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LESSONS LEARNED ON THE MISSION FIELD – PART 19: How Can I Help You? by Larry Stout Last Sunday a young man came up to me before church as I was setting up the drums and asked a question in Russian. When I asked him to repeat the question, he could tell by my accent that Russian was not my native language, and asked me in English, "Are you American?" I could tell that he was also from the US, and I quickly learned that he was from a church in California and was exploring full-time mission work in Latvia. He particularly wanted to plant new churches. He had attended the first service and was meeting his wife who had been attending a different church, and since I was preparing for the second worship service, I also did not have a great amount of time for a discussion.

LESSONS LEARNED ON THE MISSION FIELD – PART 18: God Works in Our Working by Larry Stout In early 1992, there was a foundation that showed an interest in my work in educational reform of a nation and literally asked me to write a blank check. If I had unlimited resources, what would I do? It never came through, of course, but it was fun to dream (my request was estimated at something around $3.5 million). What was amazing, however, was discovering about seven years later that virtually everything I had proposed in that ‘dream’ had taken place! It was not all by my endeavors, of course, but I had seen early how Christianity could impact the educational system of the newly formed Republic of Latvia.

LESSONS LEARNED ON THE MISSION FIELD – PART 17: The Need to Lead by Larry Stout
One of the standard questions I ask when starting a leadership seminar is to ask why so many books on leadership come from a sports or military context.  What do athletic contests and military engagements have in common?  The most obvious observation is that they both have very clear objectives.  In both cases, it is clear who wins and who loses, and because this objective is so straightforward, it is easier for a sports coach or military general to focus all the resources and energies toward that end.  This is why we recognize leaders so easily in those domains – we can tell if they were successful.

LESSONS LEARNED ON THE MISSION FIELD – PART 16: The Wonder of the English Language by Larry Stout
God certainly has a sense of humor, by sending on the mission field two individuals who are probably the worst language learners in the world.  In high school and college, I struggled hopelessly with trying to learn French, Spanish, German, and Greek – all to no avail.  And for the past fifteen years, Debbie and I have struggled with not one but two different foreign languages that are spoken in Latvia.  Debbie has less inhibition than me, and manages to communicate by mixing together Latvian, Russian and English to get her message across.  I only speak in Latvian and Russian when I am sure of what I am saying (which is not very often), and more often than not will utilize a translator for anything that borders on importance if the listeners do not understand English.

LESSONS LEARNED ON THE MISSION FIELD – PART 15: The Centrality of the Church by Larry Stout
When Debbie and I entered the mission field in 1991, what we knew about being missionaries could probably have been written on a half sheet of paper.  But on that half sheet would have been this principle – the church is to be the sending and support agency of the missionary.
The book of Acts is very revealing in this regard.  On the Day of Pentecost, the church was birthed with great fanfare.  The early church in Jerusalem had much to admire – they had the apostles teaching them, new members joining daily, miracles manifested, and fellowship that was so deep that they literally shared everything they had with one another.  Yet this is the church that the Lord broke up!  Despite the command they had from Jesus to take the gospel to every part of the world, they seemed content to stay right where they were. 

LESSONS LEARNED ON THE MISSION FIELD – PART 14: The Value of One by Larry Stout
I remember the discussions I had with my wife when the subject first came up about adopting Olya.  I was already bugged about her ruining my weekends by bringing home an orphan and even spending weeks at a time with us over the summer months.  I tried to explain to her that we had a whole nation to reach and that exerting so much time and energy on one person was just not a good allocation of resources.  
My wife already understood what I had yet to learn – the value of one.  In a typical American mindset, I was thinking in terms of volume.  More is always better.  My problem was that this was not the way Jesus thought.  Yes, he taught the masses, but it was obvious that he invested the majority of his time with just twelve, and even further than that, with three.  This was not exactly good time management, from my perspective.

LESSONS LEARNED ON THE MISSION FIELD – PART 13: Bible Basics by Larry Stout
“So, Larry, what are you reading right now?”
My dear Great Aunt Elizabeth would ask me that same question every time I saw her.  She had been a schoolteacher for over fifty years, and my earliest memories of my family’s monthly visits were her inquiries about my reading habits.  She did not want to know about my school subjects – she was interested in my own reading.  I was amazed that no matter what book I might be reading, Aunt “E” seemed to know everything about it, and grill me intensely.

LESSONS LEARNED ON THE MISSION FIELD – PART 12: According to Your Faith by Larry Stout
In Matthew 9, two blind men pleaded with Jesus to be healed.  He asked them, “Do you believe that I am able to do this?”  When they answered yes, he touched their eyes and said, “According to your faith will it be done to you” (verse 29).  I believe that this statement of Jesus applies to mission work as well.  It is according to our faith, or more particularly our theology that determines what we expect from the Lord.
When we first felt called to the Soviet Union, some of our pre-millineum friends were aghast because according to their faith, the USSR was to invade Israel, which would signal the beginning of the Great Tribulation.  They almost seemed offended that Russians could be saved because it would foul up their theology!  This was utter nonsense to us, because the promise of the Lord is that the Lord would call to Himself a “great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language.” (Revelation 7:9)

LESSONS LEARNED ON THE MISSION FIELD – PART 11: Back to Iraq
by Larry Stout
I have written on the War on Terror and the War in Iraq numerous times over the past few years, and some have asked me why an American missionary in Latvia gets so wrapped up in this issue.  The reasons are numerous, actually, but perhaps the most pertinent is because as an American working in a secular European university, I am often asked to explain the actions of the United States government.  There are other Americans who teach part-time at my school, but they are almost universally of a leftward bent and thus only add cannon fodder to the anti-American animosity that runs among European youth.  It is not only among the young.  The director of the World Bank in Latvia asked me to be her leadership coach, but when she found out I actually saw George W. Bush as an effective leader, she was ready to change her mind.  (It took some convincing, but after some time, she eventually came to appreciate my views on GWB).  In a sea of dissent, I feel like the only boat afloat that is attempting to put American foreign policy into some sort of positive context.