Sometimes a mission isn’t about baptisms. My son is serving in Czech Republic. It’s Europe, and they don’t have many people interested in hearing the gospel. It’s tough. My son wants to share his testimony, he wants to help others. It’s easy for a missionary to feel discouraged.
I’ve even read some recent statistics showing how few baptisms there are per missionary (3.41 – 4.62). More missionaries serving, but less baptisms. I got to thinking, Hugh Nibley said he didn’t have many baptisms in Germany and that was in 1927 – 1930. He was only 17 years old.
What’s important, is that we go out and look for people — look for people who may need help. Abraham went out into the desert — the hot, hot desert to look for anyone who may be lost. He didn’t find anyone, but when he came back to his tent, there were three visitors/angels/the Lord promising him that Sarah would have a child — God answered his prayers through his selfless service. (Genesis 18)
As there’s a story told in the Midrash. It begins with Abraham sitting in the door of his tent in the plain of Mamre in the heat of the day. But this was a hot day, you see. It’s probably what inspired the story. It was a hot day. It said it was a day like the breath of Gehinnom. Like the breath of Hell was coming out, and you can see the kind of country it was, and is, when this so, the heat and the dust and the sand…that’s utter desolation.
And he was worried, of course, because he says some poor stranger might be lost out there. Someone might have lost his way, and be perishing, because you’re not going to last an hour in this. So he sent his faithful servant Eleazer out to look everywhere. He sent him out in all directions and he came back, “No I can’t find anyone anywhere.”
You have these feelings…so he went out herself, though he was very sick at the time. He was sick and ailing, and old,, and he went out into that Hell. And he looked and searched, but he found no one. And at the end of the day he came back exhausted toward his tent. As he approached the tent the three strangers were standing there.
It was the Lord and the two with Him. Because the Lord goes with His two counselors so to speak. He throws himself down on his face, and then it is that He promises him Isaac. As a reward for what he had done. This supreme offering. It’s a very moving story. He’d gone out to look for his fellow man and … out in that dusty hell, you see, all alone. Eleazer couldn’t find any, and he said, “I think I can find someone. ”
Well he found something. He found the answer to the thing he’d prayed for all his life. His son Isaac. It’s a beautiful story. (Faith of an Observer, Hugh Nibley)
Sometimes, even though we think we’re failing if we don’t find people to share the gospel, and baptize, we are being purified and blessed. Our mission is to diligently seek to help others. Then the Lord blesses us. It’s a message for all of us. Whatever blessing we are seeking from the Lord — though we must ask for that blessing — we must not focus only on our request. It’s when we are in service to our fellow-man that we are purified and blessed. And when we are grateful for our experiences.
My desire as a mom, is to see my children venture out to help others, and even if they find few to help, I know that through this process of searching for those who may be lost, and lifting those who are down, my children will be found and find themselves. And God will bless them and answer their prayers. It’s our relationship with Christ that makes our earthly mission successful.
Images of Abraham and the three angels:
