I was once as a young mand visiting a lovely, poor place at Pembroke, NC, where I was the guest with a gifted preacher´s family.  It was the district of Robinson County and its people were Indians, mostly poor people.

I was a young student with New Tribes Mission in PA, but because of the Christmas holidays the director of our training camp graciously let me go with a dear preaching brother to several places down south. And Pembroke at the border of South Carolina was one of the places.

I was there with a fine group of brethren who every morning called on a  sick brother severely attacked by cancer.  We had precious sessions at his bed.  We sang and prayed.  He prayed too, and what impressed me was to hear him repeating, “Go ye into all the world…”

I thought that was strange.  Here he was chained to his bed, dying, with a face half eaten by cancer but still praying for the spread of the gospel.    I was with New Tribes Mission (today called “Ethnos 360”), and I could better understand if the people from that mission would pray like that, but he did.

I´ve often over the years thought of that cancer stricken friend and his world vision. He could only pray.  Was he a “New Triber” also?  What was actually happening in the unseen world?  The question never left me.

Some of us are handicapped too.  I am.  I´m not with NTM now.  But the same vision expressed by that brother was also my vision as a young man.  I wanted to be a missionary, but took a different course.  I was a failure.

I learned something from David´s life.  He had an unfulfilled “vision” too – i.e. a vision in his heart to “build a house for my Name” (1 Kg. 8:18), but the Lord thought otherwise.  That consoled me.  One day the hidden purposes of the heart will be disclosed (1 Cor. 4:5), so why not press on now submitting to His good will that still fits in with a world vision which is really the vision of John. 3:16 realized our lives. 

-  June 8, 2020