They Go Where There Are Few
The mission field life is not easy and it's certainly not convenient. Sarah Powers, our new missionary working alongside our church plant, experienced this first-hand today when she couldn't get her children new Bibles without ordering them online.
We're making the switch from the ESV translation of the Bible to the CSB. It's been a lengthy process but we finally made the decision and announced it to our faith-family. Sarah and Adam decided they wanted to get their children new Bibles, but Utah is not Nebraska. You don't just run down to the Christian bookstore and browse through the options they have in stock. Because not only is there no stock, there's no they. That's right, in a state of 3 million people, there's no Christian bookstore. There are not enough Christians to keep a Christian bookstore open and nobody has been creative enough to figure out how to combine a store and a coffee shop or something that will turn a profit.
Sarah is resilient and hard to stop (the right stuff for a Utah missionary). So Sarah thought she go look through the Bibles at Barns & Noble. Nope. The selection is extremely limited and they don't carry the CSB yet. WalMart was a no-go, too.
Her only choice is to forgo looking at the Bibles, feeling them, and examining the quality and font size. That's just not an option for the few believers who call Utah home. And it's one more reminder of the limited Christian resources, structure, and community available where only 2% of the population profess faith in the Biblical Jesus.
But then again, missionaries don't go where there are lots of believers. They go where there are few. Often, that means giving up the comfort and luxuries of large Christian communities. Today, that means the Powers family doesn't get to look at Bibles before they buy. That might not sound like much, but that’s just today. It will mean much more and be even more significant tomorrow. Today was an inconvenience. Tomorrow could be a sacrifice. The day after that another sacrifice. And still another after that. It’s a grind. It’s like lots of little paper cuts. It eventually wears missionaries down. Many come for a while and leave. But both the inconveniences and the sacrifices are light and momentary for the missionaries who willingly give them up for the sake of seeing a place redeemed by the power of the gospel. This is why Sarah Powers is here: To see Salt Lake Redeemed by the Power of the Gospel.
For the Kingdom!
*Sarah Powers needs your prayers, support, and partnership. Follow this link to learn more about how you can support her and her mission.