good-bye” to loved ones that needs to be lined up. Some couples have families in different states, making it harder. The good-bye’s are not fun, but it all does need to be all planned out. This stage of preparing is a mixture of emotions. The missionary is excited to be finally get to arrive to the field, sad to say good bye to friends and family, overwhelmed with all that needs to be packed, and nervous about all that needs to happen once they arrive to the field. And to add “a cherry” on top of this “preparation sundae”, there is the dreaded paper-work to live in the new country. We are talking about background checks, birth certificates, apostilled (a type of certification) documents, profile pictures, visas, and of course passports and photo copies of passports, and depending on the specific country, a lot more! This is not fun for anyone. It is tedious and can seem never ending, and can get expensive. All of this needs to be taken care of in preparation to leave for the field. 

I know this paragraph seems to be a part of every post in this blog series, but there is much more that can be said on this subject. Preparing for the mission field means at some point you must prepare to leave for the field.