Preparation for the Mission Field
By W. A. S.
MANY things enter into the preparation for missionary service which are not found listed in the training-school curriculum. There are hearts among us sadly tried because of the delay in getting into the fields. Let such take courage. God can turn the delay to the advantage of the candidate, and make it one of the “all things” which he worketh together for good to those that love him. Waiting to get to the field is not always losing time. Some of the best lessons in the divine course of training come through apparent delay. Arnot, who opened the Garenganze country of Central Africa, just beyond Barotseland, wrote in his journal in 1881: “I would rather wait for years for a fellow worker than that one should come out hastily.” The time of waiting may be to the future missionary like the time of seasoning to the piece of timber—the process that prepares for enduring the strain and weight of the future burdens to be borne. The waiting time in the lives of Joseph, Moses, David, and others with whom the Lord dealt, shows that the process in the divine school for missionaries includes the development of patience and persevering steadfastness by waiting. And patience is one of the first lessons for the missionary. Judson’s prospects, “bright as the promises of God,” after years of apparently fruitless labor in Burma, were bright only to one who could hold on patiently where the soul that had not learned the5lesson of patience would have been discomfited. Arnot wrote amid delays in Africa: “The value of dear Dr. Moffat’s advice to me when I was leaving London, ‘Have patience! have patience! have patience!’ is more and more apparent.” Let hearts that are longing to get away into needy fields be of good cheer. The Lord knows how to prepare his workmen. W. A. S.