Followed By Mercy

Navigating the Path to Personal Ministry as Goer or Remainer, John & Betty Stam,

• W. Austin Gardner • Season 1 • Episode 8

Share episode

Send us a text

Key take aways

"God is a missionary God, and the entire Bible talks about it."

 "There's a job for you in getting the gospel to the world."

"Time alone in prayer, time in meditation, time listening to the Holy Spirit - that's what it's going to take to last as a missionary."





Country of the Week, Pakistan
Book of the Week, From Jerusalem to Irian Jaya
Verse of the Week, Genesis 9:17
Person of the Week, John and Betty Stam

Embark on a journey through the heart of world evangelism, where the promise of God's covenant from Genesis stretches out to the furthest corners of the Earth. As we traverse the challenging yet fertile fields of Pakistan, a nation thirsting for the Gospel amidst severe persecution, we uncover the profound need to spread God's word. Drawing on Ruth Tucker's "From Jerusalem to Irian Jaya," we delve deep into the rich tapestry of Christian missionary history, offering both insight and inspiration. The personal story of my friend David Maddox's solo mission trips serves as a stirring example of the individual impact one can have in fulfilling the Great Commission.

Feeling that tug on your heartstrings, that call to serve? This episode is a treasure trove of encouragement and guidance for those discerning a life in ministry. My booklet "Are You Called?" provides a navigation tool for young people to evaluate their readiness across personal, financial, and spiritual spectrums. It is more than just a conversation; it's a lifeline for those who yearn to train others in the ministry and find their identity in Christ. Join us, share your faith journey, and be part of a community that's passionate about igniting a global spiritual awakening. Together, let's celebrate the transformative power of sharing Jesus's love across the world.

Thanks for listening. Find us on YouTube, Substack, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.

W. Austin Gardner:

Thanks for coming back to the World Evangelism Podcast, where it is my heart's desire to inspire you and empower you to do exactly what God's calling you to do. My heart goes out to you. As a young man just finishing high school or finishing college, you are so hungry to be used of God, so I want to be here as best I can to be your friend and your mentor via the podcast or, if you want to get in personal touch with me. I want to help you be all that God has called you to be. I am here for you from the bottom of my heart. I'm excited that each time we get together, we look at a Bible verse, and I'm all the way back in Genesis, in chapter 9, in verse 17. And the Bible said and God said unto Noah this is the token of the covenant which I've established between me. Here it is me and all flesh, me and all flesh that is upon the earth. Now, all the way back in the book of Genesis, chapter 9, the God of heaven was making a promise, a covenant between him and all human beings. God loves the world. We know that from the New Testament, but did you know that all the way from the very beginning. We started with the book of Genesis, 1 and verse 1. God created us, and now we're all the way to Genesis 9, and the flood has taken place and God's still saying I'm here for all people. He's going to say that all the way through the Bible.

W. Austin Gardner:

What a missionary verse. I challenge you, young person, to take the time to study that verse and to realize that God's not here just for your country and just for your people, but he is honestly concerned and in love with everybody on the planet. So that's our verse for the day. Now I'm going to be bringing you through the Old Testament because I just want you to know that the Great Commission is not the reason we do world evangelism. In all honesty. It's an entire Bible truth, an entire Bible time. All the Bible talks about it, and I'm going to give you 150 verses, probably before it's over. It'll take me about three years to get through it, but anyway it ought to challenge you to know that our God is a missionary God, and so the second thing I want to look at with you today is our country of the week, and our country of the week is Pakistan, and that is the fifth largest country in the world, so I just thought I'd let you know. That is the fifth largest country in the world, so I just thought I'd let you know. India is now the largest country in the world, by over 3 million people and growing every day, and China's in second place, united States in third, and then Indonesia comes in at fourth. Now to number five. I may have said four a while ago, if I did. I'm wrong. Pakistan is the fifth largest country.

W. Austin Gardner:

Now let me give you some interesting facts. I've got pulled up over on another screen here. Pakistan is 95.8% Muslim. We have got to pray about how to get the gospel to the Muslim people of the world, about how to get the gospel to the Muslim people of the world. Operation World, which, as you know, is where I am going to go for my statistics. I challenge you to get signed up for their daily email and to use them. What a great job they've done getting all this material together for us from all over the world. 53% is unevangelized, but grab this. 2.5% is all that says they're Christian, and only 6% 0.6%, less than 1%. 0.6% is all that claims to be evangelical. Now, 35% of the population one in three is a child under the age of 15. That's a great thing. It is a very difficult country, obviously, because when you talk about the persecution ranking, it is number seven. Operation World only lists the top 50 most persecuting countries in the world and Pakistan made it to the list as number seven.

W. Austin Gardner:

Now I would like to introduce you to a book and you probably have heard of it, but if you haven't heard of it, I want to challenge you to get your copy of From Jerusalem to Irian Jaya. It's a biographical history of Christian missions. It was written by Ruth Tucker and it is actually my favorite because it's more like layman missionary reading story after story and you can read it and learn all about such good things there. Now it's a larger book. You know some people shy away from big books. This is 528 pages, but it's covering everything from the time of Christ till today in world evangelism. Now you might not like everything about the book, but you're going to like a whole lot more than what you don't like. So if you haven't got a copy of From Jerusalem to Injaya, I hope you'll get a copy of it and I hope you'll dive into it.

W. Austin Gardner:

Read it from cover to cover, get excited that God is in the missionary business, and he always has been. You're a young person and you're trying to figure out exactly where God wants you and what God wants to do with your life. I can promise you this God loves the world and he wants the whole world to be saved, and so I hope you'll pray and think about going as a missionary to some part of the world. There are so many ways you can be involved. I just met with my friend, David Maddox today for lunch and we talked about his trip. He took a month-long trip and whenever he reaches the modern age and I can get him set up on some equipment, I'm going to have him Zoom with us and you can hear about it. He spent one month. He went to Cambodia and Thailand and he went to I can't remember where else and to Papua New Guinea and he had a great time all by himself, nobody there, and met with almost no American missionaries, and he was out there just digging in and learning about what God's doing in the world. And we talked at lunch God has a plan for you. And he met with his children. His son-in-law is a missionary, a helicopter pilot, with Ethnos and they're the Wycliffe Bible translators there in Papua New Guinea.

W. Austin Gardner:

I just want you to know there's a job for you. I am pushing, I push church planting, but right now Ethnos is looking for doctors and nurses. They're looking for a CPA, they're looking for people that help with the Bible translation, who just so much need. I want you to know there's a place for you around the world. I want you to know you can be involved in getting the gospel message to the world. So don't leave without thinking. I can take the next step, and maybe you're a little nervous about it, but I'll be more than happy to help you via email or Zoom or in-person meetings, because you can take that next step Now.

W. Austin Gardner:

I always like to tell you a story or introduce you to somebody that God is doing something really special with, and so today I have looked up what God's doing with John and Betty, or what God did with John and Betty Stamm. I'm sure you probably know a little bit about them, but here's just some interesting facts for you to take home. Now. He's really kind of our generation Well, not you younger people, the ones I'm really talking to. He was born in 1907, and my dad was born in 1929, so he was only born 22 years earlier he went to Moody Bible Institute in Chicago and prepared to be a missionary, and Betty, his wife and John separately, found that God wanted them to be missionaries and they went to the mission field and they didn't get married until they were in China serving God there under the China Inland Mission In December of 1934, they were captured and they had a little girl named Helen Priscilla.

W. Austin Gardner:

She was just a few weeks old when they were captured by the communists and it's a sad story, to be honest with you, but a glorious story. They were executed in 1934, in December. The story is told that they said if he wouldn't renounce Jesus, they would cut his head off. And his wife said Honey, stand for Jesus, even if it means our lives. And he stood for Jesus and he died. And then she was killed almost immediately after that.

W. Austin Gardner:

They knew what was really interesting is they knew the trouble was there. They knew that the communist forces were moving. They knew that the conflict was coming. They didn't try to escape. Instead they trusted God and what God would do, and so on. The night before they were executed, betty John's wife managed to hide a letter she had written to the CIM office China Inland Mission office and she explained about their capture and she expressed their faith in God and God's plans, and that becomes a tremendous testimony to who they are and what happened in their lives. Well, the baby was left all alone, but there were Chinese Christian believers and they found her and they rescued her. And so John and Betty Stamm, and they rescued her. And so, John and Betty Stamm, what challenging people God has raised up for us to look at and think about and pray for and believe that God could do something great in our lives. Do you realize that right now, in the countries that we've been able to cover in these few short weeks that we've been doing this, right now we have talked about, the greatest percentage of the world's population are in need of the gospel, and God wants to call you, and God has a plan for you and God will work in your life and God will do something big with you if you'll just trust Him.

W. Austin Gardner:

I want to stop just real quickly and offer you a copy of Are you Called? Now, when this podcast comes out, I will be in Arequipa, Peru, and so you can't expect me to do what I'm about to say immediately, but if you are willing to help me to promote what we're trying to get accomplished here, and you will put a post online. And this is just a little booklet, just a little booklet. You'll put a post online that says, hey, you liked it, you're learning something that God's working in your life, that I'm going to send you a free copy of this little booklet. It's a little booklet, but it is pretty powerful. And so because what I've done here, I wanted to help all you young people that are listening right now, and so what I've done is put together in the book a checklist for your personal life. That's just one example, and under that checklist for your personal life, I've listed 10 things that you ought to consider. So you see, you want to know are you called? And then you want to know are you ready? I probably should have named this are you ready for your call, but I didn't.

W. Austin Gardner:

For example, number one can you give a clear, confident testimony of your salvation based on the written word of God? Do you know that you're saved and are you able to articulate that? So you want to get where you can do that. And then the second checklist that's prepared for you here. They're just very short because they're meant to take quite a while Not a lot of reading to be done, but a lot of thinking and praying to be done. And the second one says can you explain and defend your fundamental doctrinal beliefs?

W. Austin Gardner:

See, if you're going to be a missionary, you've got to teach the Bible. If you're going to be a missionary, you've got to be able to help people. And can you sit down with people and explain to them exactly what you believe and why? How do you get saved? Is it salvation by grace, through faith, and not of yourselves? It's a gift of God. If you had to explain baptism, could you explain baptism? And could you show them the Bible verses? How prepared are you to be the person that would share the ministry?

W. Austin Gardner:

Now, a lot of the guys the ones I really want to talk to you may not be married yet, but you're going to be. So I got this in here how do you and your family make significant decisions? Because in marriage you're going to have to figure out how you make decisions, and so you're going to work through that. What's your practice with family devotions? Have you explained to your spouse what the expectations are? That's a really good conversation thing. This was not written to be a book you read. It was written to be a conversation you have.

W. Austin Gardner:

Then there's a checklist for your financial life. You ready, hang on. What's your credit score? What's your credit score? Do you have a savings plan for retirement? Have you studied Bible principles about money and the relationships between them? So I want to challenge you. We talked about the treasure principle in the last podcast, and so that's a good book to get started on that.

W. Austin Gardner:

The next checklist is about your church life, and I start off very simply for you to think about. If you're going to be a missionary and you're not faithful to church, you probably aren't going to be involved in church planning. Are you? Are you faithful to your local church? That means all the regular services and any special services. Do you take part in a church's evangelistic outreach? So you're going to answer a bunch of questions. There's 14 questions there for you to consider, and then there's a checklist for your public ministry.

W. Austin Gardner:

See, I tend to work on a plan in my head Be, do, serve, train and be is who you are. It's the hidden you, it's your identity in Christ, if you understand that, but it's the character. It's you in private. It's the you that no one knows, but you Because, you see, once we get up and go public, we put on makeup, we put on one of our masks and we walk out into the public. But the most important part of your life you could ever work on is your B-level, who you are, who you are and what's your walk with Christ like. Then you have your do-level and it's still private, but I call it your personal level because it's how you live out who you are. You see, we don't do to be, we do because we are.

W. Austin Gardner:

And so then, above that, you have your public level, and that's how you're known. He's a Christian, he's a Sunday school teacher, he's a bus worker, he's a missionary, he's a preacher teacher, he's a bus worker, he's a missionary, he's a preacher. Whatever it is. That's how you're known and how you're looked at. But you know you can easily kind of fake that part, can't you? You can pretend to be what you're not if you're not careful. And then the last level is what I call the priority, and that is that you'll train others. So I base the questions basically on that who are you? Personal level? What do you do? How's your public life? How's your church life? And then are you going to train. So the last one is your public ministry, and is there anyone in the church serving God that you led to Christ? Can you identify clearly and confidently and express your call to the ministry? So 14 more questions.

W. Austin Gardner:

I want to offer that to you. If you'll just go on social media, I'm only on Facebook and Twitter. I'm on Facebook and Twitter and Instagram and LinkedIn. If you're going to any of those and you will just make a comment, a good, positive comment, about the podcast and tag me in there, then I will come. I will send you a free copy of the booklet as soon as I land back on American soil. I just want to get that to you, but not that much money. I mean honestly, it cost me a little over $3 to get it printed, but it still, I think, could be a help to you and I want to challenge you to do that.

W. Austin Gardner:

I want you young people to listen just briefly to me. God has a plan for you and God wants to do great things in your life. I know because at one time I was young and I was intimidated and I was nervous. I felt like I couldn't ever admit to anyone that God might have called me to preach, because I felt like I don't know. I don't know if I measure up, it's kind of like the imposter syndrome. I don't know if I can really say that's who I am or say that's what I do. And so I just want you to know, as you listen to me today, that I love you and the World Evangelism Podcast hosted by Austin Gardner we love you and we want to help you in your walk, and I'd love individual contact with you. I can walk you from the day you know you're called or if you're thinking about the call, all the way through to help you learn the language and learn the culture and get set up. I am more than willing to help you, excited to be a part of helping you and what you're doing. So I just want to be a part of that. I want you to know someone's in your corner and someone will believe in you and someone will help you. Now I'd like to say this to those of you that you know you're the senders, you're the supporters. You don't feel that God has called you to go to the mission field. You are a stayer, and there is nothing wrong with that at all, because as long as we're doing what God wants us to do, then we're doing the right thing, aren't we? But if you are one that stays here, can I challenge you to be a friend and a counselor and a mentor and a helper?

W. Austin Gardner:

There in your local church are young people that God would have in the ministry, but they don't have anyone who takes a personal interest in them. They need someone they can learn to pray from. I remember going into Pastor Willard Willis' office first church I worked in as a staff member and every Sunday morning Brother Willard was a country man, what a man of God. And he'd say, hey, let's have prayer, and we'd get down on our knees at two chairs in his office and sometimes others would be there and he'd just lead in prayer and I'd listen and, boy, he touched heaven. He was just such a sweet man of God. It did a work in my heart, a work in my life. I prayed, he prayed, and whoever else was there.

W. Austin Gardner:

That's how you learn to pray. You know how you learn to witness to people. You go with somebody who's doing some witnessing. Do you know how you learn to share your faith? By being with somebody sharing their faith? I had another friend that was just a dynamic, outflowing, excited gospel sharer, outflowing, excited gospel sharer. And he helped me tremendously to learn how to do that. How do you learn to give People that give and you get to see them giving, you get to see it. Man, they write that check, they fill out that envelope. Whatever it is they do, they're involved in giving.

W. Austin Gardner:

So I think if you're a stayer, you have a massive work that you can do, and that work is that you can show genuine interest in the young people, listen to them, share your heart, share your love. And I'll just say this If you're staying, you ought to be giving. If you're staying, you ought to be praying. If you're staying, you ought to be preparing others. If you're staying, I want you to know there's no negativity meant by this at all.

W. Austin Gardner:

When our United States military goes to the field, when our United States military goes to the field, a small percentage go and the bases that taught them how to do it, trained them on how to do it and showed them how to do it. They're still here and they're still doing the same work they've always done and they're still keeping up the work. And that's what we're going to do. We don't quit, we don't walk away. The base has to be strong. You know, the most powerful thing you could do to destroy any work would be to destroy the home base. So you need to be strong. You need to be strong. So I challenge you to do that. I challenge you.

W. Austin Gardner:

Then I'd like to say just a brief word to the missionaries. I want you to know that people do love and highly respect you. But you're going to have to learn what it's like to be alone with God. I cannot explain to you what it was like when I arrived in Adikipapuru back in 1988. Social media didn't exist and how in the world I couldn't stay in touch with people. A phone call was $3 to $4 a minute from the states down and much more from Peru up. My support wasn't enough to be able to pay that.

W. Austin Gardner:

But you know, you got to learn to stay on Jesus. Learn to your stayed on Jesus. You got to learn that the most important part of every day is separating time to spend alone with the Lord Jesus in prayer. If you don't do that, you won't be strong. You can't live off of others. I was home on furlough and I was in a meeting and this missionary stood up and said I couldn't have made it much longer if I hadn't have gotten here. I needed what's going on in this meeting and without a doubt you might need what's going on in the meeting. But I thought to myself we can't live on what we get from other Christians. We got to live on what we get from the Holy Spirit of God and the Word of God in prayer as he works in our lives. So I just want to challenge you to make deep Spanish is about to come out profundidad to make a deep relationship with the Lord Jesus. Time alone in prayer time, in meditation time, listening to the Holy Spirit, time being sensitive, because that's what it's going to take to last as a missionary. You must walk with God. That's the most crucial thing.

W. Austin Gardner:

I love having the World Evangelism Podcast because in the World Evangelism Podcast, each week I want to share with you the country of the week, which is Pakistan. I want to share a passage of Scripture with you, which is Genesis 9-17, where we're talking about how God is making a covenant with all flesh, and we've talked about John and Betty Stamm, people that far greater spiritual life than I've ever dreamed of and gave their lives. We talked about a fantastic book From Jerusalem to Idianjaya and we talked about helping young people as senders and as goers. You've got to be stayers too, because the key is going to be to how well you will stay in touch with the Lord, how well you will let Him work in your life, how well you'll let Him make a difference.

W. Austin Gardner:

Now, as I close, for today, I'm in the country of Arequipa, peru, well, in the country of Peru, in the city of Arequipa, and I'm offering you this book. Are you Called? But for you to get that, you need to go to social media. Put out a post. You, to get that, you need to go to social media. Put out a post. Please recommend us and help us get people with us on the World Evangelism Podcast. Help us on the YouTube channel if that's where you're watching by giving us a like and sharing it, and I will send you a free copy of this little booklet. It's just a little booklet, just a little booklet. Only got like 38 pages in it, and I'll send this to help you in your discussion and in your walk with the lord.

W. Austin Gardner:

Now, my name is austin gardner w. Austin gardner, william. Austin gardner w. Austin gardner. The w stands for my well, that's my initial for william, and I am guillermo in spanish, and I am delighted to get to spend some time with you and I would just please give us a like, please give us a share, please comment with others, help us, help young people be motivated to carry the gospel message of Jesus Christ around the world. Isn't that the goal? World evangelism sharing the love of Jesus with people all over the world. God bless you and thank you for being with us today in the World Evangelism Podcast.

People on this episode

Head Shot

Austin Gardner

Host