Dear Missionary Lady,
Greetings in the name of the God who rescues. God rescues us spiritually through salvation and often in numerous other ways and occasions as we go through life. He also gives us the opportunity to be His rescue helpers.
Mt. Everest is 29,000 feet (8850 meters) high, and the “Death Zone” is the top 3,000 feet (350 meters). Conditions there are brutal, creating serious physical risks and impacts. Without supplemental oxygen, climbers can survive only a few minutes. The heart rate soars, raising the risk of heart attack. The lungs are harshly affected. Climbers cough constantly, even hard enough to break ribs. Climbers are constantly out of breath, even while resting. Muscles waste away, and the body and its cells are actively dying. The brain swells. Judgment is impaired, and delirium can set in. Fatigue makes it hard to move one foot in front of the other.
When climbers attempt the final assault through the Death Zone, they try to get up and back down as quickly as possible, in less than 24 hours. It is so dangerous to be up there (and still needing strength to get back down) that climbers stay at the top for only twenty minutes, despite the immensity of the accomplishment that they may want to celebrate.
Every year climbers die. Over 300 people are known to have died on the mountain, and over 200 bodies remain where they fell or have been shoved out of the way. It is too dangerous to risk lives in those brutal conditions just to bring down bodies. The same is true for rescue. Rescue is usually not a simple matter of giving an extra oxygen tank (and there aren’t any), a sip of water, or helping someone stand back up; those in danger are usually immobile and extremely weak. So climbers walk past, skirt around, and sometimes step over the bodies of the dead and dying. Bodies are already pressed so far beyond their limits, already at such great risk, that climbers do not have the physical strength to rescue someone else, even if their minds are thinking clearly enough to make decisions. Climbers know the risks. For those foolish enough to press on past their limits or unfortunate enough to suffer accidents, rescue attempts would generally just add more bodies to the death count.
But sometimes rescues do happen, even in the Death Zone. In May of this year, a Sherpa guide saw a man down in the snow, alone, without oxygen, about to die. The Sherpa abandoned his own ascent, bundled the climber in a sleeping bag, strapped him to his back, and carried him down the mountain for six hours. At that point someone else took turns carrying and dragging the body. Quite improbably, the life of the climber who had no hope of survival was saved. The Sherpa, who has carried out 55 rescues, says this is the hardest one he has ever done, leaving him exhausted and in need of recovery.
Wow! Who does that? Who gives his all and puts his own life at risk to rescue others? Hmm. Isn’t that what a missionary does? He (or she) gives his life completely. While in most locations, the risk of death is not what it has been for missionaries in past centuries, it still is increased over the safer life “back home.”
Paul has a lot to say about this. “Whereunto I also labour, striving according to his working” (Colossians 1:29). “For ye remember, brethren, our labour and travail; for laboring night and day … we preached unto you the gospel of God” (1 Thessalonians 2:10). He recounts what he suffered as a minister of Christ: labours, stripes, prisons, (threats of) death, beatings, stoning, shipwreck, journeyings, diverse perils, weariness, painfulness, sleepless nights, hunger, thirst, deprivation (2 Corinthians 11:23-27). “But even after that we had suffered before, and were shamefully entreated, as ye know, at Philippi, we were bold in our God to speak unto you the gospel of God with much contention” (1 Thessalonians 2:2).
None of this stopped Paul from ministering the gospel, and it was because of how he evaluated things. “For the love of Christ constraineth us” (2 Corinthians 5:14). “But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might … testify the gospel of the grace of God” (Acts 20:24). “And I will very gladly spend and be spent for you; though the more abundantly I love you, the less I be loved” (2 Corinthians 12:15). “Nevertheless to abide in the flesh is more needful for you” although Paul had “a desire to depart, and to be with Christ, which is far better” (Philippians 1:24&23).
I doubt any of us would place ourselves on the same level as Paul, but I do believe that in the depths of your heart, you share his evaluations and desires. You do have a heart for giving, investing, and serving. You do love those around you … and they are pitiful people in great need. Like the dying man on Everest, their need is great, and their outcome is hopeless. They might be there because of their own foolish choices. As it was for the rescuer, the cost is high, and the risk is great. But what a wonder, that God allows you to be involved in rescuing! Because of God’s working through you, lives have been saved that otherwise would have had no hope. So, even when weary and discouraged, press on. Not everyone will be rescued, but some will! You may have to carry their nearly lifeless bodies down the mountain on your back, but God can give results that make it all worthwhile.
“Which now of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbour unto him that fell among the thieves? And he said, He that shewed mercy on him. Then said Jesus unto him, Go, and do thou likewise” (Luke 10:36-37). May God renew your passion and strengthen you for the task.
Love in Christ,
Peggy Holt
member at Open Door Baptist Church in Lebanon, PA
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