By Elisha Chua - Regional Representative for Wycliffe Bible Translators International in the Asia-Pacific Area
My call came in 1977. I was in Ipoh, a small town 200 km north of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. We just finished an evangelistic meeting and we were very tired. I was only nineteen and so sleep came easily to me. But at about 2 am, I was awakened. Rudely I would say! It was like somebody shook me hard. And then, unmistakably, a voice asked me to pray in the kitchen. Incredulous - I had never woken up at 2 am to pray before, yet that night I felt the urgency to do so. Gingerly I stepped around the other church members sleeping in the room and made my way to the kitchen. I took a chair, knelt beside it and began to pray very fervently. As my prayer intensified, I could sense the presence of God in the kitchen. It was a powerful presence. It filled the whole kitchen and I began to weep.
And then it happened. A still small voice came and spoke ever so clearly that He was calling me into the ministry. I began to cry uncontrollably. I resisted the voice. Like Moses I gave many objections and reasoned with Him why I could not and should not do it. It was a two-hour tussle between God and me. But God won that night and I dedicated myself to full-time ministry.
I am the only son in the family. As the only son, the burden of filial piety was heavy on my shoulder. When I became a Christian three years earlier, my mother wept. How could I tell her that I would be going to a Bible school instead of a university? How could you tell that to a mother who had placed all hopes on her only son?
As I look back, 30 years later, I can truly say, God is a good God. Today, my mother is a Christian. And I am a missionary with
Wycliffe Bible Translators. I have served in Malaysia, the Middle East and am currently serving in Indo-China. But I have not always been a missionary. I was a pastor and had served in that ministry for twelve years before becoming involved in the world of missions. Do I have any regrets becoming a missionary? No. It has been such enjoyable years. Even though there were challenges and difficult years, my wife and I are enjoying serving God more than ever before.
I still remember a pillow talk I had with my wife. I asked her, "Shall we exchange a ministry where a pay check is assured at the end of each month for one which we have to live by faith?" Without any hesitation, she replied, "Yes, if the Lord is leading us into it." So, we resigned from the church and joined Wycliffe Bible Translators.
Since there was no national office in 1994, we became the first two members. I was appointed as the Executive Director subsequently and served in that capacity for ten wonderful years. The first two years were difficult years. We did not have adequate financial support to start our assignment immediately. We were living on our savings most of the time. And frequently we used our own money to keep the office going as there was insufficient fund.
Opening the letter box was quite exciting those years. Quite often I would pray very hard before opening the letter box. I would pray that there would be an envelope inside it. If it did, I would say, "Praise the Lord!" And then, I would pray there would be a cheque in that envelope for the office. When it did, I would praise Him aloud!
From a small one-room office, the Malaysian office grew quickly. I visited pastors and churches from town to town, promoting Bible translation. Usually I would take two to three days to cover a small town but a week for a bigger town. I was like a traveling salesman with all types of brochures, but I was a salesman for the Lord. As churches knew about me, different invitations came in and very quickly the calendar would be full. I preached almost every Sunday, hardly taking any rest. Nevertheless, I would only preach on missions and nothing else.
Every year we recruited new members. They came from all kinds of occupations: teacher, pastor, student, banker, stock broker, accountant, zoologist, etc. By the time I stepped out to an international role in 2003, we had members assigned to the Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Nepal, Pakistan, China, Europe, Indonesia, North Africa, and Bangladesh. All of them have the same passion - to see lives transformed by the Word of God. Many wanted to serve full-time but were afraid of public speaking and pastoral work as they felt that their talents and personalities were not competent in those areas. As we enlightened them on other areas of service, they began to see and understand that mission work was not always about preaching, healing the sick and church planting. They could see themselves contributing to world evangelism using their skills and personalities. They understood they could also make a difference to thousands of lives. And they are doing that now in different countries.
One of our greatest joys was recruiting missionaries for the Lord. The Lord put us in a position to help many to find their ways to world missions. It was a delight to talk to Christians who were enthusiastic and looking for direction about missions. We spent hours talking and found great satisfaction guiding these friends into the field. To be able to encourage Christians to do cross-cultural mission work and to see them impact lives for Jesus Christ - nothing can beat that!
I still remember a lady who came to me. She was a sales manager and was very well-paid. She said it was so difficult to give up her career even though her heart was in missions. She asked, "Why I can't use my money to support missionaries instead?" I replied, "Look, you are a sales manager, right? It is because you are the best and that is why the company wants you to be their sales manager. You are highly skilled, motivated and obviously very talented." I paused and then looked into her eyes and said, "And that is why God wants you. You are the best and He wants the best to serve Him so that they can make a difference out there. God does not want people who are unable to find a job and then go into the ministry because they cannot find anything else to do. He wants quality and highly talented people like you to serve Him because you can make a difference out there." Quality people makes quality ministry. Today that lady is serving in an overseas country and her ministry is touching many souls for the Lord.
What about you right now? What is stopping you from accepting God's call, and the "Macedonian call" of the Bible-less peoples of the world? It may be a well-paid job like this lady. It may be family obligations like mine. It may be both, and more! Yet, as this lady, countless others, and I have found out as we stepped out to follow the Lord, there is nothing like being in the forefront of what God is doing in this world. Will you join us?
Our main focus is on the unreached Bible-less people groups, and our prayer is that many lives will be transformed through the Word of God as we make it available in their mother tongues. We are challenging local churches and national leaders to take ownership of the Bible translation ministry so that it will be an indigenous ministry. After all, when the missionaries are gone, it is the local church that will continue the work. Pray to the Lord of the Harvest that more workers will be sent to the harvest fields that are already ripe.
