Those words describe the common thread which led us into worship last Sunday.  We offered our praise with songs of missions, local and international:

     "It's the song of the redeemed
    Rising from the African plain
    It's the song of the forgiven
    Drowning out the Amazon rain
    The song of Asian believers
    Filled with God's holy fire
    It's every tribe, every tongue, every nation
    A love song born of a grateful choir."

Our voices blended as one with lyrics that were new and old, contemporary and traditional:

    O for a thousand tongues to sing

    My great Redeemer's praise,

    The glories of my God and King,

    The triumphs of his grace!

And our hearts overflowed with appreciation from hearing the testimonies of Doug and Pam Runyan, former missionaries to Africa, who for 10 years served God in overseeing the development of the Church of the Nazarene in places we only read about:  Rwanda, The Congo, Cameroon, and others.

We felt a true kinship when Pam Runyan confessed to God, "I like safe!"  She wondered why God would call her into a place with as much darkness as Africa.  In 1989, when they were considering a call to the mission field, she said bluntly, "God, I don't do bugs, or snakes, or dirt, or disease; I don't like authentic cuisine, and things I don't understand.  I DON'T DO THOSE THINGS!"

I laughed aloud when she said, "I learned God has surprises for us."  And together with her husband and three children, ages 5, 8 and 10, they left the comfort of a successful ministry in the United States to begin a quest into the unknown.

For a year, Doug and Pam and children went to language school where they spoke only French.  This was baptism by fire!  In the school, the town, everywhere they went it was nothing but French!  They had no choice but to learn to communicate in another language, so they did.

Doug spoke to us about some of the risks they took while serving the Lord as missionaries.  War was all around them with mortar fire through the night.  Rebels overran the airport where he had been two hours earlier.  God had moved him from leading a youth group in the safety of a local church, to leading a country where he was accused of being a spy, strip searched, and questioned throughout the day.  "I felt very alone.  Then I remembered the time.  It was seven hours difference and at that very moment, people in the States were praying for me.  Suddenly, I didn't feel alone anymore."

In one region he was greeted by pastor's reports that they had lost 900 people from their churches in the war.  To attend that meeting, one couple walked for two days.  They were stopped on the trail, their clothes and food were stolen, but God provided enough for them to continue the journey.  In one school he visited there were orphans of the war who sang to him in French, not their native language, but they learned the song so that he would understand.  It was just a shed with rough boards and a rusty roof and a lava rock floor.  Out of their poverty they gave and gave. 

With the help of money from a widow in Alabama, they now have a nice four room school.  That is what our mission dollars provide.

Pastor Doug said, "I learned a lot in Africa.  First, I thought God was sending me there to change Africa.  I  learned that He sent me to Africa to change me.

I learned that following God means that sometimes you must get out on the limb with God where the fruit is, even though it is more risky than staying close to the trunk of the tree where the branches give more support.

And I learned that God loves the words ‘impossible' and ‘never'. "

In America, most of us give generously but it comes from our abundance.  Few of us have ever known what it means to give until it hurts.  We could learn from our fellow Christians in Africa and other parts of the world.  Before God can use it, we've got to give it up.