How Shall They Hear
A letter from the Editor
Around the world, around the clock, Source of Light brings the Word where few to none other ministries reach. The advantage SLM missionaries have is, with the majority of our Branches led by nationals and teams made up of nationals, they go where few would dare go.
Our tabernacle project in India attracts visitors among unbelievers of every faith and as they make their way through the tent, the Gospel is clearly presented, in some of the most hostile territories in Asia. Recently thousands made their way through and many made decisions or agreed to allow our missionaries to follow up. In spite of death threats and danger our missionaries go, so that others may hear.
“Foreign soil” isn’t the only place still needing a “preacher.” There is plenty of opportunity in our own Jerusalem and Judea. Recently we received just such an example, exemplified in the following letter from a student of our Madison Discipleship School, from someone right here in the United States, who learned of the Lord incarcerated. He wrote:
Dear Friends at Source of Light,
My name is Ivan, and I have been an inmate on Death Row for 10 years. During my time here, I have been very grateful for your Bible lessons. My faith in God has remained positive all of this time.
I am writing with a request to please add me to your prayers. The Commonwealth plans to execute me within a few short weeks.
Thank you again for your prayers and the study materials you have provided to me.
Sincerely, yours in Christ,
Ivan T.
By the time this Reaper is printed, unless a stay of execution is granted, Ivan will have entered into heaven fully assured of his salvation. At some point, someone at SLM, through the printed Word, reached into the prison, where few are permitted, and used a SLM lesson as the only way to “preach” and show him the plan of salvation and how to grow in his faith behind walls.
We don’t know exactly who was the “preacher” in this case, but we do know he couldn’t have just stumbled on us. As I sit writing this article, I have been literally “holed” up in a hotel room pushing through what I hope is just a 24-hour flu. I feel miserable, and someone is to blame. At some point, I came into contact with someone who couldn’t help but “share” the bug…the flu is infectious. And since I am on a college campus for meetings, I am sure it came from one of them. These viruses spread like wildfire on a campus.
The Gospel is even more infectious and I dare say has been proven to spread even more quickly than any virus. But someone has to carry it… it won’t spread without a carrier, a preacher. And imagine if Christians around the globe would just dare to be the preacher that the rest of the world needs, instead of “hiding it under a bushel,” how quickly the Gospel could spread. The solution to the Great Commission doesn’t lie in those few faithful full-time missionaries and pastors around the globe, but in great commission laborers addressing the problem of laboring in the part of the world God has provided for them. In fact, I am of the persuasion that if believers would take on this responsibility we wouldn’t need “mission agencies.”
I just returned from India where once again I have seen firsthand the trials Christians are facing there. I receive weekly updates of atrocities happening to pastors and Christians. One week a man our team knows well was passing out literature and Bibles. He was abused verbally and eventually physically by radical Hindus and found himself in the hospital partially paralyzed. A few weeks later he died from his injuries.
Then I received a video of women being forcibly removed from a new convert’s house because the villagers didn’t want her to be discipled. Last week I received pictures of a pastor and his wife stripped naked outside of his church so that all the village will see the treatment converts can expect to receive.
When we sat and prayed with our team in India just a few short weeks ago, we asked for His will to be done in each of our lives. That we would be faithful to the task He has given each of us. We asked the Lord to make us strong in trial, show love and compassion in the face of being humiliated, be longsuffering with persecution. We were ministered to by the Word of the Lord when we were reminded that in trials our faith will grow strong, that He will be made perfect in our weakness. That He will be our mighty fortress and strong tower when we are weak. We were comforted at the reminder that church history has taught us persecution of the church has always brought growth.
It is our prayer that we at Source of Light International will stand firm as “preachers” to every end of the earth and that you will stand shoulder to shoulder with us in the battle. It is our hope that this edition of the Reaper will inspire you and challenge you to ask yourself your response to the question…“How Will They Hear?”
