A tentmaker shared with me this story which illustrates how God works in calling people to himself.

Talking about what God is doing in parts of Asia can be a sensitive topic which can lead to increased persecution if it comes to the attention of authorities. Due to the sensitive nature of the details the name of the person in this story has been changed to Timothy (see 2 Tim 2.2), but the events of the story are true.

I was recently with our team and Timothy shared an amazing story of Father at work, which I would like to share with you.

Timothy met a neighbor in front of his home and got to talking about his relationship with Jesus.  A few days later during another conversation with his neighbor he was interrupted by a call to come and pray for someone.  His neighbor asked if he could tag along. On returning, the neighbor asked him, “How much do you charge for doing prayers?”  Timothy said, “I don’t charge anything, that’s not how Jesus works in our lives” and proceeded to share further about his relationship with Jesus.

We were recently invited by the Evangelical Church of Cuba to run the first tentmaking course there. As they did not have the money to pay for our travel and fees, we made the decision to cover these costs out of our own pocket. We trusted that the Lord was opening up this new opportunity to expand His kingdom through Christian professionals going abroad to work, with the intention of making disciples.

32 people came to the training and some 22 of them are ready to go abroad.

A tentmaker’s life, work, and ministry balance is a tricky one. Being in a strange culture takes its toll, and dealing with co-workers from many nations while trying to find downtime is an ever-present challenge.

Add to this the many interactions, welcome or not, with locals and their agendas, and avoidance of people can easily become commonplace.

The most frequent interruption is someone wanting to practice their English skills, who views the tentmaker as a free lesson or perhaps as an opportunity to make a new friend to take these lessons even deeper. It starts innocently enough with common greetings and questions. What is your name? Where are you from? Why are you here? What do you believe? These are the most common questions heard by tentmakers.

How will your church respond?

Imagine one of your church members announcing that they are going to begin their journey toward becoming missionaries!

What would you think after hearing just that one sentence?

– Good luck trying to find the money

– Our church can’t afford you

– Here comes a pitch for donations