Availability, Dependability and Expendability

19 September 2010

Dear Phyllis,

Several years ago I was speaking to a large team who had come from the states for Bible runs into Vietnam and Laos. I began my message by saying that I wanted to talk to them about three ABILITIES. Ability is the least important. God is not looking for outstanding people with great ability. Very often these are the ones that God sets to one side saying He can’t use them. But the three qualifications that are the object of God’s search are; first AVAILABILITY, secondly DEPENDABILITY, and thirdly EXPENDABILITY.

The first one is obvious. It is imperative that a person is simply available. There are very few who are. Most of us are busily engages in doing our own thing. We have our own agenda and are not open to anything outside of what we have in mind. But if the will of God is a higher priority than our agenda, that makes a person available for God to use them in a capacity other than what they had in mind.

The second ability, dependability, is also fundamental. Paul summed it up when he said, “Moreover it is required of a steward that he be found faithful” (1Cor. 4:2). Only a fool would put much confidence in a man who was not faithful to perform some important task. And God is not that kind of a fool. To do His work He must have faithful servants who He can trust.

Expendability is not a qualification that is too highly considered today, but we are coming to a time in missions when this is going to be basic for anyone on the cutting edge for the advancement of the Kingdom of God. If a person is not expendable this means he is not available for missions that might cost his life. Jesus paid with His life to save us, and He has commanded His servants to follow Him. How in the world this obsession for safety crept into the church in America I don’t know, but it certainly is the dead opposite of what Jesus taught about taking up a cross and following Him. To those who heard Him then, that message had a singular meaning. When a man picked up a cross, there was no need to be concerned about safety. His future was settled. His next stop would be death – not deliverance.

I knew brother several years ago who was asked to go on an extremely dangerous mission in Laos. For all practical purposes it looked like a suicide one-way mission. In Vietnam and Laos passing out tracts is an automatic invitation for coffee and cake at the police station. In Vietnam the time factor is about 30 minutes. In Laos the response time is slower, but in these two countries it is guaranteed that you will be invited for a fellowship meeting at the police station. (Arrested)  In Laos the only way to pass out tracts is to put them in a box, under a blanket, or hide them in a book or someplace where they will be found later. Hopefully, the person who hid them is out of town by the time someone finds them. In the dangerous countries in SEA you never stay in the same town where you go to distribute tracts.

Bob had been asked to take a team of three other young folks to go into the southern Laos town of Saraten to tract bomb (distribute). One of their missions was to pull the Lao police down on them so that other teams could go into towns further north the next day to saturate these towns with tracts. They packed their backpacks full of tracts which weighed out exactly 100 kg (224 lbs.) The two girls carried 20 kg each and the boys carried 30 kg in their packs.

The first day they went down to Ratchathani, and then proceeded the next day to cross into Laos at Chong Mek. From there they went to Pakxe and caught a bus another 120 km to Saraten. Saraten is a very different town. I have been there several times and it is unlike anyplace I have been. It is literally the end of the road in Laos. There was virtually no center of town. You could stand in the center of town and wonder where it was. There was only one guest house in town, and that was 2 km from the bus terminal – which was only a field with no buildings.

The team took a tuk tuk (small three wheeled taxi) to the guest house and split up to explore the town to see how they could handle their mission the next day. At 9:00 PM they got back to the guest house to discuss their plans. Bob said, to him, the task looked impossible. Ted was more optimistic and suggested they leave the guest house at 5:00 AM and pass out the tracts as they walked one way to catch the 6:00 AM bus back to Pakxe. Bob responded, “That is a great idea, but how am I supposed to get the tracts out of my backpack? I’ve got 30 kg on my back and can’t get them out without taking my backpack off.” Then he suggested, “If you want to try that, we might go out at 6:00 and pass out half where we could carry them in a shoulder bag, and then walk one way to the bus terminal to take the 10:00 o’clock bus out of town.” That sounded like the only plausible approach.

The next morning they split up and walked the most desolate streets in Saraten to distribute tracts. An hour later they reassembled at the guest house. Bob’s success was zero. Ted did the same. They never had ten seconds without peering eyes watching them. In those days foreigners in Saraten looked like aliens. The girls came back five minutes later thoroughly terrified. They said, “We have been discovered!” They had put a tract under a rock and 10 seconds later a boy had grabbed it running around showing it to everyone.

It was 7:00 AM Tuesday morning. They had just proven that their mission was indeed impossible. Bob summed up their scenario that they had three options. One, they could put all their tracts in a trash can and hope no one would find them until they were safely back in Thailand. Even then, they were concerned that if someone found the tracts first, they might be arrested at the border. Two, they could pack all their tracts back to Thailand with them. And three, they could get three folks out of town and leave one turkey behind to pay the price and pass out the tracts. They all agreed that those were the only possible options.

Bob was not a gifted brother but he did have one unusual attribute. He was totally expendable. He had no family. He had no connections. And he had no other responsibilities. He could disappear and the world would be impoverished by nothing.

He took the other three team members to the bus terminal and loaded them on the 10:00 o’clock bus. The last thing                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        he said was, “When you get back to Thailand, please call Japan and tell them what happened to me. And please cancel my flight out of Bangkok Thursday night.” When that bus pulled out Bob said that was the most desolated feeling he ever experienced. It was just like watching the last rocket ship go back to the earth leaving him standing on the face of the moon. Then a tremendous peace came over his heart. He didn’t have to worry about getting caught anymore. He had crossed that bridge. It wasn’t a matter of getting arrested, but how much he could get accomplished before he would be in jail.

To abbreviate the story, he got a motor bike and started riding all over town passing out tracts like a politician running for office. He passed out tracts to police and everyone. He said it was the easiest thing he ever did. People had never seen them and begged him for some. Three hours later he was back in his guest house room shaking his backpack upside down. It was slam empty! He couldn’t believe it! He had passed out 100 kg of tracts in three hours without being arrested.

That night he could hardly sleep. At 5:00AM he was leaving the guest house when he was greeted by the secrete police at the door and arrested. He hadn’t signed in the guest book and wrote down a different name and changed the number for his passport. Suddenly he realized that up until then he had been totally clothed in the amour of light (Rom. 13:12). He couldn’t have been more open. But when he wrote the wrong name and passport number he stepped into darkness and into the devil’s trap.

For three hours he was kept under house arrest at the guest house. Then six secrete policemen assembled to interrogate him. The lead man roared, “You are a Christian!” Bob roared right back, “Of course I am a Christian! Why don’t you become a Christian?” That so rattled everyone that all six men seemed intimidated by him. Bob said it was funny. No one wanted to talk to him. After 15 minutes of the most benign interrogation where the only thing they asked him was if he had any more “books”. Bob replied, “No, I am totally out but I will go get some more for you.”

Then an incredible miracle happened. They handed him his passport and said, “That is all.” Something like that had never happened in Laos. Bob thanked them, shook hands all around the room, and promised to come back. He threw his empty backpack over his shoulder and got to the bus terminal in time to catch the 10 o’clock bus for Pakxe. He got to the Thai border by 4:45 and safely checked out of Laos. A taxi was there waiting for him to take him to the bus terminal in Ratchathani. Bob was back in Chiang Mai by noon the next day.

 That afternoon he debriefed with the man who had asked him to go on this ridicules mission. He had worked in Laos for many years and said he had never heard anything liked it. A friend had bought him a plane ticket for Bangkok and Thursday night he was on a plane headed back to Japan.

That was one of the most amazing stories I had ever heard about work in Laos. Years later I was in Laos talking with one of the most knowledgeable missionaries working there and asked him, “Do you know anything about Saraten?” He said, “Yes, my wife is down there right now disciplining one of the most outstanding ladies we have ever met in Laos. Someone was down there seven years ago and handed her a tract.” I have subsequently heard that there is a strong church in Saraten.

 Bob is still floating around serving the Lord. Maybe someday he might join a large crowd of followers of Jesus in giving his life for others, but until then he is using his one great ability – expendability. That is what we all need.