Family Life from this Side

Posted on 30 August, 2012 by David Rogers, Master of Arts in Apologetics, M.A. Ministry

 Can you imagine trying to hold your family together when everyone is going, doing, and living different lifestyles, each with unique routines and individual plans?

“So what’s new?” you say. Family life for the vast majority of the people in the United States revolves around juggling schedules. But, more than just dealing with schedules, a missionary family wrestles with changing addresses, both their own and that of siblings, parents and other loved ones. They work through finding a common thread to hold the family together, as the fabric sometimes begins to unravel due to everything from job hunting to finding adequate furlough housing for 6 or 12 months. “What’s new” for us is that every year brings sweeping changes in a missionary family.

Another factor touches those children that have become adults. Our family may struggle to find a sense of stability that enables the the grown children, as adults, to maintain a sense of permanence and unity. We are walking through some predicaments this furlough. A few examples will help you understand what that feels like.

  • Our youngest daughter said good-bye to all her friends with whom she had grown comfortable. When she returns to the country we call home (Chile), some of those same friends will be preparing to leave the field. The gap of time to pass between before being together again could be 2 years. That’s tough on any friendship, much less for a child.
  • Our third daughter in just one summer will move four times: once from college, another to a summer address for work, a third to the home of a friend after the job ends, and a fourth when she moves to our furlough address.
  • One week for entire year is all we may see our married children. Not out of the ordinary for most, the additional challenge is that factor of distance, with the issue of the cost of travel, even if we want to, making a trip to either North Carolina or Kentucky puts a major strain on the family finances.

These is a small glimpse of what our family will work through, we hope, during the months called “home ministry.” The joy of serving and the burden of the call to represent the Lord and Savior brings satisfaction and a strong sense of purpose that makes this travel worthwhile. While we transition, travel and try to adjust, our family will be learning about life “on this side of the equator.”

Home ministry is about more than travel, however. In addition there is the matter of setting up home. Not all missionaries have this issue, but since we own a home in the country where we serve, when arriving in the USA, we have nothing. Not even a potato peeler! The household utensils, the automobile, the clothes…all of this is back to ground zero.

For instance, when we arrived at the wonderful missionary home that we rented in New Jersey, the house is fully furnished. But, what about a desk for working at home…where I can fit my knees under it!? Or what about toys for our 10 year old? The house is warmly decorated and furnished, even though most of the furniture is vintage 60’s or 70’s. No problem with that! But will we fit into the space? Do we have the things necessary to live without thinking, “Oh, I wish I could have brought my potato peeler from Chile.” Of course, what becomes necessary is…yep! Go buy another other one.

On this side of the life as missionaries, our move means more than just packing a suitcase. It is all about packing and unpacking our thought processes, our routines, even our preferences. But thank the Lord that we have friends who try to understand and who show their concern.

One such friend was the brother from our sending church (we will call him Larry), who thought of the problems and the issues related to returning to a home that isn’t really home. He mobilized a group of people from our that church. He bought the basics for the household needs, and then brought them and the people to our rental home to clean, repair things and just get the place “ready” for us to settle in! Now that really made us feel welcome!

We thank the Lord for others who look at a missionary’s return as not really coming “home” but rather as a temporary stay in our home land. Even though we return to our city and address from the United States, the point is, we return as pilgrims and travelers with a mission and with a purpose. Life is always lived between TWO LANDS when being a missionary. 

I guess that is in part, what Christ had in mind when he said, “So send I you.”

Serving the King,

David L. Rogers, M.A.Min.
ABWE-Chile

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A Tribute to Modern Day Heroes!!

Posted on 23 April, 2012 by David Rogers, Master of Arts in Apologetics, M.A. Ministry

Dr. Lincoln Nelson, Frank Jertberg, Ruth Large Rife and John Barram have something in common with William Carey and Adonirum Judson: they have been promoted to glory with honors having served faithfully in their missionary career! In the past months God has called home four of His choice servants from the ABWE Family. I would have loved to be there to see their welcome home!

Another missionary statesman, and a special friend and mentor of mine, Dr. Harold Amstutz, also stands out in my mind. He passed away in late 2011, and leaves behind his wife and adult children. If there was one thing that God did in me as a result of this hero, now in the Lord’s presence, he motivated me to have the courage to follow through with God’s call on my life. Dr. Amstutz and Helen, his wife who is still with us, are an example godly determination and faith in Christ’s plan to build his church around the world. They were among the first who encouraged my wife and I to take a step of faith and apply to ABWE for missionary service, just a month after being married! We hardly knew the call of God from a stop sign, but Dr. Amstutz believed in us and prompted us to apply for Candidate Seminar. What a surprise when we were approved as career missionaries with ABWE. Dr. Amstutz gave us both an injection of confidence!

Another lady, very close to us, whom we also consider a missionary heroine, Barbara Rogers Purnell, my loving Mom, joined the celestial chorus as well in recent months. She served the Lord as a pastor’s wife for 18 years, and then in many other capacities in local churches in New Jersey along with her second husband, George Purnell. Heaven is growing richer each day as the Father welcomes home His servants. Of course, all our Moms are a sort of  a heroines to us! But bear with me and let me share some of my Mom’s heroic feats. These include raising five children on the meager income of a “home” missions pastor, living wherever there might have been a available space, like in an old airplane hanger or a summer cottage in Avon, Ohio, after my father’s heart attack. She was a heroine to raise five children in the back seat of our family station wagon, traveling constantly to visit churches. She proved her love for us time and time again by willingly sacrificing her needs to see that ours were satisfied first. Mom is a heroine because she understood there are more important things in life than comfort and pleasure or family security. She lived for the Cause of Christ, first and foremost.

As our generation of “Baby Boomers” age, so does our parent’s generation. Many of their generation are now advanced in age, and in turn, are reaching the end of life’s long road. These are heroes from a generation that attempted to rebuild their lives after the disastrous effects of World War II. Others ventured out after suffering extreme poverty as a result of the “Great Depression.”  They took a of faith to serve the Lord, to build families that reflected God’s priorities and to reach unknown lands and peoples. They dedicated live and health to further the Church, the Gospel and to evangelize those millions without the Savior. Perhaps many were unsung heroes, but heroes nonetheless.

Why mention all these who have gone on ahead of us and have fought the good fight of faith? Is there something to hang on to after seeing these dedicated servants of Christ pass off the scene? You bet there is! It’s called SACRIFICE! All those mentioned, and thousands others like them, paid the price of living for the Savior. They were not immune to discouragement nor did they walk on water. They simply lived each day, as it came, accepting its burdens, fully convinced of the brevity of life and the value of a human soul, being eternally more significant than the glittering sparkle of today’s gadgets and goodies. They counted the cost and gladly accepted the price of sacrificing the short term for the eternal, the passing “high” for a high calling.

Let those who remain behind take stock. The heroes ranks are shrinking right before  our eyes. Who will fill their shoes? Who will stand in their place? Who among us is willing to sacrifice what we feel is rightly ours for those who will maybe never know the joy of a warm bed or a hot shower or a safe night’s rest? Who is willing to carry the torch, carry the Savior’s truth, to those bound in darkness and spiritual slavery? My friend, reading this blog: what price are you paying to insure that the Cause of Christ does not suffer? 

God still makes heroes–He uses His children for heroic feats. Are you a hero “on deck?” Are you willing to sacrifice your pleasure, your happiness, your portfolio or your college degree for the sake of the Cross?  I can solidly assure you one thing of those who have done so: those who are now in glory are not regretting it!

David L. Rogers, M.A.min.
Missionary – Pastor

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Airport Connections on my Way Home

Posted on 25 January, 2012 by David Rogers, Master of Arts in Apologetics, M.A. Ministry

I ambled along en route to my connecting gate. “Where is this gate?” I thought to myself. The narrow and secluded hallway planted seeds of doubt in me as to whether or not I was on the right path to my next flight. It was my first time in Toronto, so I felt somewhat uncertain of my location in the airport. “This is not the time to get lost”, I mused. I need to be sure I get to my destination on time. After all, I am facing an important moment in my life.

That moment was, for all practical purposes, a new crossroads in my life, just like my connection in the Toronto airport. But new is not always better. This new junction was that  anticipated moment of going home to attend my mother’s funeral.

Just how well would I handle this connection in my journey of life as a missionary living overseas? Eleven years ago I said good-bye to Mom’s second husband and long before that I said “good-bye” to my own father. But now this leg of the journey introduced a “farewell” that brought a sense of feeling uncertainty, a sense of “what’s next?” I felt like I did not want to take this next step in a new phase of my life. Mom had succumbed to a short battle with cancer, leaving behind a true legacy of love and sacrifice.

For this reason I feel as though I am facing a transition in my life and career. From here, with Mom in heaven, and my four siblings and I to go on (each with their spouses and or situations in life), this moment catupulted me and my family to a point where life would be different. A missionary for thirty-one years, I was now without my biggest backer.
But the connection from where I was to where I would be wasn’t Mom, as a person. It was her determined faith and in her loving obedience to the Lord Jesus. She lived 84 years, and from the point of her surrendering his life to Christ as her personal Savior, it was a walk of faith. Mom lived in a home for seniors about six years after her health began to fail. While there she rarely missed an opportunity to speak of the Lord’s presence and care. She walked by faith and I reminded myself so must I.

My connecting flight in Toronto was to begin boarding soon. I had found the right gate, with enough time to grab a cup of coffee and a bagel while waiting. With my Mom promoted to glory, I could see this was an opportunity to build my faith and live as she had: with an unshakable faith in His plan and design. The connecting flight led to my destination: Cleveland, Ohio. And while boarding I prayed I would have the spiritual tenacity and the sensitivity to see what God wanted to teach me personally through this moment.

Life and ministry, both at home and overseas, requires that we go through some transitions and new stages. Saying farewell to my Mother (Barbara Rogers-Purnell) became one of those transitions for me. And I knew that the design the Lord had for me in this stage was to make me more useful and fruitful in His service.

Ready for Change,

David L. Rogers
Missionary-Pastor

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On Being a Sending Church of Missionaries

Posted on 10 December, 2011 by David Rogers, Master of Arts in Apologetics, M.A. Ministry

What is a “Sending Church”?

What constitutes a sending church? Is a sending church the body of Christians who commit to support and care for a misionary? Or would it be the core of Christians from one location that work to train, select and build into the potential missionary all the skills and experience necessary to serve in a foriegn context? Is it the church that takes the largest portion of the missionary’s financial support?

Maybe I’m far off with those first choices. How about these? Is a sending church the church the people who select and cooperate with a mission agency? Is a sending church the group of people where the missionary cut her eye teeth in ministry? Oh, and what of the spiritual qualifications that must be visible and proven: who critiques that? On a different notet, you may think of the clarity of God’s call in the person’s life. And equally high on the list, there’s the testimony and the quality of the missionary.

As you can see, the spectrum is broad when considering the question of what or who is a sending church. Those are favorite topics of college missions professors and college students alike. If I were to try to trim down that spectrum, I would have to put as a top priority the following:

  • Sending churches know the genuine cost of being a missionary. There’s no room for romanticism her. What will he or she face on the mission field?
  • Sending churches are not a “rubber stamp” for the work of selecting, preparing, screening and testing the missionary call. The sending church is the singlemost important factor in whether or not a person or a family is ready to serve as a career missionary.
  • Sending churches have looked long and hard at the personal qualifications of the person or family to send out. Let’s call this the “in your face” aspect of ascertaining gifts and skills, both ministerial, personal and cross-cultural.
  • Sending churches have completed their home work of checking for growth and maturity in the person’s life, especially their determined purpose for wanting to go into career service.
  • Finally a sending church in all honesty can say that the person they want to send into missionary ministry is of the same caliber and fruitfulness that the church would expect of one of it’s pastors. No short cuts on this point!

All of the above issues grow out of the steps that come before a missionary leaves for the field or for active ministry (in the homeland or outside of it). So, in some senses, a sending church ought to be recognizable well in advance of a missionary being leaving for the ministry.

But, the story doesn’t stop there. A sending church, or to use another concept, a missionary-minded church, incontrast to a church that gives and prays for missionaries, is one that knows the value of welcoming back a missionary after his or her term of service. The sending church is ready and concerned about what happens when its missionaries return home for their “R & R”, because a missionary’s return is just as much a real matter as his/her departure.

What it boils down to is that those churches that have the joy of sending a missionary out to serve, will also prepare themselves, the church family and the church leadership, to know how to receive and re-integrate the missionary’s family back into life and ministry in their homeland.

A good example of this was the time when our sending church’s pastoral staff made it possible for my wife and I to attend a pastoral enrichment seminar along with the pastors and their wives. We spend three days in a wonderful conference, stayed in a pleasant hotel and interacted on a personal level with the pastoral team and their wives. That set the tone for a spirit of cooperation in our home ministry for the year we were in the USA. During that time, our home church plugged us into a few ministries, as we were able, and on the flip side, received the benefit of an additional pastor on staff while we were there.

Sending churches rightly spend many months and weeks thinking about how to enable a missionary to arrive on the mission field. But don’t stop there! A truly mission-minded, sending or home church will work to be ready to receive their missionaries back from their field of ministry. In many ways this is a litmus test of a true sending church.

David L. Rogers, M.A. Min.
Missionary Pastor
Santiago, Chile 

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Pressure: Is a Missionary’s Life Subject More than Others?

Posted on 8 November, 2011 by David Rogers, Master of Arts in Apologetics, M.A. Ministry

Today’s culture of ministry performance may be keeping too many missionaries awake at night.

Another long night comes along. After arriving home at 11:00 pm, following a visit at the home of a new believer, my mind is still charged with the thoughts of things to do, even though my body is exhausted. Knowing that I need rest, just before midnight, I drop into bed. After a few hours of sleep, suddenly my thoughts stir me from my rest and I find my mind working over time. Try as I may, during the next 50 or 60 minutes, sleep evades me entirely.

What keeps me awake? My non-medical explanation: hyper active brain cells! Feeling like sleep is what I need most, the fact is, my mind says “you need to work out these issues, before you go back to sleep.” The next hour or two can be a struggle. First I pray, and then I review my spiritual life. Then I go over my schedule for the week, and that only leads to asking myself if I need to do this or that. Rather than tire, my mind’s activity accelerates more and more as the night wears on. Finally, the mind finally finds peace or the body gives up, letting sleep take over.

This experience is not new to many of us. Been there, done that. So, what’s there worth blogging about? Just this: a lesson I feel that is worth passing on came to me one night while struggling to return to sleep. Rest is a gift from the Lord, just like the energy and the health to work is a gift. Rest comes from finding in Him the peace to leave tomorrow’s tasks to tomorrow. But, missionaries, and pastors, even Christians and non-Christians alike, all of us live with the pressures of trying to solve tomorrow’s work tonight, right when we need to “let is rest.”

The lesson I want so share is this: until I learn to surrender to the Pastor and Shepherd of my soul I will not rest fully. When I give Him my problems and concerns, He shows His hand of loving care. When I carry the issues to bed with me or bear them throughout the day, my mind is preocuppied, stressed, and over loaded.

On the matter of rest, then, I must choose to accept His gift. Will I really lay the burdens down, or keep them spinning in my head? I have found that when I choose to accept His gift of rest, found in the tender loving provision He promises over and over in His Word, that sleep comes sooner, rather than later.

Think of it this way: when you lie down at night, what have you already choosen to take with you, by virtue of your choices made just before retiring? Have you focused your attention on all those nagging little issues that you just read about in your email? Have you sat and soaked in a movie full of contradictions and conflict and selfishness? Have you just spent time arguing over the family budget or decisions with your spouse? If so, you have choosen to carry to bed a host of problems, rather than choosing to accept God’s gift of rest. To choose rest you and I must fellowship with Him in those closing moments before going off to sleep. We just have to let Him lead us to those green pastures! Rather than laying there counting sheep, my recommendation is to act like a sheep and follow the Good Shepherd out to places of rest and renewal.

Missionaries, just like every individual in our world of modern pressures and demands, wrestle with keeping stress at bay. Last week, I found myself in the hospital with a case of arrythmia out of control. After being fully examined by the coronary doctor,  who described my heart palpitations as an “electrical storm,” I had to face the fact that I was bearing stress and struggles that were not mine to bear. I had choosen to take charge of the problems, rather than taking the problems to my Shepherd and Pastor (1 Peter 2:25).

Remember then to choose the gift of rest over the grit of anxiety. The wise King Solomon put it this way: “It is vain for you to rise up early, to retire late, to eat the bread of painful labors; for He gives to His beloved even in his sleep.” (Psalm 127:2)  Choose rest, not restlessness.

David L. Rogers, M.A.Min.
Missionary Pastor
Santiago, Chile

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Where have all the Servants gone?

Posted on 4 September, 2011 by David Rogers, Master of Arts in Apologetics, M.A. Ministry

A few years back, a well-known university president wrote a book called “Where Have All the Dreamers Gone?” The title made me think of various things, such as: why the shortage of godly leaders in the church? or where are the men and women willing to break out of the mold and dare great things for God? And on a lighter note, the answer struck me: ‘Where have all the dreamers gone?,’ why, they have gone to pursue their dreams! Where else do dreamers go?!

But Dr. Bill Brown had another point in mind: where are the young leaders who are willing to be examples to their generation. In essence, that is partly my question in this post. Christian youth race to get the best spots in the most sought-after universities and colleges, hoping to get a professional degree, from a reputable institution, so that in turn they will land a good job. But, I ask, are they turning a deaf ear to what was once considered the most demanding, the most adventurous and the most risky “profession” of all: giving up all to be a career missionary.

I have been asking myself the following question for the past ten or twelve years: “where have all the servants gone?” I can see that Christian colleges and universities reach new heights in numerical stats (for example, Liberty University, aiming to be the largest Christian university in the United States, already claims of 12,000 students), while falling to new lows in the number of the students who choose to prepare for long term missionary service. From where do I get my information? From living on the receiving end of the missionary studies programs. In other words, from the mission field itself.

During the past 10 years in Chile, South America, the flow of new missionaries to the field, (other South American countries are also facing a similar picture) has all but trickled to a stop. While our mission agency, ABWE (www.abwe.org), is one of the most growing faith agencies in fundamental circles, both Argentina, Chile, and Peru receive only one to two new missionary families every four to six years. If that statistic continues for the next 15 years (at which point I could formally retire), the number foreign missionaries in those three countries will have reduced to half the number presently in Chile. Where have all the servants gone?

Part of the issue lies at the feet of the higher institutions for learning, in my thinking. The two schools I am most familiar with, Cedarville University and Baptist Bible College, report steadily decreasing numbers of students declare a cross-cultural or missions major. One example stands out from the “2010 Strategic Planning and Research Fact Book” of the Cedarville University (see this link: http://www.cedarville.edu/Offices/Strategic-Planning-Research/~/media/Files/PDF/Strategic-Planning-Research/Factbook/chapter2.ashx) :

Of the present student body of 2,965 students, only 265 declare a Biblical or theological major. And of those, only 31 are in the international studies-missions program.

To put it simply: less than 9% of the student body is training for missionary service!

Again I ask: where have all the servants gone?

That is not to say that some students in the pastoral major or the pre-seminary major may not also be thinking missionary service. But, by the time they make that mile marker, their financial landscape will have changed, making it even more difficult to reach the mission field. Over 50% of Christian college and university graduates face such a huge repayment of debt that paying if off will swallow up at least 10 or more years!

Missions makes for good conferences, for dramatic stories, for heart-wrenching photos (maybe we missionaries need to lighten up here some!), but apparently it does not make for a great career! Too many other attractive and interesting possibilities. The call to missions is drowned out today by the chatter offering more lucrative options.

Let me close by asking you, our churches and our colleges, our pastors and our Christian parents, and especially our professors and our trend-setters: where are the missionary servants in your priorities of life? If you do not see teens and young adults surrendering on a regular basis who are committed to serve the cause of Christ as His sent-ones, then the answer is in the mirror you look into every morning. A servant learns by watching other servants carry the torch to reach those without hope, outside the reach of your present circumference of impact, to penetrate the darkness and to punch holes in the blackness. 

The cause of Christ needs servants, at home and abroad. Otherwise the work of self-sustaining, sacrificial and productive missions will soon dry up. Will you and I make a difference? Only if we ourselves live as fully devoted to the cause of EQUIPPING, SENDING AND SUPPORTING SERVANTS.

David L. Rogers, M.A.Min
Missionary Church Planter
Santiago, Chile 

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Newest Print Prayer letter

Posted on 3 September, 2011 by David Rogers, Master of Arts in Apologetics, M.A. Ministry

Click here to download our June-July 2011 Prayer letter.

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Welcome to the Rogers’ Ministry and Family Blog!

Posted on 13 June, 2011 by David Rogers, Master of Arts in Apologetics, M.A. Ministry

Welcome to our Blog!

Missionaries are known for their travels. But we are not the only ones. You been traveling on the Internet, and that’s what brought you to our blog. We are David and Ruth Ann Rogers, veteran church planting missionaries in Santiago, Chile, since 1984. Our years of experience in Chile have taught us much. It is our intention to share some of what we have learned through this blog.

Our family has gone through many changes over the years we have served in Chile. The task of missions is likewise changing in the 21st Century. We are changing on every front. But, what has NOT changed is the urgency–and the validity–of carrying the life-transforming truth of the Gospel of Christ to the nations of the world. Perhaps by reading our blog you find ways how to be a part of this task with eternal significance.

Good learners look for good mentors. Our years of experience in Chile have not been like those of the solitary pioneer missionaries at the beginning of the 20th century who served alone on the frontiers. Long before we arrived in Chile, the Association of Baptists for World Evangelism (www.abwe.org) was tilling the soil of the hearts of the Chilean people. Since first arriving in Chile 1953, ABWE missionaries have at any one time  numbered as few as 5 or 6, and as many as 55 (including children). ABWE stands firmly for evangelizing and discipling the peoples of the world in obedience to Christ’s command in Matthew 28:19-20. That is our stance too.

Join us as we continue to travel down the road that God has called us to walk. And, if these thoughts have in any way encouraged, challenged or inspired you, we would love to know about it!

Prayerfully Serving the Lord of the Harvest,

David & Ruth Ann Rogers

Happily Married for 31 years!

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