Monday Morning Manna: A Plea for Prayer

Many of us grew up in churches that taught us to pray for missionaries. Now is the time to intensify that prayer. Through tear-stained eyes, I have been reading communications from missionary friends this past week, many of whom are former students of mine. They received a Voluntary Retirement Incentive from their sending agency (Southern Baptist International Mission Board) asking them to consider taking “voluntary” early retirement. Some, in their early and mid-fifties, are in the prime of their ministry. They had not planned on early retirement. Many have nowhere to go, no job to support them. One wrote: “The last two weeks have been quite a roller-coaster of emotions, starting with shock and disbelief, and going through many facets of grief and loss.” Another wrote to their prayer partners: “It is with great anguish and deep sorrow that our family seeks help from you today.” Still another wrote in response to my words of support: “Yours is the only message we have received from friends back in the U.S. regarding the volunteer retirement. There seems to have been a deafening silence as if no one knows what is going on. Do other folks back home even understand or care about the situation?” Missionaries are faced with explaining this to their children, and to their national co-workers. The return culture shock experienced by missionaries coming home is often extremely difficult, now intensified by an unexpected early return. How could one of the world’s largest mission sending agencies be asking 800 career missionaries to voluntarily return home early? I have no answers. I do know it is time for Southern Baptists and our friends to bathe these missionaries in prayer. They need our support, and they need it soon. If you have e-mail or social media access to a missionary, now would be a good time to communicate your support with them. Even the younger ones, who did not receive the retirement incentive, are hurting for their colleagues, and likewise need our support. And don’t send prayers their way (an often seen phrase on social media). Send them to God who invites us to do so (Jeremiah 33:3), and who is the only one capable of responding. Pray, friends! Pray now! Pray boldly! Then do as I, and others have done, assure your Southern Baptist missionary friends of your support.

Dr. Dan Crawford, Senior Professor at Southwestern Baptist Seminary, is the WestCoast Baptist Association’s Spiritual Life & Leadership Mentor. Follow Dan on Twitter @DrDanRC and Facebook www.facebook.com/dan.crawford.