What I Learned from Being a Missionary in a Deadly Land

About 30 years ago we took our two boys (ages 3 and 5) to East Africa.

There we started a grand adventure that included having malaria multiple times, serving in a harvest field, serving in a country where missionaries had lived for about 300 years, and eventually making our way to one of the toughest places on the planet—Somalia.

We know that Jesus sends out His followers as “sheep among wolves.” We just did not know how mean the wolves were, nor how unprepared we were as sheep.

You see, we had spent most of our lives as sheep among sheep. We had little or no clue concerning how to share our faith where the wolves were in the majority.

No One Gets a Pass

The problem was not that the places where we worked were hard places. The problem was that we had experienced little that prepared us to serve where the wolves were in the vast majority. We knew intellectually that serving Jesus across the street or across the oceans was based in a command found in Matthew 28 and Acts 1.

God “calls” people, usually in groups and usually as families. A "call" usually has to do with serving God for a specific period of time in a specific location. Yet, all of us are commanded to be in Christ and to go with Christ. No one gets a pass as all are commanded.

What I learned from being a missionary in the most dangerous places on earth: if you are a follower of Jesus Christ, you do not get to decide whether or not you are a partner with Him. What you can decide is whether or not you’re a good or a bad partner!

PhD's in Mistakes in the Hardest Place on Earth

Ruth and I have PhD’s in mistakes—what not to do. It is not necessary for you to repeat our mistakes.

Therefore, it is our intention to help you with your journey so that you can become wise sheep among the wolves—even in the hardest places on earth.

Don’t worry, you will make mistakes, too. But they will be your own mistakes and you will make them much further down the road and at much less cost to others.

"Prison Is Their 'Theological Seminary'"

Over the years we have been allowed to worship and learn from some of the most faithful and daring followers of Jesus. Most of these we met in settings like small groups, seldom more than 30, changing the days of the week when they meet, moving from house to house, and changing the hours of the day when they met.

Why?

In China, for example, 40 percent of all pastors, evangelists, deacons, elders and church planters have been imprisoned for three years. They suggested to us that prison is their “theological seminary.” It’s where they go for training. Prisons are where their leaders are formed.

Just like the disciples did with Jesus, we sat at their feet, breaking bread, singing, praying and telling stories from the Bible—especially those about Jesus. We listened and recorded over 600 of their stories in 72 countries. They taught us that, in the Bible, persecution is normal. They modeled for us how they pass their faith from one generation to the next—from grandparents to parents to children and onto their grandchildren. They have a genealogy of faith that is astounding.

Their main place of worship is in the home, led by their fathers. Their stories are a modern-day reminder of those in the Bible. They live a Bible that is in present-active-tense. They know that everything that God has ever done, He is still doing.

Learn More About the Insanity of God

We want to give you some tools for the journey—some ways of thinking and acting. It is our prayer that those without Jesus will find their way to your home; a safe place to share a meal, to hear stories from the Bible, and from your own experiences.

We pray that it will become normal for you to break bread and tell your story in the homes of Americans that do not know Jesus, as well as among internationals.

It is our prayer that we can assist you on your journey, whether it takes you across the road, to those who are without Christ, or across the oceans to those with little or no access to Jesus.

If you would like to hear more about Nik and Ruth’s journey and learn from their life-changing experiences, be sure to check out the movie, The Insanity of God. Their 6-week Bible study, The Insanity of Obedience, will help your group learn to walk with God in tough places and follow Jesus joyfully, even in persecution. This study is an invitation to open your heart, your mind, and your eyes to the realities of walking with Jesus in difficult places. Engage with Scripture and see what it means to be a true follower of Jesus, not just someone who believes certain truths.

Excerpted from Nik Ripken, The Insanity of Obedience Bible Study. © 2016 Lifeway Press. Used by permission.