Missionaries Trust God

Day One:	Trust
Bible Lesson:	Two Obedient Men (Caleb & Joshua): We should trust and obey God.
Memory Verse:	1st John 2:5
Missions Concepts:	Missionaries trust God.
Missions Questions:	Why is it important to trust the Lord when you are a missionary? As a church planter, what do you trust him for? How has God shown that he is trustworthy?
Bible Passages:	Matthew 9:35-38, Matthew 16:13-19, Romans 8:26-39

Introduction:

In your Bible lesson today, you learned how Caleb and Joshua trusted God, and you learned that you need to trust God too. Did you know that missionaries also have to trust God?

This week, we're going to be looking in this [show box and speak slowly in a deep voice] Box of Questions to find some questions that were sent to actual missionaries, and the answers that they gave.

Today's questions are about trusting God, and you'll be able to see how important our missionaries think it is to trust in God.

Procedure: Picking Questions from the Box

Call a child volunteer to pull out each of the questions. Help them read it aloud to the group. You can use a microphone and/or repeat the question yourself so that everyone can hear it.

After reading the question, introduce each missionary before reading their answer. You can also show a photo and/or their country's flag and a map if desired. Then read and explain their answers. If there's time, you can lead a brief discussion of the answers or ask a few comprehension questions.

After each question, check the time, and if enough time is available pick a new volunteer to pull the next question out of the box.

Pastor Tom Ricker

Tom Ricker is a church planter and home missionary in Burlington, Vermont. He and his wife Janelle went there in 2008 to try to start a Bible study that might grow into a church. A home missionary is someone who is a missionary in his own country. Pastor Tom is from Galion, Ohio, so when he want to Vermont, with his wife, he had to leave his family and friends, but he stayed in his own country. He is a Home Missions pastor and a church planter.

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Pastor Zambo Solomon

Pastor Zambo Solomon is a missionary in Northwest Cameroon. He left his hometown, studied a foreign language and the Bible, and moved across the country with his wife and children to start churches. Pastor Solomon has started several churches in Northwest Cameroon. Once he starts a church, another man becomes the pastor, and Pastor Solomon can move on to start another church in another town. He is an evangelist and a church planter.

Question #1

Why is it important to trust the Lord when you are a missionary?

Answer: Pastor Tom Ricker

It is important because often it is just you and Him. If you do not trust Him you are doing things in your own strength and you will quickly come to your end and you will dispair and become extremely depressed.

Pastor Tom is saying that since he's trying to start a church, he doesn't have one yet. There's no group of believers there, no Christian friends or people for him to go to. He just has to trust God. It's easy for him to get discouraged, because there's nobody else there helping him from day to day— just God. So he really has to rely on God.

Answer: Pastor Zambo Solomon

Because he is the one that put us into his business. We are not going on our own. God is the owner of the harvest. He sent us and he will take care. All that we are to do should be according to his direction. It happen[s] sometime[s] that things are not moving as we want. No support, no converts, and we may plunge into discouragement. Only our faith in him shall make us conquerors!

Pastor Solomon has to trust in God because he's doing God's work and because God wouldn't have sent him if he didn't want him to do it. Also, when things don't go according to Pastor Solomon's plan, he has to trust that they're still going according to God's plan.

Question #2

As a church planter, what do you trust God for?

Answer: Pastor Tom Ricker

All things. Jesus said He will build His church. I must trust Him to guide me and direct me as I seek to trust Him to build His church.

Pastor Tom is trusting God to bring people into the Bible study and to build them into a church. Every part of the work that Pastor Tom is doing in Vermont relies on God.

Answer: Pastor Zambo Solomon

[That] he himself [will] build his church as he promised. God has to bring people to himself, and I ... will trust more in his sovreignty than my power and talents. Several [times] we [tried to] bring people to Jesus, but the Father [did] not bring them to him.

Pastor Solomon can tell people about Jesus, but only God can help them believe. Pastor Solomon has to trust God to take care of the church and to bring people into the group.

Question #3

How has God shown that he is trustworthy?

Answer: Pastor Tom Ricker

He has brought me into contact with people and given me ways to reach them that I never would have thought of on my own. He has brought people to the Bible study and He is giving me strength to continue to follow Him.

Answer: Pastor Zambo Solomon

I have been in different trials in Africa here, and any time I trust[ed] him he gave me the grace to see his deliverance. I can therefore trust him more, for he has shown that he is my redeemer.

Pastor Solomon trusts God, and God has helped him when times were hard.

Conclusion: Prayer

Finish up by having two or three children pray out loud for the missionaries before you dismiss to the next activity.

Invitation: Missions

Invite any children who want to do missions work to stay after the lesson and discuss it further.