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I’ve been the pastor of South Venice Baptist Church for over three years. I came down from Virginia with a call to bring health and growth to a struggling church. The church is doing much better, but growth and change has not been as fast and easy as I’d hoped in this area full of unchurched retirees and few Baptists. Sometimes I get impatient and wonder what God is waiting for as our church seeks to share Christ’s love.

This spring I had the opportunity to go on a mission exploration trip with Pat Anderson thanks to CBFF and CBF. I, with four other pastors, went to the other side of the world, to Southeast Asia, where CBF field personnel serve the Lord. I had never been to SE Asia, but I saw from the first day of the trip that they served and lived in far harder places than SW Florida!

Sam and Anna,* work with artists and musicians on an island known for its artists and musicians. They are helping the church incorporate their culture, music, and art into Christian life and worship. They have an exciting and challenging ministry around lots of internationals, artists, and locals of Hindu background. Even on their island, they face challenges and hardships in ministry and everyday life.

On another island we met a team of CBF field personnel who serve the Lord where Islam is the main religion and Christians are only tolerated. Everywhere you go you see and hear the evidence of the strong Muslim influence on all of life. Julia, a nurse practitioner, directs the river medical boat, providing primary medical care to hundreds of people who live along the river. Tom and Susan, two year appointees with Global Missions, work with a water team setting up village-size water filters so that the villagers will have clean water to use for cooking and washing instead of using the polluted river’s water. These three field personnel see the fruit of their ministry quite rapidly as people get well and clean water flows.

One other missionary couple taught me a great lesson in patience. Tom, Mary and their three children have served the longest on this Island. Tom leads the whole team and oversees a demonstration farm outside of his city. This agricultural mission farm is managed and staffed by locals. The goal of the farm is to discover new methods of farming and demonstrate these methods to local farmers.

Tom hopes to help the farmers in the area be less dependent on expensive chemicals and longstanding, but agriculturally unsound practices.

Tom, who was educated in animal science, grew up on a farm and still has that farm boy easiness as he showed us around the farm in the tropical heat. He showed us the composting, crops, trees, and techniques he was trying. As he showed us one tree that he hoped would help in many ways, he said it will be years until he knows if the mature tree will be as useful as he hopes. He didn’t say weeks or months. He is willing to wait years to see the fruit of his labor!

When I heard that, I thought that he does have the patience of a farmer as he serves the Lord in this hard place. I felt almost ashamed to be impatient on my mission field of relative ease in Venice, Florida. I’m thankful that we have CBF personnel who are patient even in the hard places. Thanks, Tom, for this lesson about patience I learned on the other side of the world.

James 5:7-8 (The Message)