The previous week had been spent dropping gifts and shouting friendly phrases out the windows of the small plane - phrases of which only a few were known at the time. They landed the plane on the beach that morning and bombarded the jungle with shouted verbal welcome phrases.

At first there was no visible response from the wall of green jungle that separated the missionaries from the huts of the Aucas less than a mile away. They bedded down uneasily near the plane on the beach that night. The next day brought more of the same kind of effort with a similar, non-response results.

Then suddenly, on the third day, an Auca man and two women walked out into a clearing near the missionaries' sandbar camp. All three were nearly as naked as the day they were born. Grabbing gifts from the plane, the missionaries cautiously bade the Indians to come to the river edge. Ever so slowly, the three approached. Several hours later they had made friends. The three returned to the village. The five missionaries celebrated. This was what they had come for.

*****

What is a missionary?

An unknown author once wrote, "A missionary is one who never gets used to the sound of heathen footbeats on their way to a Christless eternity."

Another, a very famous missionary once said that a missionary is one who is "unable to bear the sight of a congregation of a thousand or more Christians rejoicing in their own salvation, while millions are perishing lost." (2)

Someone else has said a missionary is one who has discovered that neither his money nor his prayers will ever prove an acceptable substitute for his presence.

A well known preacher of the nineteenth century spoke of a missionary as one who believes that the "Father in heaven would grieve to see [him] shrivel down into a king."

Each of these expressions is an attempt to capture in words the spirit of those brave souls, ancient and modern, whom we call "missionaries" - people who risk their lives and leave the comfort and security of home to carry the gospel to strange lands.

When Jesus said, "For God so love the world that He gave his only begotten Son," (3) He wasn't just speaking of the people we know and are like us. He was speaking of a world of people that includes Auca Indians in the jungles of Ecuador who kill and eat each other as a way of life and people from every other walk of life on every corner of this planet. He was speaking of those alive when He walked the earth and all those who would come after, right down to you and me and every human who survives into and beyond the 21st century. Before He ascended back into heaven He said, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature..." (4)

It is likely true that some of us have never developed much concern for people outside our own circle of friends. I don't mean that we aren't glad when someone is concerned about these things, but beyond that, it's mostly "out of sight, out of mind." I confess to you that it is easy for me to develop such an absent mindset in the busyness of dealing with all the people around me.

I hope it isn't like the recruit that was headed off to war to protect the country. The streets were lined with crowds, cheering the marching regiments who were about to leave for overseas. The recruit took all this in for quite some time and finally asked some of the soldiers near him, "Why are all these people cheering?" A veteran in the group replied, "They're cheering because they're not going." (5)

Christ has saved us to be concerned for the lost - to have a similar concern to what He has. Are we so concerned? Jesus told a certain parable about a man who was robbed and beaten on a road that led down to Jerico. If you recall, of the people who came upon the man, two were the very religious Priest and Levite who, after taking in the situation, went on about their business and did nothing. I'm not entirely sure how far that parable goes in application to what we're talking about, but lately I've been feeling a bit more like those two than I do like the Samaritan who stopped to help. Consider your own life with me this morning as I consider mine. Are we really that concerned about those who are different from us? Is Jesus pleased with our concern?

*****

The day after the encouraging meeting with the man and two women from the Auca village, the young missionaries, still on the beach, made regular radio contact with their wives back at the base of operations. They felt this would be the day they had worked and prayed for. They prepared more gifts, but none of the Aucas appeared.

The following morning was Sunday. Believing that perhaps they should get a better assessment of the situation, Nate Saint flew the plane over the Indian village and returned, exuberant. A large number of Auca men were headed for the beach. This would be the day!

Nate radioed the base station and told them of the group headed their way. "Looks like they'll be here for the early afternoon service," he quipped. "Pray for us. This is the day. Will contact you next at 4:30."

4:30 came - and went. The radio was silent. Wives waited anxiously for word from their husbands. Children fussed and played in the humid heat around their mothers' feet. Still no contact.

*****

We here in the U.S. face uncertainties in our lives everyday, but I wonder if we realize to much extent what is faced by the various missionaries around the globe.

I was on a Zimbabwe Newspaper website three or four months ago and I was reading the headlines. A great portion of the issue of the paper was devoted to the news that the government of the country was raising the price of "mealy meal" which is the staple of the diet of most Africans living there. They were saying that this latest move might well cause some people to starve to death because they wouldn't be able to afford their basic food necessity.

When was the last time you or I read in the paper that Americans were in any kind of danger of starvation? Would any of us volunteer to go to a country where such a thing was a possibility?

That's what Paul and Karen Reyman did some years ago. They moved to Bulawayo, Zimbabwe to build a center for the care and teaching of Zimbabwe orphans. In that country as in many other places in Africa, the AIDS epidemic is rampant and the streets are full of these little three, four, and five year old kids who were orphaned when both parents died of AIDS. They scavenge for what they eat. Some die without care.

Then there is the work and concern of Paul and Marilyn Douglas who were with us here in Sweet Home just a few weeks ago. A few years ago Paul went to civil war-torn Sudan on a temporary mission to repair medical equipment for one of the few hospitals they have there. While he was there he met a young Sudanese man whom he taught the gospel. After the young man was baptized, he told Paul that he would bind himself to be his servant forever if he would just come and teach his people the same gospel that had been taught to him.

You have to understand that Paul and Marilyn are retired or, as Paul likes to put it, "just tired." They're in their seventies. But they simply couldn't say no to a man who volunteered to be virtually a slave to them because of his concern for his own people. Paul and Marilyn came home and sold their house, taking the proceedings and applying them to answering the call of this man and his people. Keep in mind that Sudan is in the middle of a civil war. The people Paul and Marilyn work among have to carry rifles everywhere they go because from time to time their enemies come in and shoot the place up.

Anybody like to go to Sudan or Zimbabwe? We'd sure leave our personal security behind, wouldn't we? We'd also perhaps learn to cherish in a very real way Jesus statements, "Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age," and "I will never leave you nor forsake you."

I met a missionary just this past week named Stuart Merrill via email. A few of you may know him. I had never heard of him prior to last week. He stopped in on my website and signed up to receive my sermons. Stuart is in Minsk, Belarus. It's one of the countries that was "freed" when the Soviet Union fell. That "freedom" isn't working out so well though, at least for the Christians. Listen to a portion of his letter:

"Belarus has less freedom than all of the rest of the former USSR. Included in that loss of freedom is religious freedom. The Ukraine is very open and allows religious freedom. Even Russia allows foreigners to work with the churches openly. In Belarus if the congregation uses a foreigner without the specific approval of the government then they will lose their legality. This means even one time of inviting a guest to speak. We are hearing more rumors but we will not report them until we are sure of them. Churches have no rights to decide anything themselves. If we teach openly in the church we will be put out of the country and the church will lose its legal status. At this point the only advantage of legal status is the right to rent and openly meet. We may lose that right as well and then the legal status has no meaning whatsoever. There is no rule of law here. The country is ruled by presidential decree."

Stuart went on to say that when he first went to Minsk, the church met illegally, underground and that they were considering that they might have to do that again.

These are the kinds of things that many of our missionaries around the world face every daily. We need to be concerned for them and supportive of them.

*****

Perhaps the radio was dead.

Maybe in their excitement they had been taken back to the Auca village as friends. Certainly the earlier contact with the man and two women had given that hope.

Monday morning dawned. Still no contact. The wives were understandably nervous.

While passing through this trial, as she waited anxiously for word from her husband, Jim's Elliot's wife, Elizabeth, wrote in her diary:

"'When thou passest through the waters I will be with you and through the rivers they shall not overflow thee." Lord, let not the waters overflow!"

After a while longer with no response, a search party was formed. A helicopter was brought in. The chopper took off in the direction of the last contact. Time dragged as everyone at the base prayed.

Suddenly the radio crackled and broke the tense silence. The plane had been spotted. Everyone's hopes rose. Yet there was still an uncertainty that no one wanted to admit.

Then the shock. The helicopter had spotted a body in the river. Blue jeans and T-shirt.

A ground party was quickly organized, as they feared the worst. The U.S. Air Force was contacted.

*****

Christ hasn't given us the guarantee of a life without suffering and the possibility of death as we carry out the mandates of His concern for people. Good people get sick. Good people get hurt. Good people sometimes die.

It seems to us that the good people ought to live doesn't it? It's the bad people who ought to die. That's what's fair!

We are caught unprepared sometimes when we hear that those who are most dedicated to God fall in the battle, never to rise again in this realm. Isn't God concerned? Doesn't He know what is going on?

Yes, He does know. He knows when a sparrow falls and has a running tally on the number of hairs on your head and mine. (6) He knows.

Then why doesn't He do something? Why doesn't He step in and stop injustice. Isn't He concerned like He wants us to be?

Yes, He is concerned, just like He wants to us to be. He's concerned about where people made in His image will spend eternity and that concern always overrides what is going on in the here-and-now.

That's hard for us to accept. The here-and-now is all we can see clearly. It's what we know.

Like the two-year-old child who runs with his mother's sharp scissors and when his mom sees him, she takes the scissors away. He doesn't understand why he can't have the scissors! After all, he's having so much fun in the here and now. What a tyrant mom must be for taking them away. Yet she has something far more important in mind. She wants him to grow up beyond his second birthday. She doesn't want to see him maim himself for the rest of his life. She knows better than he, and someday, when he is mature, he will understand that her concern for him was far greater than what he understood in his little two-year-old mind.

As Paul the Apostle has said in 1 Corinthians 4:17-18, speaking of the unfair treatment he and his companions were experiencing as they tried to preach the gospel to those who were bound for hell but didn't know it:

"For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal." (NIV)

We must grow in our understanding to maturity to the point that God's concern for the eternal destiny of every person is our concern. When we reach the point, it is then that we will be concerned the way God is concerned.

Some of the most sobering words in all the Scriptures are recorded in II Thessalonians 1:7-9:

"...the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire, dealing out retribution to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. And these will pay the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power..."

A similar warning is given by Peter in 1 Pet 4:17:

"For it is time for judgment to begin with the household of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God?"

We save other human beings unimaginable suffering when we help them understand and obey the gospel!

*****

As the search party moved up the river, the lead helicopter paused and dipped low to the water - then up again - then low to the water - then up again. This was repeated four times. The military men knew the meaning. The other bodies had been spotted.

The Aucas had murdered all five missionaries.

Back at the station, the new widows waited with their children. News like that comes hard.

The bodies were taken from the river and buried in a common, unmarked grave. Graves were unmarked to keep the Aucas from digging up the remains. Later it was discovered that though several of the missionaries had carried revolvers, not a single shot had been fired.

*****

How foolish these men must have been to not defend themselves! What a senseless waste of life!

Yes, if you look at it with eyes of flesh, that is what you will see - a foolish waste of life. Perhaps you're thinking, "I would never give my life for something like that!"

I ask you, why would five young men in vibrant health, their whole lives ahead of them, with wives and children to love them, give their lives for a group of savage Indians known to be murderous? Why not just leave the Aucas alone? After all, they are the ones responsible for their savage culture. Further, don't they also have the right to do whatever they want in a world of diversity? Who is to say that our religion is any better than theirs?

Well, my good friends, that is what we mean when we speak of concern. Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but by Me." He said, "Unless you believe that I am He, you will die in your sins." The Apostles said, "And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men, by which we must be saved." Without Christ, such people as the Aucas will go to an eternal Hell without God.

The same is true in Zimbabwe and Belarus and Sudan and every other far-flung place on the globe.

Perhaps most of us don't feel called by God to leave our homes and become missionaries but I certainly believe that if we give it much thought, we'd surely feel the call to help out a missionary or two.

****

Barbara Youderian, Roger's wife, wrote in her diary during the difficult hours that followed the news of the murder of her missionary husband:

"Tonight the Captain told us of his finding four bodies in the river. One had tee shirt and blue jeans. Roj was the only one who wore them... God gave me this verse two days ago. Psalm 48:14, 'For this God is our God forever and ever; He will be our Guide even in death.' My heart was filled with praise. Lord, help me be both mommy and daddy."

Her husband, Roger, had written many months before:

"I am longing now to reach the Aucas if God gives me the honor of proclaiming the Name among them... I would gladly give my life for that tribe if only to see an assembly of those proud, clever, smart people gathering around a table to honor the Son..."

Roger's words seem almost prophetic here, not just in relation to his own death, but also with respect to those words about gathering around a table to honor the Son. You see, just two years later, one of the missionary widows, Elisabeth Elliot, did just that. The effect of the murders of the missionaries had a deep impact on the Aucas. Not all of them were in agreement with the killings. Ultimately this schism led to more contact with the outside which in effect, opened up their society. More missionaries arrived on the scene. This led to conversion of some of the cannibals to Christ. Just two years after her husband gave his life for the tribe, Elizabeth Elliot partook of the Lord's Supper with certain members of the tribe that murdered her husband around a common table.

*****

Was it worth it for five men in the prime of living to give up their lives and leave their wives to be widows and their children fatherless? Each one of us will have to decide that in our heart of hearts. Surely there is something that each of us can do though, to help in the missionary cause. Here are suggestions for you to consider:

	Begin regularly reading a few of the missionary letters that we circulate among us. Several come regularly to the church address. Others could be made available if there were more interest.
	Consider "adopting" a missionary project for you and your family. Choose a worthy person or couple or family working outside the U.S. and get caught up on the news going on in their lives.
	Regularly support a mission project with monthly gifts. If you can't go, you can surely help someone who can.
	If you have a computer, keep in touch with a missionary. These marvelous machines have made contact with home possible in places formerly remote and isolated. There is so much that can be done in that realm that I'm going to have to restrain myself here. My purpose today is to get you to flag the subject in your minds and give it your due consideration.