Quote from Forum Archives on October 6, 2003, 2:40 pm

Posted by: bhfbc <bhfbc@...>

WORLD MISSION OFFERING #1/3
WITNESSES FOR JESUS
October 5, 2003

Text: 2 Timothy 2:1-13

Even though we always have the opportunity to support missions, even to
be missionaries ourselves, October is our traditional month to promote
mission support through the World Mission Offering (WMO). The proceeds
from the WMO go directly to support the missionaries and international
mission ministries of the American Baptist Churches. Last year, WMO
proceeds made up twenty-five percent of the entire fifteen million dollar
international missions budget. That is no small portion.

One of the difficulties that many American Baptist Churches share this
time of the year is our method of supporting missions. Taking an offering
is not the problem. Promoting the offering becomes the challenge. I know
that many of us here do not always feel connected with our missionaries.

American Baptist Missionaries are not required or asked to raise their
own support. Support is raised through the cooperative effort of all
American Baptists. First Baptist Church, Bunker Hill, does not support a
few special interest missionaries; we, like our fellow churches across
this land, help provide support for over 150 overseas missionaries in
four continents. Each of these missionaries is commissioned as an
American Baptist missionary and assigned their mission field. They are
promised our spiritual and physical support.

A drawback to our way of consolidated missionary support is that it seems
that we do not experience the missionaries’ testimonies and experiences
as often. If we were supporting a few missionaries who raised their own
support through churches they visit, then we would be more connected with
a name and a particular mission.

There are some positive sides to our method of unified support. First, I
have seen faith supported missionaries be dropped from support and cast
aside after not being able to be on the mission field anymore due to age
or changes in health. Congregations lose interest in them if they cannot
provide “stories from the mission field” and decide that their limited
financial resources can be put to better use in God’s Kingdom with those
who are still active in the mission field.

A second positive side to united mission support is that the missionaries
have a team on the home front who handles a lot of administrative and
support demands, leaving the missionaries more free to do the ministries
to which God has called them.

During the times they return to the States, our missionaries do visit a
lot of churches and are involved in a lot of multiple church fellowships
so that they have contact with as many supporters as possible. But they
cannot visit everybody. So I want to take the opportunity this month to
attempt to introduce you to some of our missionaries and their stories of
call and service. And on October 19, we will have a guest in our morning
service, Rhonda Legler. Rhonda is not one of our commissioned
missionaries on the field, but she was a member of a couple of the
X-treme teams, groups of young men and women who spent some concentrated
time with our missionaries at a particular location. Rhonda was part of
the team that went to Romania in 2001 and Latvia in 2002. I look forward
to her testimony and experience.

Valli and Tom Howard are two of our missionaries who have Indiana roots
and have served as missionaries for seventeen years. They are a
missionary couple who has been “strong in the grace that is in Christ
Jesus” and who have been entrusted to “teach others,” as Paul wrote to
Timothy about. The story of their call to the mission field of The
Democratic Republic of Congo - formerly Zaire - is one of miracle.

Both Valli and Tom were raised in Christian families, respectively. Both
attended church throughout their childhood. Tom shares that “he began
attending church when he was two weeks old. He… adds that he doesn’t know
why his mother waited so long to take him…!” Valli writes that “I was in
an ABGirls group and in the spring they presented a program for the
church. My part in the program was to recite Matthew 28:19-20 - The Great
Commission. I can remember as clearly as if it were yesterday… God spoke
to me in my heart that this verse was going to play a very important part
in my life. As spring moved into summer that year in Louisville, it was
extremely hot. I walked up and down the sidewalk in front of our
apartment pretending I was in Africa and singing, ‘It’s oh so hot - oh so
terribly hot!’” Later that year of 1964, Valli’s family was living in
Seymour, Indiana. As an ABGirl, she remembers reading the letters from
the Dan Fountains, missionaries in Vanga, Congo, and she remembers, “As
we studied about missions and the Fountain’s work in Congo, God impressed
on my heart that someday I would be a missionary in Congo - to be
specific - ‘SOMEDAY I WOULD LIVE IN VANGA.’” Following High School, Valli
went to Indiana State University, studying Music Education.

Meanwhile, Tom was growing up with a heart for the Lord, too. He was even
a part of Ambassadors on Wheels - a group of around 25 young Christians
who toured the U.S. on bicycles sharing their testimonies and God’s love
as they went along. Tom also had a fascination for airplanes. Before high
school graduation, he was beginning his flying career by taking lessons
to obtain his private pilot’s license. It was between high school and
college that they met at - you guessed it - church camp. They both worked
at Indian Creek Baptist Camp that summer.

Through Ball State, Indiana State, and Purdue Universities, Tom completed
courses in aviation. During that time, he learned of Mission Aviation
Fellowship (MAF), and the thought of combining aviation with missions
thrilled him.

In 1974, Tom and Valli wed. Even though Tom’s intent was to apply with
MAF, they always seemed to be prevented from following through with it.
In the meantime, he was offered a job teaching in the Aviation Department
at Purdue. It was to be six years before they began to feel once more
God’s nudge. Valli shares, “I must also admit that during this time I was
constantly pleading with God and trying to coerce Him into maybe making a
slight change in His plans for our life. Instead of sending us to Africa,
perhaps would He consider someplace slightly cooler? Like maybe
Siberia!!!”

In the fall of 1984, Tom began waking in the night, bothered and troubled
by something, but not sure of what. After several weeks of not sleeping
well, he visited his friend, ABC Campus Minister at Purdue, Howard
“Howie” Ness. Howie’s reply to Tom was, “You’ve told God you are willing
to go and do what He wants you to do. Now the ball is in His court. You
just need to wait and see what doors he opens up.” Continuing the story,
Valli remembers, “It all came to a head around Memorial Day. A former
pastor came to church to preach. He had not been back in the church in a
long time… during the invitation I began to shake. God spoke to me and
was telling me that this was The Time. I had to decide then - that very
day - what I wanted to do. Either I wanted to go where He wanted to send
me or I didn’t. Did I want to do what He wanted me to do and go where He
wanted me to go or not. It was as if He was saying, ‘This is it. Decide
now, I will not ever ask you again.’… I had to choose Him. But, as I
walked down the aisle to affirm that decision, I told God, ‘but Lord, I
KNOW where you are going to send me. I KNOW you are going to send me to
Africa.’ I think He just laughed at me while He gave me a big hug. As we
walked out of the church and shook hands with the pastors, Dr. Williams
looked at Tom and said, ‘What are you doing here? I thought you were in
Zaire!’ And, then he said, ‘I don’t know why I said that.’ We left church
that morning exhilarated and confused. We had never heard of Zaire, but I
vaguely recalled that it might be the former Belgian Congo. We got out
our maps and figured out where it was and low and behold it was in
AFRICA!”

The Howards registered for and attended the next World Mission Conference
at the Green Lake camp in order to get some direction they were seeking.
While speaking with Betty Beaman, who was in charge of Missionary
Recruitment at that time, she broke into their description of background,
education, and interests and said, “You folks belong in Zaire!” (there
was that word again) “There is a pilot who will be retiring in a few
years and you could replace him!”

By the time Valli and Tom left Green Lake, they had met and spoken with
the Missionary Recruiter, the Director of Missions in Africa, the
Director of the Board of International Missions, and Zairian church
leaders who were at the conference. Most amazing was their contact with
two pastors from Zairian churches. “Pastors Lusakweno and Kikama listened
to all the things that Tom could do and politely nodded their heads and
smiled. After the usual 15 minutes, they looked at me and asked me what I
did. I gulped. Up to now, everyone pretty much looked at what Tom did and
found that interesting and useful and thought that I could find something
to do - maybe women’s work or teaching or something. So, almost
apologetically I quietly said that my training was in music education.
There was silence. I thought, ‘Oh great, now I’ve made a fool of us both,
why did I ever think this would work?’ Then the two Zairians pastors
exploded in words and gestures and smiles; even Ray Lindland was having a
hard time keeping track of what they were trying to say. We had no idea
what was going on or happening, but I kept hearing the French word for
prayer. When Ray finally got the two calmed down, they told us that the
church leaders had secretly been praying that God would send someone to
the Congo who could teach the Congolese Musicians how to write their
music down on paper. There was such a richness of music and so many
talented composers who were writing songs in the Congolese church but
hardly anyone knew how to write the music onto paper and so much music
was lost to future generations. They had not told any of the missionaries
or Ray because they wanted ‘God to decide.’… We came away from the World
Mission Conference in 1985 feeling not like God had opened the door, but
rather that He had knocked the door down and pushed us right through!”

So for seventeen years, Valli and Tom Howard have been witnesses for
Jesus in The Democratic Republic of Congo. They have seen the fruit of
Christ’s love, and they have seen the fears and horrors of satan’s chaos
as expressed through terrifying civil wars. Tom has flown many emergency
missions during times of danger in order to evacuate missionaries and
others from the threats of both warring parties. Because of his service
in MAF, the Howards moved from Kinshasa to Vanga to support that
ministry. Remember from her history that in 1964 when she heard of the
Fountain’s ministries in Africa, Valli remembers God impressing upon her
that one day she would be a missionary in Africa in Vanga? Yes, she now
serves there, assisting Tom with scheduling and tracking flights, keeping
the books, and teaching some of the other MAF employee spouses in Bible
studies and homemaking skills. And in July, 2003, Valli shares with her
readers, “What is the one thing I would never expect to do in the Congo?
The very thing I am doing these days. What is that? Teaching the oboe to
Congolese oboists.” So Valli continues to be amazed with God’s work in
her life. And so do we.

“You then, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And
the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses
entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others.”

Rev. Charles A. Layne, pastor, First Baptist Church, Bunker Hill, IN

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