Mission Thoughts
By John Martin
Christians care
Ruth Coggan, daughter of Donald Coggan, a former Archbishop of Canterbury, spent nearly 30 years working as a CMS missionary doctor on the northwest frontier in the Afghan border region of Pakistan.
One day, while travelling on a local bus, she suddenly realised she’d forgotten to pay the fare. Every eye followed as she got up from her seat, went to the front, and paid the driver.
Her action set in motion a buzz of conversation. What the locals didn’t know was that Ruth understood what they were saying: “Look at the foreigner, how honest she is. Do you know she’s a doctor at the Christian hospital? Do you know they never operate on anyone without praying to God first? … Do you know a lot more of their patients get better after their operations than in the government hospitals?”
Ruth’s eyes filled with tears. This was one of those moments when her decision to leave her family circle, a career path as a National Health Service surgeon and the material well-being of
About 150 years ago CMS built five missionary hospitals on the Afghan borders. It was a strategy that required great faith to sustain, especially if you measure success only in terms of decisions for Christ.
But one thing’s certain: the word that’s got round about those five hospitals, and about the work of doctors like Ruth Coggan, is that Christians care. Their medical care is second to none. And God is in the midst of it all.
Who knows what all this could mean for
Modern-day Saul of Tarsus
This is the story of a modern day Saul of Tarsus. Saul, says the Book of Acts, was consumed with hatred for the fledgling Jesus Movement. He threatened and bullied, stood by while Stephen was stoned to death and did a deal with the
Basil, a proud orthodox priest from
Basil took the law into his own hands, burning Bibles and other Christian literature and sending out thugs to beat up leaders of these new Christian communities. He even attacked the Baptist headquarters in the capital Tiblisi and ended up in jail.
Enter Bishop Malkaz, leader of the Baptist community in Tiblisi and one of the partners of the Church Mission Society in
It was an open and shut case, but there was a shock in store. The judge asked Malkaz what it was he was demanding from the court and to everyone's astonishment the persecuted man said: "I demand that these people are pardoned and set free from prison." The defendant and his lawyers would hardly believe their ears.
Malkaz spoke again. "My only demand is that they buy a bottle of wine to share together when they are set free." In fact there was not only wine but many more presents. One who persecuted has been reconciled with the people he wanted to destroy. A true miracle.
Why grace is amazing
If the Church Mission Society had a national anthem just about any of the hymns of John Newton, born in Wapping in the East End of London, would be among the most serious candidates…
…Glorious things of thee are spoken
…How sweet the name of Jesus sounds
and, of course, Amazing Grace.
Motherless at six and sent to sea at 11, John Newton was the quintessential blaspheming teenage rebel. He was press-ganged into the navy, flogged for attempted desertion, at one stage nearly starved, joined the slave trade.
Then at the age of 23, at the height of a storm, exhausted from bailing out water from the ship, he called out to God for mercy. He had a powerful sense that God had saved him in this advanced state of wretchedness.
There were many twists and turns to follow. For some time he continued slave trading. It was only in his latter years that he fully saw the evils involved. Later he joined William Wilberforce and the black campaigner Elaudo Equiano testifying to the Privy Council against this pernicious cargo-ing.
He was a key mover in founding the Church Mission Society with a vision to take the gospel to places where the name of Jesus had never been heard. CMS was first conceived at a meeting of young clergy, The Eclectic Society, held in his
The story of
But it also tells me that God is infinitely patient. He took his time with John Newton, as he does with us all. Grace is amazing.
John Martin is Associate Editor (Global News) with the US-based Living Church and has been a member of the Fulcrum Leadership Team since its inception.