Varsity on the Hill

The Launch Pad for Missionaries

And he said unto them, Take nothing for your journey, neither staves, nor scrip, neither bread, neither money; neither have two coats apiece. (Luke 9:3)

God is challenging Christian leaders to prepare those He has called to take the Gospel to the nations so that they become not only the sound of hope to the nation they are ministering to but also that they be excitedly content doing so. We will do this not by just teaching them the right doctrine and evangelistic methods but by also showing them how they should live wherever and whenever God sends them. And all this without a backward glance or regret.

The main thrust for this school is equipping people who have been called to missions with life skills that would enable them to live within the means not only of the sending team (Antioch) but also the mission field itself. This will enable them to be not just willing but ready to go to the mission field at even no notice with just the clothes they are wearing.

We will seek to prepare the missionary to be able to live contentedly amidst deprivation as most call it by making use of the easily available and affordable materials to make everything he will need.

For example; instead of carrying chairs and tables, beds and mattresses someone will be taught to make the same or similar using available materials and learn to use the same. Among the things they will be taught will be;-

·         Learn to make a stool using processed timber, then using sticks of various sizes, with or without glue and nails

·         Learn to make a table and bed using the same materials

·         Learn to make a mattress using straw, grass and other materials

·         Learn to make a fire, preferably without using matches

·         Learn to cook using wood, straw, dung etc

·         Learn to cook on the open fire, using stones etc.

·         Learn to make energy saving stoves using available materials

·         Learn to make clay implements and utensils where possible

·         Explore ways to produce electricity affordably

·         Lean language skills to enable one to learn new languages quickly

One of the greatest problems we have had is our perception of what a missionary is due to our experience with the foreign missionaries. Most of them will import not only their culture and introduce it as Christianity but also import their houses. Someone will come to the mission field with his four bedroom’s store of goods and provisions, thus disconnecting to his mission field because people will see him as different from them and not one of them because they cannot understand him. Even the ones who will be close to him will be so either out of curiosity or to get something from him. And no wonder that we get many products of missionaries getting into scandals and fighting for positions because they followed what the missionaries offered instead of the Christ they preached. They just learnt to use Christ to their advantage.

Paul was a missionary as we are envisioning. He did not move around carrying boxes of provisions as he went preaching. He did not even carry materials to make tents. It was his skill that opened doors for him. In those times tents were made from animal skins and hair. He was therefore able to fit in very ably wherever he was sent because that was an honorable trade. We stress the commercial aspect of the same but I think the most important was that he easily fit in wherever God sent him because of that trade. The main reason for this might simply because we do not want to support people God has called to leave all for His ministry. He did not open a shop or business of selling tents; he simply fit in with other tentmakers as he added value to their lives. They therefore appreciated his worth, not the money he brought with him as from his letters we do not see any trace of the same. Otherwise why talk of learning to live in need or plenty? It is simply because he easily fit in with the circumstances of the people surrounding him. If I join a farmer as he farms it will not be possible for him to deny me food or board. In fact he will very happily fund my trip to other places because he will find me a very useful member of his household. We may use tent making to ease our consciences because we are simply not willing to give any support. I will also hasten that churches supported Paul in ministry as we can see in his epistles.

A man's gift maketh room for him, and bringeth him before great men. (Proverbs 18:16)

It is your skill that opens doors for you on the mission field because it will make you a valuable asset to the community. One positive aspect of the western missionaries was health. Dealing with incurable ailments easily opened doors for them because they reversed the train of death. Even their enemies had to concede due to that. Another one was literacy.

In most places where the Gospel is resisted you will find that even people who will fight your evangelism will come to your workshop and bring their children to your school because they know you excel.

Another aspect this school will teach the missionary is farming, and for the same reasons. A missionary who imports all his provisions may never fit in with his mission field as he many times will be eating ‘strange fair’. Farming will not only connect you to them but to the soil they come from and that they either value or despise. As they see you getting food from ‘their’ soil, they will connect much more easily with you than even when you are buying your food from them.

Again you will discover that most mission fields are impoverished yet have a lot of available land. Even growing a patch of vegetables using your dirty water in places that are dry may make a great impact yet may only cost you a few minutes daily.

Our aim is to give basic training on crop and animal farming as we believe any society has its own peculiarities as concerns farming. It is only someone God has sent who might be able to impact that society positively. But this will come about because they have first endeared themselves to the society by identifying with them. I cannot be challenged to change by someone I do not identify with.

This is the beginning of the vision as I see it. I know there are a few people out there who can identify with it. I know there are a few people who have the same with even greater clarity. But I am posting what God has showed me.

I am calling on all the people God has spoken to or prompted this vision in their spirit so that we can raise a team. Maybe you are not so clear but as you read this your heart is being stirred as you are connecting to the vision.

What are some of things we will require? We will need a big house, preferably one that has some extra space to do some farming even in small scale. We may need a farmland or some pieces of land that we will be putting to practice whatever farming we will be learning. We will need some workshops where the skills will be learnt. The same will have a diversity of tools. All this could be sufficed for if we got a large farmhouse with the land.

What about the people we will need? We will first need people who connect to this vision and have a passion for the nations. But we will need some people with technical skills that they can pass on to the missionaries we are preparing. We will need agricultural and horticultural experts who will train on small and large scale farming, including green house technology. We will need language experts.

This is a prayer item. Please pray and plug in as God leads.

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