Global outreach and a hard lesson learned - the importance of research in missions
Recently talked to a missionary who has returned home from the foreign field - early. Not just early, but beaten, disillusioned, and wounded. It’s a sad story, but hopefully this young man will get his strength and vision back and try it again from a wiser stance.
I know he didn’t haphazardly go out. It is a HUGE undertaking to go forth. I commend this man for his faith, passion and courage to attempt what he did. But it sounds like more could have been done before he left that would have helped guarantee better success.
I don’t think he did the demographics that should have been done before he departed; I don’t think the strategy was completely thought through. There are times when you just “go” at the prompting of the Lord, but more often than not, there’s some prayerful homework that should happen before you dive in.
William Carey produced his “Inquiry;” Hudson Taylor researched and wrote his “China’s Spiritual Needs and Claims.” I think we should consider the examples of these two men who blazed a trail in the modern mission movement, and take demographics and other research studies a little more seriously. -Laura Woodworth