The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1933, Page 82

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82

THE LUTHERAN PIONEER

What We Expect of a Missionary.

We sometimes hear people speak of missionaries
as though they were of the opinion that a missionary
is on a somewhat lower scale than the pastor of an
organized and self-supporting parish. However, if
we but a moment consider what qualifications a mis-
sionary is supposed to have, we shall soon find that
what we expect of a missionary is much more than
what is looked for in an ordinary pastor and that
for this reason he should occupy a higher position
in our estimation than he generally does.

First of all, we expect a missionary to have
a strong faith in Jesus Christ as his Savior and
a heart filled to the brim, yea, running over, with
love for men; the assurance that all things are pos-
sible with God and that the Gospel is the power of
God unto salvation for the poorest, lowest, and most
miserable sinner as well as for his more fortunate
brethren; the unwavering conviction that God has
called him to the work he is doing at the place
where he is doing it, that he is a key-man in God’s
plan, and that God’s work will not be done unless he
does his work as well as it is possible for him
to do it. :

Then we want our missionaries to be men of
mental strength, of common sense, of quick judg-
ment, of initiative, imbued with the spirit of the
Pioneer, ready and able to give counsel concerning
almost every subject under the sun, from the proper
time to bring the stock to market to the settling of
a family quarrel. When he is approached for advice,
he must be ready to counsel, never hesitate, never
ask for time to think it over. He must always be
ahead of his people if he is to retain their con-
fidence; he must always foresee, and be ready to
meet, their demands and complaints; always be
prepared to meet trouble before it actually has
come. —

Furthermore, the missionary in foreign lands
and along our frontiers as well as he who is working
among the poor and lowly in our large cities is ex-
pected to know not a little about medicine and even
have some knowledge of surgery; he ought to know
as much about nursing as a trained nurse and be
able to do as much in a board shanty on the prairie
or in the hut of an Indian or a poor Negro, a habita-
tion with no windows, the smoke from the open fire-
place filling the room, the wind whistling shrilly
through the cracks, and the patient stretched upon
the dirt floor, as regular white-gowned nurses can
do in the best-equipped hospitals.

Judging from the writer’s own experience,
a missionary should be a carpenter who can get good
results with a dull plane, a bottle of water for
a level, the lid of a box for a square, and an ancient,
broken-handled hatchet for a hammer. He should
be able to plan houses and stables that can be built
with half of what most people would use to put up
structures of the same size. Then, too, he ought to
be well versed in agriculture; he should know how
to locate ditches, when to sow wheat and other seeds,
how deep to plow certain soils for certain crops, and
how best to rotate crops.

He ought to know enough about law to win out
in any case that may come up, no matter who his
opponent may be; he ought to know how to write
wills, make out deeds, and draw up contracts.
Naturally, he ought to be a good musician, able to
play an organ or a violin, to lead a choir, and to
sing solos. He ought to have a fine personality, be
friendly and yet firm, a good mixer and yet not too
pliable, one who can draw people to himself and
still make those keep a distance who want to become
too familiar. We must not forget to mention that
a missionary is expected to be a very good financier,
a man who can make the dollars that get into his
hands go farther than any other dollars are ex-
pected to go.

In short, the missionary should be a man of
strength, capacity, and achievement; he should have
the gentleness of a woman, the courage of a David,
the wisdom of a Solomon, the ingenuity of a Jacob,
and the persuasive powers of the legendary Piper of
Hamelin; he should be a Jack of all trades and
a master of all; he should be a man who can over-
come every obstacle and make it do good service;
he should be able to see possibilities in every stick
and stone and to turn every one of these possibilities
into a reality; he should be a stranger to all dis-
couragement, and his sense of duty should so
dominate his whole being that he takes no thought
of the ordinary joys of life; he should be a man who
is willing to build up out of the wreckage of
humanity beautiful temples for the indwelling of
the Spirit of God.

Such supermen many of us — even some of our
pastors, perhaps! — expect our missionaries to be,
and yet, possibly, we refer to them as “only mis-
sionaries.” If any of the ambassadors of Christ
have a claim to our Jove and esteem above others,
it is our missionaries. God help us to realize this
ever more! F. J. L.