The Missionary Journey: Faith, Trials, and Triumphs - March 16, 2025

It is my privilege to invite you to today's sermon podcast.

I have made the Apostle Paul's prayer request my own.

When he states in Ephesians 6.19, Pray also for me, that whenever I open my

mouth, the words may be given to me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel.

May today's sermon come alive to you and aid you in your understanding of God's plan for your life.

This is quite a challenge this morning.

It's kind of like walking and chewing gum at the same time. Can you listen and

receive cards? I think you can.

I think you can. Well, I've had fun getting acquainted over the years with your missions president.

Bob and Joanne entered into our lives at various points. It's been fun to have that opportunity.

He called me not too long ago and said, hey, we'd like you to come.

And I said, well, what in the world do I talk about? but I haven't done this for a while.

And he said, well, something, make it work. So that's what we're doing this

morning is something and we're making it work.

Thank you for the invitation to be with you through the Donahues.

We appreciate this. It's fun to turn around this morning and suddenly there was Newell.

I mean, I've known Newell for a good long time.

Newell and Charlene and I were in the same class at NNC back in the day.

And then of course, to find that Dallas and his family are here,

that's pretty exciting.

We've settled in Nampa. We lived not too far from the university,

and it's been fun to be back in this area.

I was born in Nampa, so, you know, it's kind of like coming home,

except that I don't remember anything of those early days.

My mom and dad were in school back in the 40s and finished up and went out and

pastored across the Northwest. and it's just been kind of fun to be back in this part of the world.

About 50, 60 years ago, there was a pastor up in Toronto that became very concerned

with his congregation's commitment and possibility of being involved in the mission of God.

He wanted that they should have opportunity to be involved in God's mission.

And we do our involvement in the mission of the church because there's a lot

of need in the world, a lot of need in the world.

And you've touched on that together as a congregation this morning already,

and we do our best in those areas. But that's not the only reason.

We are involved in the mission of God and involved in faith promise because we ought to.

It's something that God's people ought to do. We ought to be supportive of those

who are ministering in other cultures and with other people groups.

But I've come to believe that there's more to it than that. It really has to do with glorifying God.

We give because He gets the glory. Not because we do, not because there's needs

in the world, though there, you know, all those things exist.

But the fact of the matter is, God is glorified when we give of ourselves.

And whether it's giving of ourselves in time and effort, in money,

whatever, we need to find a way to make that work.

Faith Promise's approach to giving, what we're doing this morning,

is a part of a longer story of encouraging people to support the mission of

God through prayerful, faith-based commitment.

It's not a—I'm not making a pledge this morning, okay? You're not making a pledge this morning.

A pledge, your board can take to the bank and borrow money on a pledge.

But what we're doing this morning is we're committing something to God in faith,

believing that God wants to bless us so that we can bless his ministry.

It began with the work of A.B. Simpson, who was a Canadian preacher back in

a previous century, and he wanted in order that God's people should have this opportunity.

It was picked up by Oswald Smith, who was pastor of Toronto People's Church.

So, this began outside the Church of the Nazarene where a part of something

that's bigger than that.

We do this because we believe that believers need to go beyond what they believe

they can do on their own and participate in something bigger because God has

called us to do it, and God will get the glory.

The idea of trusting God is included in the name, faith, promise.

It's not something I grind up my courage in order to be involved in,

but it's a response to God.

I trust Him. I trust that He is not going to let me fail and falter through this coming year.

And then I make a commitment to God, waiting for God to lead in my life and

that I can be involved in faithful and generous giving of the mission of God.

Now, some people choose, of course, to give on a weekly basis.

Some others choose to do it by month.

My wife and I give by the month. In fact, we even do it through the bank,

you know, one of those automatic things.

You hardly even notice it, except at the beginning and the end when you go to

the taxman and say, hey, God helped us to give this much.

And it's been pretty exciting. But I think the reality is to ask God,

what can I trust him for to give back to his mission?

What can I trust him for that he wants to pour through me into his church, into the mission of God?

Or even perhaps a little bit scarier, what can God trust me for?

What can God trust me for? Now, I think I've probably gone down that road far

enough that I don't want to create any hard feelings here.

That's not what we're about this morning, but opportunity.

The opportunity to be involved in what God is doing around the world.

Well, I'm one of those missionaries that has a story as a history.

I don't preach all that much anymore.

I've done that. And the Lord just called me to tell my story these days,

so that's really what I've been doing.

I'm not going to read Scripture for you this morning, but refer you to 2 Corinthians

9, in which Paul reminds the believers that God loves a cheerful giver.

He doesn't love people who give because they have to, because Pastor Mike is squeezing him for that.

Now, I can't imagine him squeezing anybody for that, but I've read his heart already.

In my life, the involvement in God's mission began very young.

There was a missionary that came to one of the churches that my dad pastored

out in Wyoming, a missionary lady who served in Swaziland.

And she talked about snakes.

Too bad the kids aren't here. They love this. Snakes and lepers.

And I said, Lord, if you are calling me to a missionary, I'm willing to do that.

Just don't send me to Swaziland.

Don't do that.

We spent the last 20-some years of our lives ministry in Swaziland.

So where there are snakes aplenty and there are something worse than lepers,

there are people with HIV AIDS.

AIDS had the highest impact on any country in the world in Swaziland.

And it still continues today.

Of course, USAID difficulties that we're having these days greatly affects the

kingdom of Swaziland because she was receiving many funds from the U.S.

In order to take care of those people. So pray with us and pray with the people

in Swaziland these days that they find other ways of supporting what God's called them to do.

Anyway, I wasn't very old when that happened, about eight or so.

And the years of preparation went on as I had that sense that God had called

me for something that had to do with his mission.

As Evelyn mentioned in the Sunday school class this morning in 1971,

we were appointed by the Church of the Nazarene to go as missionaries to Mozambique.

We didn't know where it was.

We had to look it up on the map. I think if I were to ask most of you,

you'd have to check your cell phone to find out where Mozambique is.

But it's a long country along the southeastern coast of Africa.

You know where Madagascar is because you've seen the movie.

All right? It's just across the channel from Madagascar.

It's as long as the west coast of the U.S., so don't be fooled by these funny little American maps.

Look at the size that it really is.

The church not only appointed us, but it committed to take care of us.

And we didn't know what that meant.

I don't think anybody ever knows what it means when you commit to take care of someone else.

And as a church, as a church of the Nazarene, you committed that you would take

care of us, and you did in very interesting and unusual ways. Yeah.

Our assignment came through the Mozambican Mission Council.

So when we arrived, the other missionaries looked us over, read all the paperwork

and said, we think that you ought to do this.

Actually, I don't think it was anything that organized. I think they said,

we have a need, and here, you are the one to fill it.

And so I became pastor of the Mother Nazarene Church among the Portuguese people

in Mozambique. It was in the capital city.

Lorenzo Marx eventually changed its name to Maputo.

That was my primary responsibility. Evelyn was taking care of little ones,

didn't have very many mission responsibilities at that time,

as some of you were in class this morning and heard her talk about.

I was also responsible for developing the work among the Portuguese people in

that country. Now, please don't be fooled.

Even though it was a Portuguese colony, a very small percentage of the people

were actually Portuguese or spoke Portuguese.

And so, we came into a country speaking Portuguese into a people who did not

know Portuguese, but there were those who did.

And God said, you need to find a way to minister to everyone in the world,

whether they're the majority or the minority population. Are you listening?

We need to make sure that everyone has an opportunity to the gospel,

no matter their culture or their language. And so, through the Mozambique Mission

Council, I began to pastor the Maputo City Church.

That was a Portuguese-language church. Now, there were seven or eight other

churches in the city, but they were functioning in the Shangan language,

which was the majority African language of southern Mozambique.

The country of Mozambique had been under 500 years of Mozambique,

of Portuguese domination. was actually now a state of Portugal.

It wasn't just simply a colony.

And there was a revolution in Portugal, and they threw out their pro-Western

government and put in a socialist government.

I could begin to talk about what that means, but I think for those of you that

have been listening, that meant that we became a communist country overnight.

We didn't know what that would mean. We had no idea what the future would hold,

but we felt nervous, all right?

We felt nervous. We were Americans. We're Christians.

How is this going to affect us as a family, the mission council,

the church in Mozambique, and so forth?

I know there's a lot of interest in socialism today, particularly among young people.

I've been there. I've lived there. I'm not interested in that.

We don't need to go there. You hear me. The Church of the Nazarene had been there since 1921.

We had many, many, many churches, particularly throughout southern Mozambique, but in other places.

Our desire was that the Church of the Nazarene would have opportunity of ministry

throughout the whole country of all 16 million people who lived there.

We had five districts. Things were going well under Mozambican leadership and

then the Portuguese work that was much smaller that we were involved in.

And interwoven in all of this was the remembrance that God had called and God

had provided opportunity and direction down through the years.

And we needed to be faithful to what God had called us to do. Are you with me?

We need to be faithful in what God had called us to do. All of us in this room need to do that.

Decisions that we made had a lot to do with the sense of calling that we were

where God had placed us and where the church had sent us.

You had sent us to Mozambique.

At the end of August of 1975, the head of our Nazarene mission in Mozambique,

Armand Dahl, was arrested in his home.

We had very little understanding of what was happening, though two months before that,

Mozambique had become independent, and all of the press that we were receiving

in the newspaper and over the news was very, very negative about the church.

Not just simply the Church of the Nazarene, but all of the Christian churches.

I mentioned that I was pastoring a Portuguese-language church.

It had been the mother church of all of the Portuguese churches in that country,

and now things were obviously going to change in some way or another. August 1975.

He was arrested on one day, I was arrested on the next day, and the word went

out that they wanted all of the Nazarene missionaries in jail.

And so, with a lot of encouragement from the U.S.

Government, Evelyn and the other missionaries left the country in order to be saved.

I don't know how to tell you our feelings during that time. We had been called.

God had been at work in our lives, and yet there was great fear of what was ahead.

Where is this going? What is this going to mean? Is this a temporary situation?

Is it going to be a long-term situation?

And I want to be careful not to make it sound as if I want to blame the Mozambicans.

The Portuguese had had the country for 500 years, and they had not prepared for independence.

They thought it was going to be part of Portugal forever.

That's, I mean, that's understandable.

I was arrested along with Armand Dahl and one other American missionary who'd

been arrested a little bit before the other two of us.

We had to learn how to live behind bars.

I had never even visited a prison other than one time at the Idaho State Penitentiary

when I was a student and we went to sing.

That's not much of a preparation for life in prison, just to let you know,

in case you hadn't figured that out.

Was it imprisonment? Was it a detention?

We began to struggle with understanding, okay, what's going on here?

What's going on from the countryside? What's coming as far as the U.S.

Government is concerned, as far as the church is concerned, as far as our lives?

What's the meaning of what's happening?

To tell you the truth, that happened quite a long time ago, and I still don't know.

We were never charged with any crime. We were just simply held in prison along

with a lot of other people.

It was the dirtiest place I have ever been in my life. It was crowded.

It was full of people who were angry, who had no sense for tomorrow,

and not much that made sense for today.

It was a very difficult situation. I was so thankful that Evelyn and the children

were out of the situation. We, at that point, had two children.

They were in South Africa safe, as far as I knew. And she did her bit to make

sure that at every time anybody would cross the border, they would take a note

or something to us in prison.

It was a very frustrating time.

Now, I wish that I had, you know, the sense that Paul gives in his letters of,

you know, the wonderful things happen because of—we didn't sense that. I'm sorry.

I'm not Paul. I'm you.

But the fact of the matter is we became aware that God was at work in that situation,

that it wasn't just something that happened.

It wasn't just an accident, but God was at work.

How did I know that? I got fed every day.

I know that doesn't sound like a big deal. There was food available in the prison,

but instead there were people that brought us Western kind of food.

Now, sometimes it was very minimal. Sometimes it was a feast.

But the fact is that people cared enough about us to cross the city,

to stand in line, to hand over a basket with some food.

It would come to us and it would feed our soul, not just our bodies, because people cared.

Are you with me? People cared.

Evelyn had the foresight to realize that one of the first things that we were

going to need were Bibles, and so she smuggled Bibles.

She began a process. I bet we had smuggled 300 Bibles into that prison, 500 of us in there.

People were anxious to have a copy of the Word of God in their language.

Our friends and our mission colleagues and anybody that knew anything about

the situation were looking everywhere trying to find French Bibles and Swahili

Bibles and Swazi Bibles, and we flooded that place with Bibles.

Now, eventually, the authorities figured out what was going on.

I mean, they weren't stupid, but the fact of the matter is God made sure that

We had copies of His Word so that Jesus could come and live with us.

Now, for me, what was the most exciting thing is that it was Gaila,

our oldest daughter's, a gift from the Auburn Church in Washington where we

were members, had sent us each a Bible for Christmas.

And I ended up with Gaila's living New Testament children's version with Jesus

and the children on the front.

And Jesus lived with us. I can't tell you how important that was. Thank you.

I don't let anybody even see that book anymore. It is a way because it is a

precious, precious thing.

Are you with me? We needed to hear what God was saying to us.

Every time Evelyn would send a message, there would be some comment about those

folks out in Holmdale, they've been sending us cards and they're praying for you.

And here's their God's promise for you today.

And we'd look them up and it was wonderful. So, I hope you can understand what's coming from my heart.

We were always healthy. Now, 500 people jammed into a situation where 200, made for 200 people.

We were a cell that was this wide. Well, not much bigger than your,

you know, than your baptistry here.

Actually, we had eight people in there.

It was crowded. It was unhealthy.

And yet we were healthy because God's people were praying. I know my mother

would send messages one way or another saying, I prayed for you that God would

keep you healthy during that time. I'm so thankful.

So, when God reminds you to pray for a missionary someplace, make sure you do.

Because He has answers that are attached to those.

The fourth thing I never can remember. I just remember that God said, I am taking care of you.

I am taking care of you. and you don't need to worry.

Okay, my wife is in another country with our two children.

We're in here and every day over the news is anti-Christian stuff.

We are moving into a brand new glorious future.

And yet God said, I am taking care of you. I am taking care of you. And he did.

In April of 1976, Evelyn began to get a very strong sense of assurance from

the Lord that I would be released that month.

She mentioned that to the head of Nazarene Missions, Dr. Jerry Johnson,

on a visit that he had made in order to check and find out what was going on.

So that would have been in South Africa.

And she said, my husband's going to be released in April. And he said,

now, Evelyn, you don't understand how complicated this is.

Yes, it was complicated, but I was released in April of 1976.

It was kind of a funny situation. Someone came to our cell, and two of us were

called to the office of the police there in the prison.

And the man read off a list of names, and our names were on the list,

and we responded to that.

And he said, do you want to go home?

Well, yes.

But what about Reverend Dahl? Now, I need to explain, Don and I,

the two that were called to the police office, were in our 30s.

This was some time ago, by the way. In our 30s, but Armand was pushing 70,

and he should have been the first to go.

He should have been the first to be released because of health concerns and

so forth. and yet he was held for an additional five months.

Once again, we had no reason, no understanding.

We were not serving a sentence as far as we knew. We were simply being held.

We went back to the cell that day and said, Armand, it looks like we're going to be going home.

The American ambassador was able to come and visit us soon after that and he

said, I will buy a ticket for Armand Hall so that he can go home with you.

But when they came to get us the next day, it was only two of us that left.

And that began one of the more difficult parts of the whole prison experience was leaving him behind.

And there wasn't anything that we could do about it, but pray.

And so I traveled the U.S. and Canada, and I asked people to continue to pray

for him while they were thanking the Lord for my release.

For you see what had happened to me in the midst of all that release business

is that I suddenly I was no longer a missionary I was a celebrity.

18 months, I traveled the U.S. and Canada thanking people for praying for us,

and my family was sitting at home wondering what was happening.

I don't know that I need to go any farther in that discussion to tell you that

that was a very, very difficult time for all of us.

Now, Evelyn avoided all of that this morning in the adult class,

but if you have opportunity sometime to sit down with Evelyn and ask her about

those days, they were not good days.

Well, it would be a shame if we went through all of that and missed understanding

what God was trying to do.

Let me talk about some things that I believe that God was trying to do that.

He was trying to let us know that he can be trusted.

He called me. He said, I'll take

care of you. The church appointed us and said, we will take care of you.

God can be trusted and the church can be trusted. because the church is here.

You can be trusted, just like God can be trusted.

Are we tracking together? God can be trusted.

Secondly, tough times affect us in both positive and negative ways.

Tough times meant that I learned to trust Him.

I learned to trust the church, but I also realized how broken I was.

That was pretty important.

How broken certain things about life are, even about the church.

But that God says, I am in the midst of these tough times, I am making all things new.

It was rather exciting for us down through the years, as we have talked about

this as people have talked with us to realize how many young adults in particular said,

I learned something that God answers prayer.

I'd almost say I'd go through it again if we could do that again,

if people could learn to trust God again.

I don't think I need to go down that pathway anymore, do I? You can trust Him.

And even if you end up in jail in some place in a far part of the world, you can trust him.

And even if I didn't come out alive, my family could trust him because he was in charge.

Let me circle back around to faith promise.

Thank you for making it possible for my wife and my children and I to serve

the Lord through your giving.

You see, we're all tied together.

Missionaries can only go, be sent to work, to do what God calls us to do if

there are people that are supporting that.

You have opportunity to be a part of that this morning and throughout the coming year.

Thank you. Thank you for that.

Pastor Mike, don't forget to remind them every now and then. They can trust God.

God bless you. I want to thank you for joining today's sermon podcast.

You can find a copy of today's sermon, as well as other sermons,

and the sermon outline from today on our church's website, www.mvcnaz.org.

It is my prayer also that you will seek out a church home that recognizes the authority of the Bible.