THANKS TO PAUL HIEBERT
Michael Jaffarian
Missionary Researcher, WorldVenture
Senior Research Associate, Operation World
Thanks to Paul Hiebert, my
wife and I are still missionaries today, instead of selling automobiles.
There have been two times in
our missionary career we have told our mission we were considering resigning.
No need to tell the unhappy stories, but trust me on this,
both situations were serious. These weren't just seasons of
discouragement like we all have, but situations we thought called for
departure. Both times I pictured myself leaving our mission, leaving the cause
of missions, and starting a new career in a different field. Maybe
selling automobiles.
But when both of those
occasions came, we remembered one piece of wise advice from Paul Hiebert, from
our time under his teaching at the Fuller (then)
"How
much better to get wisdom than gold, to get insight rather than silver!" Proverbs 16:16.
We remembered Dr. Hiebert's wise advice, and followed it. Both
times. Instead of saying to our mission, "We resign, and this is
why," we said, "We're on a 30-day countdown toward resigning, and
this is why." On both occasions, the Lord told us to stay. But - had it
not been for that nugget of wisdom, given to us before our long-term missionary
service began, I might be selling automobiles today, instead of serving God in
missions.
If you don't believe this is
a true story, you can look at www.jaffarian.com !
“Sing to the Lord, all the earth;
proclaim his salvation day after day.
Declare his glory among the nations,
his marvelous deeds among all peoples.” (1 Chronicles
Published in the special issue “A Memoriam of Paul G. Hiebert”
www.globalmissiology.org