Dear Christ-loving Saints,
We greet you with gratefulness to Father God for your love and friendship. Though there are many of you whom we have not met face to face, we feel a deep sense of gratitude for each of you who help support us with your prayers and your donations to this work. And many of you are helping us by placing our hymn booklets and scripture booklets in the feeble hands of nursing home residents who would never know about this resource if not for you! To all we say again, “Thank You!”
We may not know, this side of eternity, how much positive influence our prayers and your prayers have had on the effectiveness of our labors for Christ in nursing home ministry. This is His business, and our “General” has ordered us that we “should always pray and not faint (Luke 18:1)!” As certain as He asked us to pray, He does answer prayer (Matthew 7:11)!
This brings to mind the story of a faithful missionary to Mongolia in the late 1800’s. His name was James Gilmour of Scotland. James labored among the largely Buddhist population from 1870 until his death from typhus in 1891. Adopting the nomadic life of his host nation, he braved many hardships including poor support from home, very primitive transportation, often on foot, and resistance, even the threat of death, from deeply entrenched beliefs in false gods among the population. Whiskey, opium and poverty plagued the people he sought to win for Jesus. With little to no support from Christian fellowship, he battled discouragement, loneliness and depression. Bro. Gilmour did not have social media to communicate his needs or to find solace in the sympathies of other Christians.
Not long after his arrival in China, James realized how vital a godly wife would be. He prayed, asking God to “look me out one, a good one too.” You can imagine how uplifting it was to him when the Lord provided a Christian wife to work beside him! James and Emily married in 1874. They spent eleven happy years together and the Lord blessed them with three boys. Tragically, she died in 1885.
The first, and only, Mongol convert came after James had served 14 years in this remote missionary field. Though some would consider this a “poor showing” for his efforts, I can only imagine the joyous reunion James and this one Mongol (and those who prayed for James) enjoyed when they met around the Throne of God in Heaven! And, in ensuing years, how many souls were touched by the seeds of the Gospel message that James Gilmour planted?!
Dear nursing home ministers and dear friends who pray for us, we encourage you and we pray for you as you work for the Lord of the Harvest in the mission field where He has placed you (Matthew 9:38). We plant, we water, but “God gives the increase (1Corinthians 3:6)!!!” No matter your profession, no matter your life situation, no matter how hard you labor for little result…stay faithful to Jesus in the setting where He has placed you. This is how God spells success: F-A-I-T-H-F-U-L-N-E-S-S (Matthew 25:21)! And most of all, do not grow weary or faint in prayer!
A biography has been written about James Gilmour’s ministry in Mongolia. It is by Richard Lovette. In this book we find a quote by James regarding the high value he placed in the prayers of those who interceded in prayer for him back in Scotland: “Unprayed for, I feel very much as if a diver were sent down to the bottom of a river with no air to breathe, or as if a fireman were sent up to a blazing building and held an empty hose; I feel very much as a soldier who is firing blank cartridge at an enemy, and so I ask you earnestly to pray that the Gospel may take saving and working effect.”
Dear Brothers and Sisters, Dar and I deeply appreciate your prayers for us as we continue, to the best of our ability, the work He has given us to do! We love you and we pray God give you a wonderful harvest where He has planted you!
Sincerely,
Jerry and Dar Johnson