Last month, while Jana and I were with our missionaries in Rwanda, East Africa, I received this alarming text.
Two of our long-time missionaries in the jungles of Guatemala, Jim and Bonnie DeHart and Bonnie’s sister, Ellen Coon, were killed in the crash of Jim’s small plane. The shock wave it sent through our staff and missionary family reminded us again of the dangers missionaries, in fact, all of us, face every day.
A few days later, I received this text from another CTEN missionary, a close friend who served as my missions director when I was pastoring in Corpus Christi and now is a missionary Physical Therapist. She had trained a close friend and Guatemalan co-worker, named Shes (shez), who was recently married and now expecting a baby.
Death and tragedy should not shock to us. We live in a fallen world, death and tragedies happen every day and eventually death catches up with all of us. But it’s just so easy to forget we are mortal, that “people are like a vapor, our days like a shadow that disappears.” (Psalm 144:3,4)
It’s certain. I am going to die. The question is, will I live before I die. Will my “vapor” make an eternal difference?
Though I’m a former Navy “squid,” I love this quote by Ronald Reagan about the Marines. “Some people wonder all their lives if they’ve made a difference. The Marines don’t have that problem.” Our military continues to make a difference in this world. But even our world is a vapor that will pass away. I want to make an eternal difference – and I suspect you do, too.
So, how are we doing? What are we doing today to make an eternal difference? How are we spending our vapor? May the lives of these four saints, now rejoicing in the presence of the Lord, remind us to invest our lives – our time, money, energy – in things that make an eternal difference – “for tomorrow we die.” (I Corinthians 15:32)
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Check them out at: Commission To Every Nation or Commission Ministers Network. Browse by country, ministry or find a specific missionary by name.