BY TIMOTHY BERREY
BY WALTER LOESCHER 03
05
07
09
SHEEP IN THE
MIDST OF WOLVES
BY BILL KNIPE
RISKS FOR HIS
KINGDOM
THE NECESSITY
OF RISK
BY MICHAEL BERBIN
PRAYING FOR GREATER
MISSIONARY SAFETY
EDITORS: INGE CANNON AND SARAH HARTWIG
DESIGNER: YOUR CREATIVE PEOPLE
PUBLICATION ADVISORS:
JON CROCKER, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
DALE CRAWFORD, ADMINISTRATIVE DIRECTOR
FORREST MCPHAIL, REGIONAL DIRECTOR FOR ASIA, AUSTRALIA, AND OCEANIA
ALAN PATTERSON, REGIONAL DIRECTOR FOR EUROPE, AFRICA, AND THE MIDDLE EAST
TIMOTHY BERREY, DIRECTOR OF MISSIONARY RECRUITMENT
MARSH FANT, DIRECTOR OF CHURCH PLANTING AND REVITALIZATION
JON
CROCKER
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
I recently stood next to the metal
frame of the Piper PA-14 Family
Cruiser in which Nate Saint once
ferried Jim Elliot, Pete Fleming,
Ed McCully, and Roger Youderian
around the jungles of Ecuador.
Parts appeared in the sands along
the Curaray River in the early 1990s,
and by 1994 a team from Mission-
ary Aviation Fellowship (MAF)
had returned the structure to the
United States. It was sobering and stirring to
imagine the martyrs boarding that tiny aircraft
in January of 1956, longing to preach Christ
to the Waodani. I stood silently before Saint’s
partially crushed megaphone and a wing piece
dented by dozens of machete marks. It almost
felt irreverent to talk. These men and their
families believed and accepted the words of
Jesus in Mark 8:34 (NASB 1995): “If anyone
wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself,
and take up his cross and follow Me.” That rusty
metal shell of a plane serves as a testimony to
that kind of deep consecration to Christ. Their
answer to the question posed in this issue of
Sowing & Reaping—“Is Risk Worth It?”—would
be a resounding yes!
It was worth it that very day as they passed into
the presence of our Savior. It was worth it in the
years that followed as relatives of the martyrs
returned with the Gospel and reaped a glorious
harvest among the Waodani, a reaping that
continues until today. It will be worth it when
Jesus descends from heaven with a shout and
raises incorruptible those bodies once pierced
by savage spears. And it has been worth it
throughout the nations, as Christians young
and old have heard and read the story of the
Ecuadorian Five and have offered themselves
wholeheartedly to Christ to take the Gospel
to the world.
The authors of the articles in this issue examine
various aspects of the topic of risk from biblical
and practical perspectives. There is no one-
size-fits-all answer to the question of how to
evaluate and process danger for the sake of
the Gospel. But we must have no doubt about
the answer to the question, is risk worth it?
Far too many professing
Christians today idolize
safety (which in reality is
but the illusion of safety).
May the Lord raise up a
new generation of humble,
courageous, dependent,
Spirit-empowered servants
to charge into the darkness
with the light of the Gospel!
DIRECTOR
A W O R D F R O M T H E