Deputation, (aka home ministry assignment, fund raising, securing support etc.) is seldom considered the most desirable part of missionary life. In fact, some people have positively stated that if they had to do it they would not become missionaries.
I have written about deputation and its challenges before and I must confess that to a certain degree I can understand that sentiment. However, that statement is usually made without remembering that deputation never takes God by surprise. When God called Niki and me to serve in cross cultural ministry with Evangelical Church Missions he knew exactly what would be involved including the support raising aspect. Is it frustrating at times? Yes. Does it seem endless sometimes? Yes. Do we get tired? Yes. But that does not change the fact that God knows, understands and desires for us to be involved in this aspect of ministry. Also those things do not negate the very positive aspects and opportunities of deputation.
I have written before about the great opportunity we have of meeting so many people along the way, of seeing God's faithfulness in supplying our needs, and about the great love we are shown all across our denomination. But I have not commented much on one of the other great opportunities that deputation provides - the opportunity to see and experience many things that we would otherwise probably never see. In just the short time since Easter we have had the opportunity of being in at least 16 different states. Some of them have just been in passing while we have spent time in others. We have gotten to experience regional foods (boiled peanuts, biscuits and gravy, different types of bar-b-que), visited the Space Center in Alabamba, toured the Shiloh Battlefield and visited Giant Pandas in Tennessee, experienced the opera in Texas, and visited the World of Coca-Cola in Georgia. We have seen mountains, lakes, prairies and forests. What an incredible opportunity to explore America.
So I say, thank the Lord for deputation! This part of the ministry has enriched both my life and the life of my family. As we head out again tomorrow, I can hardly wait to see what will be next.
Who am I?
- gordon elliott
- Monrovia, Liberia
- I live in Monrovia, Liberia, West Africa with my wife and youngest son. We are recently arrived in Liberia where we are serving as missionaries with Evangelical Church Missions working under the Liberia Evangelical Mission. For most of the last thirty years we have served under ECM in Bolivia, South America. We are the happy parents of four children and the proud grandparents of two grandchildren.
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