In the past few issues or The Other Sheep that I have read, more and more of the stories have
concerned Christmas. In this issue, there was one story in particular that
really struck me. Though I am not sure it has much to do with observing
missions in history, it was an excellent reminder of why we send missionaries
in the first place.
In this issue, Elva Bates wrote about the missions efforts
in the KaShewula area of Swaziland. She talked about their services and how she
hoped they would have a more permanent missionary stationed there, but then
went on to discuss her interactions with the children’s Sunday school class. On
Christmas Sunday, she asked the class if any of them knew what Christmas was -
none of the children did. I do not consider myself an overly sentimental person.
Many times people will say that if something does not make you cry, you are
cold hearted – I almost never have visible emotional reactions to such things.
However, reading this statement absolutely broke my heart.
The article goes on to mention that they gave gifts to the
people there – balls for the children, aprons and handkerchiefs for the women,
and ties for the men. Bates mentions that these may be the only gifts those
people got for Christmas, but I believe at least those children received
something far greater, the knowledge that God loves us enough to come to the
world and live among us. In class, we have talked a lot about missions is and
what constitutes success. Though the full answer is not this simple, I believe a
good starting place for defining success is if those with whom missionaries
come in contact leave that encounter with a greater knowledge of God and His insatiable
love for us.
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