Monday Morning Manna: Missioners

The first nurse I ever met was Inez Gilliam Crawford at Kings Daughters Hospital in Temple, Texas. She was my mother and that’s where I was born. The most recent nurse I met was last week at the Texas Health Hospital Clearfork Surgery Center where my wife was having hip replacement surgery. Separated by decades, these two nurses shared a common bond – The Nightingale Pledge, of 1893, revised in 1935, named in honor of Florence Nightingale. A plaque with this pledge hung in our home as I was growing up. The pledge ends with, “as a missioner of health, I will dedicate myself to devoted service for human welfare.” It was always the word “missioner” – “someone sent on a mission” – that caught my attention. Called to be a missionary nurse, my mother was unable to be sent due to health issues, but she found her mission field as a pastor’s wife and a missioner to the hurting, helpless, and hapless of her world. Likewise my new nurse friend was sent from her country to serve among a people new to her. Both followed the example of Jesus, who exclaimed to the Father, concerning His followers, “As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. (John 17:18). Nurses are “missioners” but they are not the only ones who bear that title. Have you been “sent” to serve? Then you also are a missioner. Perhaps today, you can embrace an old word with all its meaning.

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.