This week I was sitting in a meeting of “team strategy leaders”(TSLs); IMB missionaries who are in charge of ministry teams among people groups in Ecuador, Peru, and Chile. There were about ten men meeting with our “cluster strategy leader”(CSL), sharing our lives, our woes, of course our ministry strategies, and at times some venting over changes in the IMB. Every one of these men faces the challenge of finding God’s plan for reaching the respective people group to which he’s been assigned. Some of them labor far from the big city, up in the dizzying heights of the Andes Mountains, or, like us, along the twisting waterways of the central rainforests. All of them have families. All of them have feelings and personal needs. I observed that all of them are passionate about their calling.I heard men share their efforts and their frustrations and their frequent confusion with some changes in procedures and policies in the organization. Some shared how they are being uprooted and having to move to another part of the field to take on a new group with a new strategy; changes they did not anticipate when they dug in where they are now. My heart went out to those who have had to deal with some hardships I haven’t had to deal with or who were left alone in a high distant country to sort out their call and their pathways with no one nearby to help or give encouragement.
Like I said, these are men passionate about their people groups and passionate about the Lord. They are men whose call is real and clear; they are men who will serve wherever God plants them. They are men who, though they don’t understand all the changes being implemented in the IMB, do understand what it means to submit to authority and accept it as God’s blessing in their lives. Not one of them doubts the sincerity of leadership at higher levels and their trust level is high. While they may not always see around the next turn of the river, they are sure that their leaders have a firm grip on the helm, guided by scripture and prayer. While a few tears were shed, the joy within remains, and the smiles of confidence in our Lord and the fruit HE is bearing shone upon their faces.
I’m glad I serve with such men. I’m glad they are supported and helped and blessed by their loving families. I rejoice that while I may not see those guys but once in a blue moon, I know they are there, living the same calling that I am living. May God pour His gracious strength and wisdom into their lives and fill their nets to overflowing.Map: the countries of South America--part of the America's Affinity--the IMB ministry region that includes all the countries of the Americas.
