Commitment to Service 27.3.83 Mv Doulos — George Verwer

Maybe tomorrow I would like to share a little of the history of OM, Spain, the place that OM was born. I don't know if you knew that. The very name of OM was originally came to me when I came out of Russia in 1961, but the decision to actually go ahead with that vision was made in the mountains, 300 miles from here, outside Madrid, with a little group of Spaniards.

We had a day of fasting and prayer, and I shared this vision and asked them to be the leaders of this thrust operation, mobilization, and they, in fear and trembling, at that time Spain was a closed country, people were in prison, churches were closed, no open evangelism.

In those days we only dreamed, we only dreamed and prayed of what you have been able to do in the Canary Islands and in previous visits and in Operation Iberia, you know, openly in the streets of Spain.

I don't think we could say there's any nation in Europe more ripe for the gospel than Spain. And I guess I've been in all the countries except one or two. It's very, very, very much God's hour for Spain.

This country was closed, as I said, when I came here, I'm not that old, and now there's just complete freedom. I mean, that doesn't mean, you know, there's no obstacles. And as foreigners, there are always restrictions on foreigners to some degree, but basically there's freedom in Spain to stand out in the streets and give out tracts, to preach in the open air.

I know this probably, you know, doesn't mean much to some of you of this generation, because you don't know Spain 20 years ago. Franco, dictatorship, evangelicals persecuted, imprisoned, literature distribution, all of our tracts had to be printed in secret.

The first printing press I had was hidden in our bedroom in Madrid. It was a duplicating machine I bought, and I would spend hours and hours cranking off those tracts on this duplicating machine. Then I found a printer, a little tiny print shop in the back streets of Madrid, it was actually a little bit out in the country, who would be willing for money to print private clandestine illegal literature.

And I met one of the, then I got another printer in Barcelona, and we developed a network of getting literature out into the post, and we mailed 900 ,000 pieces of literature out to everybody in every telephone book in the nation.

All of it done behind closed doors, all of it illegal. We had to use a Portuguese address. I went to Lisbon to renew my visa, standard procedure in OM, renew my visa, and got a post box in Lisbon, then went back to Madrid and started printing these tracts.

And we printed them in Barcelona. When I was in Barcelona preaching recently, I met the printer who used to do some of this early work, and he remembers that as one of the greatest things he ever got involved in.

Well, maybe more about that tomorrow as the Lord leads. I want you to turn in your Bibles to Mark chapter 1, the Gospel of Mark. Matthew, Mark, Luke. There it is. Jesus, verse 16. Now as he walked by the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew his brother casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen.

Jesus’ Call to Follow and Fish for People

And Jesus said unto them, Come after me, and I will make you become fishers of men. And straightway they took their nets, or forsook their nets, and they followed him. When he had gone a little farther, he saw James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, who also were in the boat, mending their nets.

And straightway, that means immediately, he called them. They left their father, Zebedee, in the boat with the hired servants, and they went after him. I think probably some of you have heard me speak from this text before, but I'm not going to be giving the same message, so don't doze off.

Mark, chapter 2, verse 13, 14. And he went forth again by the seaside, and all the multitude came unto him, resorted unto him, and he taught them. And as he passed by, he saw Levi the son of Alphaeus.

This was Matthew. Sitting at the tax office, he said unto him, Follow me, follow me. And he arose and followed him. And it came to pass that as Jesus was eating in his house, many tax collectors and sinners sat also together with Jesus and his disciples, for there were many, and they followed him.

I want to speak to you, probably the strongest word I'm going to give. I think most of my speaking up to now has been rather gentle. Bits of information, maybe a little challenge, a little bit of balance, a few old ladies' fables, and hope you got something out of it.

But I feel that it's always good to have something at least a little more straight. We don't like to beat around the bush. And this is something I want to share. I know it's risky. In fact, perhaps there's no message I could give that will alter your whole future as this message tonight.

Because I want to speak to you on seven reasons why you must consider absolutely giving your whole life to full-time missionary work. You know, today there's a big move in short-term missionary work.

The Great Commission and Full-Time Missionary Commitment

It's good, but it's not the answer. It's good, but it's not the answer. It's part of the answer. And I'll defend short-term work, you know, till my dying day. But if we're going to get the job done, we need people who are going to say, My life, evangelism, fishing men.

That's what Jesus talks about. You know, some of your churches, they think it's great you come on a two-year program, especially when you're young. They don't know exactly what to do with you when you're young anyway.

We have quite a few churches send us their problem cases. We had another one recently, a real, a real basket case. And we called the pastor up at the end of the summer, and we said, You know, how did you recommend this person?

He said, Well, you know, we couldn't do anything with him. He's an impossible character. We thought you could. And some of the churches, after people have been with us two years, and suddenly they begin to blossom, and they're not so difficult to deal with, and they know something of the Word, know how to pray, then they don't want them to stay on OM any longer.

That's not a problem. But often they don't want them to go on any mission. They want them to join a church choir. You know, you've had your two years of training. You come back, be the church secretary, be the church custodian, or become a deacon.

Now, again, I can't judge that. But how in the world are we going to get the world evangelized if the church wants to hang on to all the really trained people, the gifted people, the communicators, the disciplined ones?

And I just feel that if we're going to see this job done, that the Lord gave us the job. It's not my job. The Lord gave us the job. Acts 1 .8. Just before He left, Jesus said, "...Ye shall be My witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost parts.".

The uttermost parts. And you can look up the references in Corinthians. You can look up the references in Romans, where Paul says, I want to go to the regions beyond. Where Paul says, I don't want to preach where Christ is already named.

I don't want to start a church down the road from already one of Barnabas' churches. I want to go to the regions beyond. That's 2 ,000 years ago. And I believe it's logical, it's reasonable, that a large number of you consider, with every inch of brain power and spiritual power you can muster up, the possibility that God wants you the rest of your life in evangelism.

Now, that's my testimony. And I don't share this kind of message much. I didn't even share it at the July conference. Because I want to be one of the first ones to say, if God leads you in a very clear way back to your home country, or the doors close so that you can't leave your own country, I'll be the last one to ever say you're out of God's will.

Because I'm not interested in you living in a guilt trip the rest of your life, thinking you missed God's plan. But I think my over-sensitivity and my fear that somebody's going to get, you know, feeling too guilty, has caused me to sometimes compromise the message of the Word of God.

In giving a clear call from the Scriptures and presenting clearly the reasons why you must consider this, the possibility of a life of service overseas. And I want to be clear. I'm talking about overseas, out of your own country.

Again, there's no problem if the Lord leads you very clearly to work for Christ in your own country. But that's not what's on my heart tonight. Because that's where most people end up. Those who do go full-time, 99 their own country.

Pastors, Sunday school directors, assistant pastors, big churches in America. I was just in one, 11 pastors. 11 full-time workers, 20 grand a shot, 40 grand for number one, one church. And, you know, that's what I'm talking about tonight.

I'm talking about leaving your country, even though you may love your country, and going to the unreached parts of the world. Now, I know that in your own countries there are still unreached people. I know in Brazil there's some unreached people.

I know in most countries there are little pockets of unreached people. And that's great. Brother Paez was sharing last time we talked, not this trip, but a year and a half ago, how only recently in Venezuela the church has got the vision to reach their own tribes.

You know, the city folk and the church people go out into the tribes. So all those things are important. But I want to speak to you, seven reasons why you should consider fishing in the lakes where there's not many other people fishing.

You know, it's crazy when you get 100 people all fishing in a pond, 30 foot by 40 foot. Your lines all get tangled up. Your bait gets all tangled up. You think you've got a big fish and all you've got is somebody else's line.

And this is the state of the church in many places. The lines are all tangled up. They've got each other's bait sitting in the pews. The pastors are fighting over which bait is better and which fish belong to their church and which fish belong to the church down the road.

And you've got people arguing over what kind of a fish you should be. You should be a Pentecostal fish or a Baptist fish or a Brethren fish, what kind of fish you should be. It's crazy. There's whole lakes down the road.

Just, you know, just get on a ship or get on a plane. There's a lake. Fish are jumping. They're leaping right out of the lake. There's nobody fishing. The climate's not pleasant around the shores. There's no McDonald's around the shores.

And it's so far from home. You can't be home for Christmas. Isn't it terrible? You can't be home for Christmas. My heart just breaks when I think some of you aren't going to get home for Christmas this year.

Really. You say, what a hard-hearted vagabond, this guy. Yeah, well, let me get to my reasons. I wrote my notes down here while you were praying. Number one, number one, the need is so, so unbelievably great.

The First Reason: The Unreached World’s Great Need

Now, I wish I had five hours to talk to you about the need. I don't have five hours. I've got to condense it. Some of you think Argentina needs more preachers, right? Probably. I talked to a man. He told me about a great missions conference in Argentina.

I don't want to pick on any countries, but I will anyway. And I met this man in Chicago. He's telling me about this great missions conference. Thousands were going there. I said, this is tremendous. Praise the Lord, brother.

How many missionaries are they sending out? Oh, no, we're not sending out any missionaries. I said, wait a minute. Could you repeat that? No, we haven't sent out any missionaries yet. This is just a missionary conference.

And I think he did mention that some are going out in Argentina. But overseas, it hadn't quite hit them. I think maybe they had thought about it a little bit. And when we think of the resources of Argentina, think of the churches in Argentina, you know, there should be a thousand workers out of Argentina.

They should have been out 20 years ago. And your Christian leaders, they're going to stand before God. You can write them gently and tell them. Maybe Perfetti better write the letter. But they're going to stand before God.

And their blood is going to be all over their hands. Because there's not an inch of Scripture that says that World Missions is an Anglo-Saxon event. There's not a scrap of Scripture that says World Missions is for Swiss, Germans, Swedes, English, Americans.

World Missions is for the whole church. And we cannot go on taking part of the Scriptures and leaving other parts of the Scriptures. And we've just got to face it. That though Argentina still needs work and still needs churches planted and still there are lost people in Argentina, same about Brazil, Chile, Peru, there is no comparison between those countries and Kurdistan or Balochistan or the Patan people or we could name 500 larger people's groups, just like that.

We could start naming people's groups. We've got the research more than ever before in the history of missions. No church. They say there's 2 ,000 or more people's groups. Some of them are very small.

No church. Not one church. No church. Turkey. Why aren't there people going from Argentina to Turkey? Is that another planet? Do you need a spaceship? Do you need a telegram from heaven? Does Jesus have to come on a white horse?

Grab you by the head? There are 40 million Turks. All the Turkish believers could sit in the first two rows, the first two rows of this auditorium. They need Christ. Jesus gave the command when? Ten years ago.

If it were ten years ago, we'd say, you know, you're a little slow. Ten years to obey. What's wrong? You got your foot stuck in your sandbox playing with when you were a child? But it was 2 ,000 years ago, brothers and sisters.

2 ,000 years ago. Now we know people don't live for 2 ,000 years, but the church has been going for 2 ,000 years. And some of the leaders in our church, we got leaders 50 years old, 70 years old. That means they got 70 years.

70 years of disobedience. That doesn't mean God doesn't bless them. God is merciful. But there's a sense that people who are not obeying the Word of God are living in continual disobedience or continual blindness.

Continual blindness. Other cases, it's continual selfishness. We're concerned about our own little church. How many do we have in our pews? How much money at the end of the week so I can get my salary increase?

Or so we can put a new organ in the church? Or so we can get a new stained glass window with Peter painted on it? Or so we can get some other strategic thing like a gospel bowling alley? No, really. I mean, the churches in America, that's a big thing now to have a gospel bowling alley.

I mean, what kind of church are you going to have without a bowling alley? And now we've got to have camps. Every church, big church in America, has got to have a Christian camp. I'm not against the Christian camp movement.

I know God uses that. But far more money goes into Christian camps than you could ever, ever, ever, ever imagine. And now they're luxury camps, air-conditioned, yachts, boats, airplanes. You know, you probably don't know all that's happening.

I don't want to get you depressed telling you about it. The need is so great, so great. Even an optimistic estimate would say 40 of the people in the world have not had the gospel. But we're not talking now about planting a church.

They haven't even heard yet. There is a church. Maybe 40%. Now that's encouraging in one sense because in the last 100 years, one of the greatest, probably the greatest missionary effort of all times has taken place.

And the 60 of the people in the world, that's my rough estimate, that they've received tracts and films or heard messages on the radio or seen a text on the billboard. Something. We know they're not totally evangelized.

But they've had a lot more than the other 40%. The other 40%. They've had nothing. Now on and on I could go about the need. The need is not the total thing, is it, to guide us. You're not guided only by need.

But it's one factor, right? You know Oswald J. Smith's old illustration. Ten people are carrying the log. One man's carrying one end of the log. Nine people are carrying the other end. Who are you going to help?

If you were a man of great gift and you were an engineer and a deck man and you came to apply to the Dulaws, you had this great talent, engineer and a deck man, unusual. And they had 400 people working on the deck.

That would be crowded. 400 people working on the deck. One guy alone in the engine room. Where would you work? You know, you don't need to go to college to make that decision. You don't need six courses in Greek.

You're going to go down to the engine room and help this one lonely guy. Generator's blowing up in his face. Main engine, well, that's okay. Electrical wiring looks like it's about to go. Elevator's about to drop through the bottom of the ship.

You're going to help this engineer, you know, who's all alone. The 400 deck men, they'll make it. How will you do, George, with 400 deck men? You'll go crazy. What I'd like to know, with a captain back there and a first mate here, who's keeping the thing going up there?

The Second Reason: Too Few Missionaries Are Going

No doubt it's on autopilot. No, we know there are other mates. But let's go to the second point. Second point. So few are going. So few are going. Muy pocos, muy pocos, eh, amigos? No muchos, pocos. Muy pocos Mexicanos, muy pocos Argentinos, muy pocos Brasilianos, whatever, cualquier cosa que se llama allí en América Latina.

Peruvianos, Chileites. ¿Cómo? Ah, bueno. Un día voy allí a ver lo que hay. But it's unbelievable, the number of people that nibble at missions. This is my fear sometimes for OM. It's a movement of missionary nibblers.

Have you ever gone fishing, and a little sunfish, I used to fish for sunfish. You know what sunfish are? It doesn't matter. Anyway, they swam along, and they just nibble. I used to put a worm on the end of my hook, this windy little sunfish nibble.

Never bite the hook. Just nibble away. Pretty soon all my bait's gone. No fish. Now we get a lot of nibblers. A lot of OM nibblers. Oh, OM, that's interesting. Especially the Americans. They give us, Canadians too, they join OM, you know how long they join?

Seven days. They go back to Canada. XOM-er. The number of Canadians that went to Mexico went up to, I don't know, to 200 this year. Seven day crusades. A long trip. They meet their wives on the bus going down.

You know, future wives. And they get engaged coming back. No, I mean, that doesn't happen, but almost. And we never hear from them again. We never hear from them again. They have had the OM experience.

And many of them never, never go overseas. It just breaks my heart. It just breaks my heart. And I'm very close to writing Burt and saying no more. I've already tried to cut it to maximum 100 Canadians to Mexico.

I'm going to Canada again for three weeks this year. Our number of recruits from Canada, even for the summer crusade, has dropped this year. And Canada is one of the most potential nations in the world for missions.

So, in fact, even when we look at America and Canada and England, and we throw in all the countries where there's been strong missionary forces, it's only a few. The Mormons have more men than all the churches of North America put together.

The Mormons. I tell you, that kicks me hard. That hurts me. It's this cult. There's a new film out, by the way, really exposing Mormonism, really exposing that thing. That is absolutely a dead ringer right from hell.

And yet they've got these, sometimes I think they're demon-possessed people, go out like little zombies, well-dressed, neckties. They're ready to mow your lawn. They're ready to, you know, they seem so friendly.

They've got these plastic faces. I tell you, it scares me. You ever get a Mormon on the door? It's like a record, like a phonograph record. It breaks my heart. Can't we get more men than the Mormon church out of North America?

So few. And we think of our seminaries. They're not able to produce missionaries. There are some that make it through. Very few get a vision in a seminary to go to the mission field. Our Bible schools, praise the Lord, have a better record.

Places like Moody and Prairie, all nations. I can name others, some in Singapore. Boy, they've made missions a priority. Prairie Bible Institute, I'm back there again in 1965 at their sort of deeper life meetings.

I was there at their missions conference. Many of you have heard those tapes. Boy, world missions, that's a priority. Praise God for those places. And there are other places. But despite all these great schools, very few go.

Very few. And many who do go, they go to countries where there are already many missionaries. Like the Philippines. Americans love to go to the Philippines. They like the Philippines. Like the food. Like the girls there.

I don't know what they like there. Because so many Americans go into the Philippines. They don't like to go there. They like to go to Kenya. Kenya has the highest per capita missionary rate in the world.

Now, if somebody tells me the Holy Spirit absolutely has led them to Kenya, no problem. But the church in Kenya, if it was obeying the New Testament, they would be sending hundreds of missionaries out to the unreached parts of Africa.

They're not even going to the Sudan. The Sudan is right north of Kenya. Very few Kenyan missionaries in the Sudan. I just don't understand it. I just don't understand it. Christians, they like to get in little clusters.

They like to get what other Christians are. And maybe, I don't know what's in the minds of some of these people. So very few are going. Now, when you get back home, you'll be given the traditional line.

You must settle down. What, are you going to be some kind of spiritual gypsy? People will insinuate that you're unstable. You need to settle down. How much education? You can't get anywhere in the world today without a degree.

They used to tell us we have to have a bachelor's degree or we were nothing. I don't have a bachelor's degree. I'm nothing. Then they tell you you have to get a bachelor's degree. A lot of my friends got bachelor's degrees.

I say, wait a minute. You said, if we got a bachelor's degree, that wouldn't happen anymore. They said, oh no, you've got to get a master's degree. All right. Get a master's degree. What do they tell you now?

You get a master's degree, you're nothing. You've got to get a doctor's degree. So you sweat and beat your brain out for three or four more years, and you get a doctor's degree. And then as an American, you go to Europe.

You know what they do? They all laugh. You say, that's a joke. That's an American doctor's degree. Where'd you get that? In a box of Wheaties? You've got to get a European doctor's degree. You've got to go to Oxford.

You've got to go to Cambridge. It's American education. That's just chicken feed. There's no end. You know, I'm not against education if that's the way the Holy Spirit leads. But I think it's a trick that so much, and William MacDonald teaches this and many others do, so much is laid on the altar of education, and it's not producing.

The men and the women the world needs to evangelize the multitudes and the millions. I remember an Indian who came to study at Moody. Oh, he left India. He came to Moody Bible Institute. He had a vision.

I won't give his name. But he got accustomed to the good life. You know, life's nice. States. So he went back to India, tried to be a missionary in his own country. One of the most needy nations in the whole world.

When he got back, he didn't like the food. It's his own food. He's an Indian. He didn't like the food. He didn't like the climate. He didn't like the water. Water. Indian water. He didn't like the water.

So his wife, you know, she was moaning, you know, India, what a dirty place. These are Indians. These aren't, you know, people from Scotland. So what do they do? Forget it, man. Quit the mission. Quit the whole thing.

Went back to the States. We got 20 ,000 Indians as engineers in New York City. We got far more Indians making money in New York than we got missionaries from one end of the India, and you can multiply it five times.

Something's got wrong. I protest. If I'm extreme, forgive me. You can write me a letter. But I protest. Something is wrong. If the Bible is true, if Jesus said go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature, if Jesus said be His witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, the innermost parts, then that's the priority.

That's the priority. Not education. Not my thing. Not even my little talent. We get a lot of people today, they want to use their talent for Jesus. This is a big thing. How many people have as their talent winning men to Christ?

Have you met many? We get a lot of people now coming to OM, and they want to use their talent. Studied in the University of Florida, basket weaving and water skiing. They say, how can I use that for Jesus?

Can I water ski for Jesus? I've heard things more ridiculous than that. The very basic things of winning people to Christ. Soul winning. That's what it says here. Fishing men. People aren't into it. You know, God has used the ship as a big magnet to draw people into OM who would never ordinarily come into OM.

Just telling you the truth. Because going door to door and winning people to Christ to the average person today is about as attractive as asking him to go fishing for shark with some kind of a clothespin.

But people come into OM to use their talents. And they hear the ship needs engineers. They're dead scared of witnessing. And they don't want to get involved in any kind of heavy door to door thing. But they'd like to use their talent.

There's nothing wrong with that when you're a babe in the Lord. And when you're just starting to get this vision, nothing wrong with that. Let's use our heads. You know, let's use whatever bait. Whatever bait we can.

And it's legitimate to use your talents for God. Nothing wrong with that. But we can't end there. We can't end there with 1 ,000 people all looking around where they can use their talents. Some of these gifts can be used.

But often your gift, the way the world thinks of it, your career, your little talent can't be used. It can't be used. Oh, but I've trained in this. I've trained in that. I'm an opera singer. Can't God use my voice?

Of course. Maybe one or two. But overseas, I haven't heard of any call yet for opera singers. We got some in the Summer Crusade in Austria. The birds are probably flying all over the nation. But generally, generally in missionary work, in missionary work, you've got to be a little more flexible.

Dick Griffin got his degree in agriculture. Now he's in bookshops and literature and evangelism and is the leader of OM in Mexico. What does he do with his agricultural degree? And I feel that it's so sad that so few are going in to fishing men, fishing men, fishing men, especially in the unreached areas.

Even among those who go on the OM two-year program, we have to be honest, that a high percentage of them never make it back overseas long-term. And I think, if I'm honest, the biggest problem lies 50 with the church and 50 with them.

The churches often don't have the vision. And so if a young person isn't very stubborn, very stubborn, so he says, Lord, by your grace, I believe this is your will, that I'm going to reach unreached people, that I'm going to obey that great commission.

And if they don't have that drive and that perseverance, they don't make it. They don't make it. That's one of the reasons I'm sharing this tonight. Number three, why this is so important for you to think about.

The Third Reason: Those Exposed to Missions Are Responsible to Respond

This is big now. Because very few ever get as far as you've got. You've got at least part of the vision. You know about these people. You're praying for these people. You've had a lot of light on this ship.

A lot of light. You've been exposed to missionaries. You've been exposed to people from all over the world. If you don't do it, who will? Your nephew on the farm in Dungabungo, southern Argentina? Huh?

Your aunt living in the mountains of Peru taking care of goats? Your grandfather in Vancouver who lives on a yacht? Who's going to do it? If you don't, who will? You've read those books like Operation World.

You've prayed through those prayer cards. You've seen the slides. You've seen the films. You've had more exposure to missions in one year than most people in a lifetime. In a lifetime. And I tell you, you're responsible for that light.

If you don't go, who will? So, in God's providence, you're on the hot seat. It was no easy thing, David Greenlee told me, to leave 30 people standing on the queue on the quayside in, where was it? Brazil.

They wanted to go. Let's believe their motives were right. But the leaders in Europe analyzing and praying over the whole financial situation said there's no way we can break our financial policy for the long run.

The long run. We've got to think not just for the short, the long run, and just let an army of people come because you know, quite a few people, we've had to fly them back. And there's some people, not just from Latin America, other countries, they come to Europe, they get a little support to come, and that's it.

And we've got to fly them back. But you want to know the truth? We don't have any money to fly them back. And so, I tell you, you get hurt feelings, you get trouble from the churches, you get parents screaming over the telephone, what have you done with my daughter?

Is this a cult? Fly her back. And you've got it. And so, what do you do? You borrow money. You borrow money to fly them back. We're not going to do that anymore. God's going to pay, by God's grace, by His grace, as we go.

We're not going to borrow more money. And this victory has to be won that OM goes forward without borrowing money or we're finished. I'm not saying what part of OM is finished, but part of it is just going to be finished.

Maybe it'll be me. I don't know. So, it was hard to leave some people behind. But those of you who are here, thousands of miles now from your home country, some of you, you're in the hot seat because you're going to get more and more exposure to world missions, to the whole world picture.

And by God's grace, you can never be the same without backsliding. That's scary. You can never be the same without backsliding. You have to respond to the light that God has given you. And many of you should be signing the dotted line.

As the student volunteers 80 years ago, as the New Movement Born in America and the universities have these new pledge forms, I, therefore, volunteer, sign the dotted line. I'm going. By God's grace, I'm going.

No more well next year. We'll see how I feel. You're going to say, by God's grace, I'm going. Have you ever signed one of those? Have you ever put your John Hancock to something? Apart from a letter to your girlfriend?

If you don't go, who will? Most people don't get this far. Most people don't have the vision you have. Most people have never prayed in a night of prayer. Most pastors I've talked to have never prayed in a single missionary long night of prayer.

The Fourth Reason: Open Doors Require Early and Radical Commitment

If you don't go, who will? Number four, there are endless open doors. It's unbelievable. Endless open doors. Especially when people are young, flexible, ready to travel, ready to live out of the suitcase.

Endless open doors. It won't always be that way. If you don't get in the right direction before you're married and get married to a woman who's going in the same direction, then despite all your lovely, fanciful dreams about world missions, you're not going anywhere.

You're not going anywhere. Of course, when you marry a little Sally, who's got those big eyes that bug you, who's got those big lips that do things, she says, Oh, before the wedding, I'll go anywhere with you.

Yeah? Heavy duty. But after the wedding, it changes. After the wedding, little Bambino comes. Oh, we must not jeopardize little Bambino. And so for the sake of little Bambino and little Tatina, we're not going anywhere.

We're going to settle down. We got to get a mortgage. We got to get a car. We got to get a baby carriage. We got to get a lot of things. And soon before you know it, you're sucked into the materialistic trip of your nation.

You've signed on the dotted line for a fridge. You've signed on the dotted line for the house. You've signed on the dotted line for the baby buggy. You've signed on the dotted line for the car. You're not going anywhere.

Forget it. There are a few beautiful exceptions. Hallelujah. There's even some on this ship, who by God's grace, they got fed up with all this materialism and all this kind of peer pressure, and they just somehow launched out.

But there are other legitimate complications we're going to talk about later on, that somehow if you don't develop that courageous, reckless, total abandonment spirit when you're young, and you get a late start, you may make five years.

I've seen a lot of people, five years and that's it. They go back. Because they didn't have enough roots. They didn't have enough preparation. They didn't know enough about, you know, the kind of lifestyle that is demanded to live in Sudan.

People can do it. But it's not easy. I think of Neil, Norm Brinkley. He wanted to join the ship in Tampico. I'm so glad I was there in Tampico. I specialize in picking up ship rejects. And of course, everybody can't go on the ship, at least in those days.

Norm Brinkley got rejected. Too big a family. One of the most quality men God's brought into the work in the last few years. I said, Norm, it's too bad, man. It's too bad. It's a rough life. But, you know, there's one place you can come and wallpaper my house in Bromley.