We are desperately in need of missionaries around the world. But where are we to find them? By the time most young men and women get out of college, having reached an age where they might think seriously about going to the mission field, they are married, beginning their family, and are burdened down with car and house payments. Then there are the parents to think about, as well as the challenge of finding a sponsor and the necessary support. Putting all of these things together, the majority simply do not have the strength and the will power to overcome the obstacles.
We must therefore begin to work on preparing our young men and women for the mission field long before they get to college. Where should that preparation begin? The first teaching on mission work, of course, should be done in the home but in all probability this will not happen So the next best thing would be for strong sustained teaching to be done in the classroom.
Take a godly Christian woman with a group of boys and girls in a class situation, a woman who believes in mission work and who regularly teaches her students the great commission of our Lord by focusing attention on the missionary journeys of Paul and acquainting them with the missionary work of today, she can do wonders in preparing these young hearts to go to the mission field some day.
Many of our Bible class teachers have emphasized mission work over the years, but we need to have more who will deliberately and intentionally plan their classes with the goal of producing missionaries. With these kids having love and respect for their teacher, and with their eagerness to learn, and with the ability of the teacher to influence and to mold them, there is every possibility that some of them will become missionaries. By beginning to work with them as such an early age and planting the desire in their hearts, as they grow up they will continue their training and preparation to go to the mission field. Since they will have had an early start, they will not burden themselves down with a lot of things that many older ones do.
I would like to encourage you Bible School teachers to do more of this type of thing. Much depends on what you do now as to the kind of missionary force we will have in the years to come. With your help we can evangelize the world. Without it we will continue to hobble along as in recent years. In other words, your help can make all the difference. That is how important you are to world evangelism.
J.C. Choate is a long-time missionary to Asia. Presently he is working in New Delhi, India. You may write Brother Choate at Rt. 2, Box 156, Barton Drive, Winona, Mississippi 38967
