Rambling Reaction to the News

Jim and Christopher, almost 25 years ago to the date

Father-son hike, January 1986

Twenty-five years ago today, as the media has been reminding us, the Challenger exploded.  Today I watched the video clip on the Fox News website and listened to President Reagan's memorable words for the first time.  Back when it happened, Jim and I were on a mandatory camping trip, out of radio contact, as part of Jungle Camp field training.  This was the first news we heard upon returning to base camp.  Wow.

Like everyone else, we were shocked and dismayed at the report.  As a result of this disaster, according to today's news report, more people became interested in the space program, and more astronauts were recruited.  Similarly, I have heard that missions recruitment was higher after the senseless murder of five missionaries in Ecuador in 1956, and again after the murder of Chet Bitterman in Colombia in 1981.

Interestingly, the news clip which followed this historic one about the Challenger was a report about the missionary woman who was recently murdered in northern Mexico.  That, too, was a tragedy.  In this case, the news reporter interviewed a former missionary to Mexico who declared that it is simply too dangerous to work here any longer.

I take issue with this conclusion.  To me, it would be regrettable if one woman's death caused missionaries to pack up and abandon their ministries, or if it resulted in short-term teams canceling their scheduled trips to Mexico.

When people ask if we feel safe here in Oaxaca, I say yes without any hesitation.  We believe we are exactly where we are supposed to be, and we trust in the sovereignty and protection of God.  We also rely on the power of prayer.  We do not presume that bad things will never happen to us, but we do know that God will sustain us and accomplish His will and purposes through anything He allows to happen in our lives.

Reading the news, would I send a child of mine to Virginia Tech if that's where he wanted to go?  Absolutely.  Would I go to Arizona?  Sure.  Would I go to New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, or any big city in America?  Yes.  Would it make me apprehensive?  Maybe momentarily.  Hopefully, I would just do what I have to do, and life would go on like it does for the overwhelming majority of people who live, work, and go to school in potentially dangerous places.

With that said, I understand why people might hesitate to come to Mexico in light of current events.  I would never encourage anyone to come down against their better judgment if he prays and senses he shouldn't come.  If teams do come, we would never intentionally put them in harm's way, but nor can we guarantee with any certainty that nothing bad will happen.  It is out of our hands.

In general, we feel very safe where we live.  In the villages where we work, drugs are not an issue like in the cities or in Northern Mexico.  It's not like these unreached people groups have the option to simply leave the country even if they did believe it was unsafe in their areas.  We must reach out to them where they live.  They will not be reached by Christian television, radio, or written materials.  They need to hear the gospel message and to see it being lived out.  That is why we are here.

For 2011 we were honestly hoping to see four or five teams come to Oaxaca.  Please pray that God will lead exactly the right people to come at precisely the best time to accomplish the greatest amount of good for the kingdom of heaven.  Pray for each team leader to have wisdom and for us as we lead them once they arrive.  Pray against a spirit of fear which would hinder work that needs to be done.

Likewise, the school where our children take English and Science classes three times a week is actively recruiting teachers for the 2011-2012 school year.  Please pray for the right individuals to volunteer in spite of the news, trusting God to care for them as missionaries have consistently done for all these years.

Actually we feel safer here today even knowing the news than we did when starting out in Guatemala back in 1986 at the end of the civil war which we knew nothing about until we arrived.

Loker family in Guatemala, August 1986

God is good.  He is loving, merciful, faithful, powerful, sufficient, gracious, and kind.  For us, that is more than enough.  (We still appreciate prayers, though!)