ON MISSIONARIES: A PERSONAL VIEW (19)

Like a monster rising from the sea, Covid hit, and like most people our age, Joice and I were careful to get our Covid shots, stay 6 feet away from people in-line, and wear face masks. Things and events were changing.

I have always been thankful and amazed at how quickly Joice developed friendships. She always wanted to meet people, hear their stories, and be their friend. I am more reserved and introverted, but I began to attend a men’s Bible study shortly after we arrived in Waco. The men, except for our pastor who led the study, were retired and I soon got to know most of them. The restrictions of Covid were something we had to learn how to live with.

Joice had attended the women’s groups and Bible studies and found a friend that she could visit and confide in—a close friend, the kind she always needed. Now she expanded her ministry: flowers, emails, phone calls, and especial prayer, often late into the night.

To back up a bit, when we first joined DaySpring, we were looking for a ministry. We asked the pastor how we could be involved in ministry and, given Joice’s gift of hospitality, and we expected some suggestions along that line.

However, our church has what they call a “Chart Ministry,” with dozens of suggestions about possibilities of “ministry.” The jobs are as varied as cleaning toilets, trimming trees, helping with worship services, stacking chairs, and so on. We tried editorial tasks, but that didn’t seem to fit. We had done all kinds of things as missionaries and in other churches. Joice had excelled at hospitality, however, it was not an entry line on the Chart. And tasks related to Bible translation and linguistics were not there either, so it was up to us to figure out how to use our gifts.

We started leading a small home group at our apartment and there were participants who attended sporadically but without, sometimes it seemed to us, a great deal of enthusiasm. Several years later, however, it developed into a thriving group, and we were very thankful for it.

We were old and retired missionaries and there was only sporadic interest in what we had done in Bible translation, linguistics, and literacy. We sometimes felt like aliens on the planet. We had been involved all our lives in a different kind of missionary activity that there did not seem to be any need for. However, Joice made friends with some of the Baylor and Truett students and invited them each Sunday to our house for dinner. 

For a couple of years, I was also asked by professors at Truett to interact and help with some students and at least one couple has gone on to study for linguistics and Bible translation.

I was also still a part of the SIL International academic community, so I read papers and gave occasional input and comments to the Pike Center for Integrative Studies, a part of SIL International. I was also on the adjunct faculty of Dallas International University and am now listed as “Faculty, Emeritus.”

Our church missionary budget maintains a commitment to Hispanic refugees at the Naomi House, which has now transitioned to a more localized model. Our church is also committed to the Gospel Café, Ridgecrest Retirement and Healthcare Community, and World Hunger Relief, along with mission work internationally in Honduras and Southeast Asia.  However, missions is different at DaySpring, compared with what we experienced at Joice’s church in Michigan, which had sent out over 100 missionaries. The DaySpring budget may seem small, but, as I have shown, it maintains a strong interest in several different kinds of ministries.

Joice followed her heart and began inviting students to our house for a Sunday meal. They would eat and we would tell them stories. It started small and almost incidental, but it soon grew until we were having 6 or 8 students regularly, but not always—sometimes just strangers that were young and seemed in need of a meal. Joice would spend her Saturdays preparing the menu and cooking. It was always a feast.

Our ministry was not on the Chart, but it our contribution to the church was by investing in the lives of students and strangers. We didn’t expect to hear from them once they left Waco and this has been largely true. We were short-term friends put into their lives for a purpose, and we tried to fulfill it.

We were both thankful for the many friends we had at DaySpring Baptist Church and for the fellowship we had there. However, we were in the last “season” of our lives and as 2019 Covid appeared, with its regulations, we wore our masks masks, washed our hands regularly, got vaccinated, but could not have students for meals. Our person-to-person interactions became sporadic and tightly controlled. 

Even when we visited our family in Waco, we mostly sat outside on the back verandah for our meals. 

Like cancer, Covid had changed everything.

Karl Franklin