My Story of Missions

By Rev. Dr. Lynn Thomas

Atsixteen years old, I headed to Colombia, South America for a summer mission experience. My life of missions started in 1976. I flew to Bogota where I boarded a DC-3, which is a large WWII era prop plane. We flew to a remote town named San Jose which is in the jungle plains of Colombia. All passengers sat in cargo nets, like paratroopers. There was no flight attendant, seatbelts, or in-flight safety demonstration. Once we landed on the dirt strip, we were told by the pilot to push the plane around so he could take off. The town had cinderblock and bamboo/ mud-wall homes, with dirt streets.

That summer I lived in a tent, bathed and washed clothes out of the same bucket, and helped build a church. Despite malaria, being evacuated and a few days later returning, boiling water to drink, sleeping on the ground all summer, and working long hot days, I loved it. It was that summer God and I made a deal. God gave me a passion for missions, and I responded by telling God I would be a missionary. Going back to high school for my senior year was difficult. After experiencing what I had experienced, doing what I had done, and seeing the underdeveloped world, high school now seemed - well - trivial.

After graduating, I spent my summer in Liberia, Africa. At that time Liberia was a poor but peaceful country – one could hitchhike. Because of a letter from my grandfather (Rev. L.L. Thomas), I searched for Presbyterians in Liberia. His letter told me a story of meeting a Liberian in 1941 who wanted Liberian Presbyterians to join with the CP Church. My grandfather knew that the CP Church’s first missionary (1852) went to Liberia. I found the Liberia Presbytery’s office in Monrovia and was able to gain information, which I shared with CP leaders in the US. Eventually, by the efforts of CP leaders in the US, Liberia Presbytery became part of the CP Church.

In 1978, I went to Suriname, South America. Suriname was a full-blown National Geographic experience. It took two days by canoe to get to the jungle village where I stayed. I lived with a tribe for the summer. They lived in grass huts, and both men and women wore loincloths – and that was all. A few years after I left the village National Geographic Magazine, January 1983, “Wayan Indians?” did an article on the tribe. The article never mentioned the church in the village or its devoted members. Unknowingly, the article pictured some of the church’s Indian leaders. The village was next to a huge river and dug-out canoes were the Ubers of the day. I slept in a tent. I learned big fruit bats love bananas, so do not hang them on your tent pole at night. Army ants will swarm without warning and cover everything. And when bathing in a river, wear shoes – sting rays. I ate monkey, taper, caiman, deer, and piranha (I thought that was cool, eat them before they eat you). I did not eat the ants or the popsicle size larva from the cocoon I was offered, I had my limits.

In 1981 I interned in Durbin, South Africa with a Bible school. I also worked with non-whites, particularly Indians (from India). Apartheid was both sad and silly. I had to sleep in the white neighborhood because I was white, and drove into the Indian township to work, eating lots of spicy Indian food. South Africa had four main classifications, white, black, Indian, and colored. Within each main group there were sub-groups, English, Afrikaners, Zulu, Xhosa, Sotho, Tamal, Hindis, to name a few, and the coloreds, who were mixed raced people. Everyone had their place, beach, transportation, race-specific salaries, and townships – the silly part was knowing where to be. One exception was the Bible school I worked in as an intern. It was integrated.

When I proposed to Nona, I said our life together might involve a mud hut in Africa. She accepted, knowing my history. Much later in life I learned her family hosted in her home missionary aviation pilots. She loved their stories and was drawn to missions –even as a child. »»»

What did I learn? Short-term mission trips are inspirational and can change one’s life. Seeing Christians living in challenging situations gives you great respect for them. My teen mission trips certainly put high school and college into perspective. Summer mission trips helped me understand how to live with the mysterious and unfamiliar. But short trips are not real missions. Being a missionary is nothing like a summer on the mission field. They are two different things. Learning the language and culture takes years, which is hard and humiliating. Being a missionary takes training, time, and skills. Those skills are indispensable if one wants to be an effective missionary.

In 1986 Nona (my wife) and I landed in Costa Rica with our new baby to learn Spanish for a year. I was finally a missionary. The late Rev. David Brown, director of CP missions, was our boss and very supportive. We discovered learning the language as an adult was hard. Adapting to the culture was harder. Despite these challenges, we learned we could trust the people around us. Within a few days in Costa Rica, we were in trouble. Our baby was writhing in pain, screaming for all to hear. Neither of us spoke Spanish and we knew no one in Costa Rica. Our house did not even have a phone. Nona ran out of the front door and started knocking on doors asking for help – do you speak English? Help! Will you call a doctor? Dr. Boza arrived, he was very kind and spoke a little English. He checked out our son and identified the problem. Diaper rash. A neighbor helped us find diaper cream. We made some good neighbors because of that. They felt sorry for us.

What did I learn? People will help you; compassion is universal. Being dependent on others, as opposed to being independent, is how one opens relational doors in the mission field. People love the ones they take care of – like caring for a puppy. And we later learned, with four children, you can trust your children to God’s care on the mission field. All our children benefited from being missionary kids, and as adults, they say they have no regrets about living on the mission field.

Manizales is a city on a mountain peak at 7,000 feet altitude. It has the most amazing Andes Mountain views. We lived there for over four years. The weather was cool to cold at night. I delivered one of our children there using the emergency birth chapter in a book – a missionary story for another day. I was sent by Andes Presbytery and the Board of Missions to work with the Manizales CP Church and their pastor, who was not ordained. I was sent to help build a new church for his growing congregation. The church was dynamic and had many university students and professionals – over a dozen eventually went into the ministry. Their pastor, Milton Ortiz, moved to the US while I was in Manizales. He moved to Boston, married a girl from Colombia (Francia), went to seminary, and was ordained as a CP minister.

What did I learn? A growing church full of young adults is fertile ground for church leaders. The people under your guidance might be your future boss and future co-workers in ministry. In fact, as leaders in Christian ministry, that is what we want. A church’s future is found in the leaders it produces more than in how large it becomes.

After Manizales, we moved to Armenia, Colombia for almost two years, then on to Medellin, Colombia for another four years. Rev. Bob Watkins, a former missionary, assumed the Mission Director position and guided us in our work. By this time Colombia was in an internal war, first the mafia wars (Cali versus Medellin mafia), then a guerrilla war. After Pablo Escobar was killed, just a few blocks from where we rented an apartment in Medellin, the narco-trade was taken over by the communist subversive group FARC. The narcotics trade turned into a guerrilla war between FARC, the Colombian army, and clandestine death squads. We saw death around us, car bombs, assassinations, fear, and displacement. We found ourselves in several street shoot-outs and saw the assassinated on the side of the road. Thousands of people died in Medellin during those horrible years. We lived by many security protocols and never drove very far outside of Medellin. The FARC roadblocks and kidnappings were pervasive.

However, the churches we worked with did great. The church offered hope and peace from the stress of violence. There was peace in the worship of Christ. Being in the middle of growing and vibrant churches helped with the stress. New leaders were going to seminary in Medellin and our churches were growing. Many were young adults from the Manizales church. While in Medellin, observing the work of our Colombian pastors, I learned lessons from the Colombians I would use for the rest of my life. I learned that the mission field was a place missionaries go to learn.

By 1998 we were exhausted. The war seemed neverending. The stress of violence and the age of our four children led us to resign as missionaries. The Board of Missions opened a new position in the US designed to start new churches among the growing US immigrant population – Hispanics. I accepted the position and we moved to Birmingham, Alabama. As my boss explained, you can live where you want because you will not be home that much. He was right. I traveled extensively in the US working with presbyteries and task forces to start new Hispanic and Korean churches. We started new churches in several places in Tennessee, cities in Alabama, Boston, Houston, Atlanta, Russellville (AR), and Miami, all within the first few years. We started Korean churches in the Northeast (New York, New Jersey), Atlanta, Arkansas, and Tennessee. Nona raised our school-aged kids; I was gone a great deal. Although some of those projects failed, many succeeded. The strategy we used was what I had learned on the mission field. I called it “opportunism.”

When I discovered a person or persons, that is, an opportunity, I approached them and asked if they would be willing to start a CP church. In the case of Boston, I contacted my old friend Milton Ortiz (from Manizales), who was living there. I asked if he would be willing to start a CP church in Boston and he agreed. East Tennessee Presbytery agreed to accept the project. He successfully planted a church. Milton eventually moved to Memphis and became the team leader of the Missions Ministry Team (MMT) and my boss. I contacted various pastors; some were CP, and some were not. If a Hispanic or Korean pastor was not CP, and if he/she had an unaffiliated church or group, they were an “opportunity.” Our target for church plants was not a place, it was based on a person/s. The key was to find leadership and work with the leaders wherever they were. Rev. Dr. George Estes, the director of Evangelism and New Church Development for the Board of Missions, and my boss, was supportive of the idea and brought invaluable guidance.

Opportunism involves finding people, that is, leaders, and being part of their vision of ministry. The next step is to work with that person by helping him/her in their ministry and teaching them what they need to know to be part of the CP family. The Program of Alternate Studies adapted to help with their training, and the General

Assembly made constitutional changes to help assimilate pastors and churches into the CP family. Many of these people found homes in the CP Church and became leaders and cheerleaders for the denomination.

In 2011, I took the position of Director of Global Missions in the MMT. I had returned to my first love, foreign missions (outside the US). Using the same approach of opportunism and with the support of Rev. Dr. Milton Ortiz (MMT Leader) and Edith Old (Director of Ministries) we found new doors and walked through them – taking us to new countries. We found opportunities (people) to plant new churches in Australia, Belize, Canada, we expanded our work in Brazil and the Philippines, developed more churches in Guatemala, opened work in Haiti, attempted mission work in Cuba, expanded into Mexico City, Spain, and even England and Scotland. We started a CP Asian Forum to connect CPs in Asia to Hong Kong and Japan presbyteries. I also worked with many CP missionaries, recruiting, and providing guidance. As a result of the growth, I traveled to another country almost every month of the year to meet with churches, presbyteries, councils, and missionaries.

I have learned that leadership is the KEY to growth and success. To open churches, you must find people that others will follow. The focus should be a person, not a place. Find out what God is doing in other people’s lives and participate. All who believe they are leaders may not be leaders. Real leaders have followers. I also learned people will adapt. Most people are open to adopting new ideas about church government and theology, especially when in the context of friendship with other church leaders. And of equal importance, leadership at the top of an organization must be fearless, willing to take risks. Part of that risk involves never having enough money to feel secure.

My next chapter of ministry is working with OptIN, The Trade School for Christian Formation. I am gladly giving up my Medallion Status with Delta Airlines. I will travel less and work with my daughter and son-in-law, Reverends Brian and Micaiah Tanck, and the Scottsboro CP Church (Alabama). I am excited about a new approach to Christian formation, one that focuses on practicing skills of spirituality. I believe this method of Christian formation can bring vision and energy to churches, both inside and outside of the US.

I would like to say a special thanks to more people than this article has space to list. You know who you are. Thanks for 36 years of amazing ministry, adventure, and friendship working for the Board of Missions and its successor, the Missions Ministry Team.