Henderson Missionary Family

Do you remember the show Fear Factor?  Maybe it’s still comes on somewhere but I haven’t seen it in quite some time.  It was one of Brantley’s favorite shows when he was little.  If you’re not familiar, here are the basics.  It would start with several contestants who would go through a series of exercises in overcoming certain fears.  These exercises would be things like walking a very high tight rope, or staying underwater for a long time, or being covered by snakes or rats, or eating something disgusting.  As the show progressed players would drop out because they were not able to overcome their fears and complete the tasks.  At the end of the show, the last person standing would be declared the winner and Joe Grogan, the host, would end by saying something like “evidently fear is not a factor for you.”

This past week, the team from our hometown, Bowdon, Georgia, and the surrounding area was here serving in an extremely rural village of Honduras.  The village was really just a collection of houses of mostly sharecropping families with a small school and a Catholic church.  The week began with rain and ended with rain.  The village was in a pretty high elevation so the rainy nights saw temperatures low enough to make you shiver, not to mention the “primitive” bathroom and shower conditions.  There were rats and bugs, muddy walks to those rough bathrooms in the pitch black rainy nights and a lot of unknown for a team of mostly new members.  There were exercises in patience by all and possibly the scariest for most of us U.S.A.’ers, the absence of being in control of just about anything.

For some reason, those old Fear Factor shows kept coming to my mind.  I kept drawing parallels to the trials the team was facing during the week and imagining that I was Joe and would say to the team at the end of the week when they made it – “you conquered the mud, the freezing cold nights, the pitch black darkness, you went without electricity, you fought the rats and you made it off that mountain, evidently fear is not a factor for you!”

At the end of the week, the team had a time of sharing and many of the team members talked about how they had overcome those trials during the week.  Some talked of missing home and family, upset stomachs and lack of control, in addition to the elements which they lived and worked in over the week.  But, the bigger common theme of these testimonies than the obstacles themselves was the provision God made for the team.  People gave testimonies of the peace that passes understanding, the ministry of the Holy Spirit to their own hearts and eyes being opened to the love and grace of our Lord Jesus Christ through their obedience to follow Him on this journey to the uttermost parts of the earth.

It appears to me, not through intellect or insight but through walking through this life with my friend Jesus, that our God is faithful.  Several years ago, Brantley and I committed a verse to memory.                 2 Timothy 1:7 says “God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, of love and of a sound mind.” You see, fear is an emotion.  It is natural and it is part of our physical life.  However, God has never intended for us to let it deter us from following Him.  He gives us tons of promises in His word of how he will take care of us.  He tells us that He will never leave us, that He will provide for us and commands us not to worry.  The thing is though, God tells these things to us as His followers.  God is interested in providing for us to overcome fear in order for us to follow Him.  The fact that He helps us overcome fear is valid for the use of living out His purpose.  Fear is a part of life that we all have to face.  Being here in Honduras and working in this ministry to help the team members, who are the real missionaries, we hear testimony after testimony of how God has helped these short term foreign missionaries overcome their fears to do this work.  And the cool thing about it is that we not only hear their stories but we see it work out over the course of a week.  It’s like testimonies in action.  I have to say that it’s one of the coolest things I’ve been a part of.  That is to actually see how obedience to God’s call works and manifests itself into faith.  When “fear is not a factor” with regard to obedience, the short term foreign missionaries who come and work here gain new faith and strengthened faith and thereby trust God more with their lives.

Will we all trust God?  Will we trust His promises or will we trust our fear.  When it comes to being afraid to be obedient, the Bible says that’s not from Him.  To see His faithfulness we must step into the water, or go into the snake pit or whatever the hard task may be.  He is asking us to take small steps of obedience – to restructure our priorities, to be obedient with our time, talents and money.  Can I assure you of one thing?  You will be afraid to do these things.  However, if you act on the word of God and not on your fear, He will provide.

You can do it!  Don’t drop out!  It may have nothing to do with foreign mission trips for you.  It may be to begin to submit your life to Him.  Maybe you identify as a Christian but you’ve never truly followed Christ.  It may be following Christ in the way you think, talk, drive or spend your free time.  Whatever it is, give it to Him.  He will open doors for you that will make your life more abundant than you’ve ever dreamed.  He will show you how to live life to the fullest.  When it seems like you can’t take that leap, just remember that Jesus Christ died for you and sent the Holy Spirit as your helper to teach you the way to an abundant life here and a secure future once this life is over.  Just keep going and conquer what God has already conquered for you.  I can even imagine Jesus telling us one day about the trials we made it through for His sake and how we overcame them through faith and that evidently fear was not a factor for us!