Dear friends of Mexico Ministries:
Please don’t take what I am about to say as boasting. There isn’t one drop of pride in it. I’m boasting in the Lord, not myself.
The older I get the more often I am asked, “Who will take your place?” And my answer is, “No one can take my place.” Throughout Scripture men and women were particularly chosen by God, even from their mother’s womb. God said to Jeremiah, “before I formed you in the womb I knew you.” John the Baptist; the Virgin Mary; the Apostle Paul - men and women with unique callings for unique purposes. At my house we regularly see both bald eagles and hummingbirds. So very different, both are beautiful in their own rights, and one certainly does not take the place of the other. Each has its purpose, its beauty, its design by the Creator.
I believe I was prepared from childhood for the ministry God called me to. As a boy I learned to survive, to sacrifice, to do without. I learned to eat foods which most people would turn away. I learned to sleep in cold and hot conditions, along rivers, in woods, and under stars. This prepared me for a life in Mexico doing things others simply couldn’t (or wouldn’t) do - building churches by hand while pitching my tent next to them, eating whatever was available, bathing in rivers, lodging in my vehicle in a gas station parking lot because I couldn’t afford a hotel room, going without creaturely comforts. But God also gave me a heart of compassion, a deep desire to help others, especially those in need. I am uniquely formed for the task God has called me to.
This doesn’t make me special, it makes me called. You too are called to a unique purpose. Everyone is “fearfully and wonderfully made,” as the Psalmist wrote (Psalm 139.14). And when I am gone, someone else will pick up the baton and continue the race set before us, a different part of the race (and perhaps one that I couldn’t run myself) , and that person will also be uniquely called “for such a time as this.” Elijah passed his cloak on to Elisha; they were two very different men with very different ministries, but both called by God for the task set before them.
It has been a long journey of over 40 years in missionary ministry, and at times I have felt weary, as Jesus felt when he sat by the side of the well, and as Paul sometimes felt with, “the daily pressures of concern for all the churches” (2 Corinthians 11.28). I have also experienced times of pure joy and rejoicing in seeing victories won, projects completed, souls saved, lives changed. My prayer is that God give me many more years of serving in His Kingdom, uniquely formed for the ministry I offer Him, and that after that, many others will rise up, not to “replace” me, but to continue the work, to spread the Gospel, to build up the Church, and to expand God’s kingdom. Thank you, too, for your own unique role in helping this ministry succeed in God’s call.
God bless you,
Larry