by Tom Wacaster
My first experience at traveling abroad for mission work was in 1988. Ten of us traveled to Port Elizabeth, South Africa for a two week campaign, and three days of R&R at a wild life resort just outside of Johannesburg. That campaign gave me my first taste of mission work, and as one experienced missionary told me then, “Once mission work gets in your blood you will never be the same.” I did not (and could not) have appreciated the full extent of what he told me at that time. As God’s providence would have it, I returned to South Africa following that campaign for almost two years of mission work, living and laboring on foreign soil. I would not suggest that mission work in Africa was a life of ease, but neither would I suggest that it was a difficult field in which to labor in our Lord’s kingdom. The people spoke English, and for the most part, the values of the western world prevailed. Other than having to learn to drive on the “wrong” side of the road, and adjust to the British and Dutch accent of those with whom we communicated, life was pretty much like back home. The largest percentage of the population had at least some basis in the Christian faith, though steeped in the denominational dogma that has blinded the eyes of so many of those professing to be Christians. I like to think that those two years in South Africa would prepare me for other mission opportunities that would come my way.
In 1991 I made my first trip into Russia to preach the gospel. It would be my first of more than three dozen mission trips to Russia and/or Ukraine. In the early years of working in those former Soviet Russia block countries the conditions were anything but favorable. Travel was difficult, learning to speak through an interpreter challenging, and the work quite exhausting. Many of the comforts of home that we took for granted simply did not exist in that country that was, for the first time, getting a taste of freedom. It would be a half dozen or more years before Moscow would upgrade their airports, improve the travel conditions, and offer lodging and food that was more in line with the habits of the European nations with which they were attempting to join themselves. Those trips were anything but a vacation, and it usually took a week or so to recover from the strenuous schedule we endured once we arrived home from one of those missionary journeys. But I continued to make those trips for no other reason than the fact that the doors were open to preach, the souls were receptive, and the fruit of our labors was abundant.
In 1994 I resigned my local work and my wife and I committed ourselves to two years work in Ukraine. Due to visa restrictions, we could only stay in the country for 120 days, at which point we would have to leave, come home, apply for yet another visa, and then make the journey back to Poltava to pick up where we left off. Living in Poltava was challenging. We had to work through an interpreter (again), travel was quite limited, and shopping for basic necessities was a challenge. Our first winter spent in Poltava was from January-April of 1995. It was bitterly cold and our living quarters were heated by steam produced and piped to our apartment from some remote “boiler” outside the apartment complex. There was no thermostat so we had to take what the government sent us through those pipes. Sometimes it was overly warm; sometimes extremely cold. That winter there were no fresh vegetables at the market, the open meat market was appalling, but we survived on cucumbers and bananas for the most part. Had it not been for brethren we would have starved. As it was, we both lost about 25 pounds during that four month mission trip. But we survived, and the work was extremely rewarding.
I returned to local work in 1999, and continued to make at least one mission trip to Russia each year. One year, the time came for my annual mission trip to Syktyvkar, Russia. Following that trip some cantankerous brother decided he did not like the church spending money on what he deemed unimportant. He must have realized that complaining about spending money on mission trips might make him look bad, so he concocted some lame brain excuse to challenge my annual mission trips. “Why should the church pay for our preacher’s vacation to other parts of the world?” When I got wind of the brother’s objection, I made an offer publically to the congregation: “If any of you would like an all expense paid vacation to Syktyvkar, Russia, I will take it out of my own pocket. The only condition is that you follow my itinerary.” I got no takers.
As the years past more doors of opportunity opened for me to travel to other countries: Mexico, Ethiopia, Nepal, India, Russia, and the Philippines. So far as evangelistic outreach is concerned, there is no single part of the world where hearts are more receptive than in India. The work is challenging, and exhausting, and I usually come home worn out physically, drained emotionally, but spiritually uplifted. So, why do I make those trips? Why does anyone endure the discomforts of leaving home, travel to some distant country, put up with the cultural differences, and literally wear himself out? I’ll let the apostle Paul answer that question: “Therefore I endure all things for the elect's sake, that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory” (2 Tim. 2:10). It is not the luxurious hotels that beckon the missionary to distant lands, for luxurious hotels are few and far between in some of those countries. It is not the cuisine and exotic meals that compels us to travel to ports-of-call. It is the lost souls who hunger and thirst after righteousness; it is the open doors that allow the gospel have free run; it is the full realization that if we do not go, someone may very well be lost due to our neglect. For those reasons, I, and others like myself, “endure all things for the elect’s sake.”
Lest I leave the impression that only those who actually “go” are helping to fulfill this need, it must be remembered that there are those at home who “endure” the separation from their loved ones, or who pray fervently for the safety and success of these mission trips—all of us working together to answer the Macedonian call so as to take the word of life to the masses lost in sin. Why do we do it? “For the elect’s sake!”