In the Presence of My Enemies: Week 2

Please read chapters 3, 4, and 5 this week.

I loved reading these chapters of Martin and Gracia’s early days and call into missions. On page 34, we see a foreshadowing of the suffering Martin will eventually endure in his call into missions. “One day, Martin received the news that a NTM pilot he knew well in the Philippines had crashed his plane and been killed. Martin could well envision the gap in service that would leave. Who would step in to fill it? Maybe the Lord wanted him to complete his Bible studies after all.”

Many people would not be willing to enter into a profession that could lead to death—and here was Martin being challenged to consider being a mission pilot because someone whose boots he might fill had died. Gracia had earlier been challenged during the play "Through Gates of Splendor" that told the story of the five missionaries who were massacred in 1956 in Ecuador. She wrote on page 27, “I stood up to leave the chapel that day, unable to say a word. Will the Lord ever require me to do what those men did? To go through what they went through?”

Both Martin and Gracia knew that their choice to serve overseas could lead to suffering. They said yes to the call of missions through the death of those who had given their lives so others could hear about Jesus.

This week, let’s share about our call to serve as cross-cultural workers. How did that call come? What did it look like? What cost did you confront when you said, “Yes.” Did you consider that your willingness to live overseas might lead to suffering?