I enjoy reading missionary biographies. These include the inspiring stories of mission pioneers such as David Livingstone, Adoniram Judson, C.T. Studd, William Carey, Hudson Taylor and Eric Liddell to name a few. They travelled to far-away lands and in spite of great obstacles (disease, persecution, danger and death) accomplished great things for God. But also inspiring are the stories of faithful servants who tried to go overseas but could not. They too accomplished great things. Just not in the way they expected.
Oswald Smith
Smith was born in 1889 in Canada and became a believer at age 16. He felt God’s call to missions and obediently prepared for a life on the mission field. However, his health from childhood was frail and he was rejected by several mission agencies. Confused and disappointed, he asked God why He would call him to be a missionary if he was not able to fulfill his calling. If not there… where?
God then showed him that his calling was to be a missionary pastor back home in Canada and to send others. He planted a new church in Toronto called “People’s Church”. Missions was put in the forefront. He challenged his church saying, “Why should we hear the Gospel twice before someone in this world has heard it once?”. Over the years, the church grew into one of Toronto’s largest evangelical churches. To this day, it has a huge missions budget supporting missionaries all over the world. And most of those missionaries came from People’s Church.
Edith Hayward
Hayward was also born in Canada, became a believer as a young girl, and felt God’s call to missions. But “life got in the way” and instead she married and became a homemaker in Winnipeg. She was active in her local church but often felt regret that she had not followed God’s call overseas. She wondered, “Lord, did I miss my chance or is there something else You have for me to do here?” If not there… where?
God showed her that there was a great mission field on her doorstep in the form of international students. So, Hayward and her husband opened their home to a young engineering student from India. Bakht Singh heard the Good News about Jesus from his Canadian host family. He also experienced God’s love through them. Even though Singh’s background was Sikh, he became a Christian.
After his education, Singh returned to India and spent his life training hundreds of pastors and planting hundreds of churches. God used him to bring revival to parts of India, Nepal and Tibet. Our mission (Operation Mobilization) worked closely with his indigenous Indian churches for many years.
Robert Finley
Finley was born in America in 1922. After becoming a believer, he too felt the call to missions. He prepared and left for China. However, the Communists under Mao seized power in 1949 and expelled all the missionaries. Undeterred, Finley went to India. Unfortunately, that country began restricting missionaries to only six-month terms. So, Finley moved to Korea. In 1950 the Korean War broke out and he couldn’t stay. Like Oswald Smith, he prayed, “Why, Lord, would you call me to missions when all the doors are closed?” If not there… where?
God then showed him something he had not understood before. Thousands of people from these mission fields were coming to the West as students, immigrants or refugees. Many were coming from “closed” or “semi-closed” non-Christian countries where missionaries could not openly evangelize. In many of these countries, it was illegal to become a Christian. So, Finley founded a mission called “International Students” to evangelize these gifted students, disciple or mentor them in the faith, and see many return to their homelands as mature believers, pastors and “missionaries” to their own people.
Do you see some common threads in these three stories? God is not limited in how he can use us if we listen and obey His voice. When a door to ministry closes, God may just want you to climb through a window. And (finally) when we ask “If not there… where?”, the answer may very well be “Right here!”
Rob Weatherby is a retired pastor.
