On Saturday, I had the privilege to travel on America’s first transcontinental highway. In PA it is Highway 30. I stayed in Chambersburg over the weekend and had to travel to Butler, PA, for a Sunday of ministry. I decided to take a day off on Saturday, so I took the more scenic route to get across the state, rather than taking the Turnpike. Though I drive all the time, it was very relaxing to drive once again down the highway, but this time on the Lincoln Highway. It took me over two mountain peaks and rarely had a straight or level section that was more than half a mile long. As I traveled across, I stopped at Shawnee State Park to enjoy the beautiful fall day and spend some time with the Lord. It was truly a refreshing experience!
As I sat at a table on the top of a hill overlooking a lake, I read some pages out of To the Golden Shore, a biography about Adoniram Judson. I was struck by the great difficulties he faced as he tried to enter the closed country of Burma. Though he considered going to a different country, what compelled him to stay the course was the fact that Burma, a land of 17 million souls at the time, had no Bible. Courtney Anderson writes,
What caught his fancy as much as anything was the fact that the Bible had never been translated into Burmese…. There would have to be a Burmese Bible before Burma could become Christian.
Nancy shared the same sentiment. Anderson describes her thoughts as follows:
They should at least attempt, with Felix Carey, a mission among ‘a people who have never heard the sound of the gospel, or read, in their own language, of the love of Christ.’
She expresses the true missionary spirit when she is quoted as saying,
… The poor Burmans are entirely destitute of those consolations and joys which constitute our happiness; and why should we be unwilling to part with a few fleeing, inconsiderable comforts, for the sake of making them sharers with us in joys exalted as heaven, durable as eternity!
Though I as a modern-day missionary experience only a small slice of the difficulties they faced, I pray that I will be able to share their sentiments as fully as they did.
It’s been a privilege to share my ministry of Bible translation with the churches here in Pennsylvania. I had a great day of ministry a week from yesterday, as I presented my ministry at Grace Baptist Church in Kittanning, PA. Pastor Kaminski and his people were very responsive to what I presented. Then on Monday of last week, I traveled east to Lebanon where I took part in a missions conference at First Baptist Church. Pastor Mackey and his people treated all of us missionaries extremely well. Yesterday I spoke at First Baptist Church in Distant and then at First Baptist in Butler. Though I had a few logistical difficulties, the Lord helped me to present my ministry clearly.
Now I’m “camping out” in Butler until I travel back across the state for another missions conference, but this time in Enola. You may wonder why I didn’t schedule my meetings better so that I wouldn’t have to keep traveling back and forth across the state. The short answer is… I did! But when meetings get rearranged or postponed, the final product isn’t always as clean as it was during the planning stages.
