It breaks your heart to meet people who have never heard the good news about Jesus Christ but who have learned to swear in his name from secular internationals.

In Central Asia, I met a young man who was completely out of context. At first I thought he was a Jewish rabbi. He was wearing a black hat and a suit with hooks instead of buttons. He told me he was a Mennonite from Ohio and was teaching English in a government high school in Swat near Kashmir. He mentioned how he and his wife had been able to have Swati students in their home and had studied the Bible with these who had never seen the Christian Scriptures before. Knowing that Swat was a state closed to missionary work, I asked him how he had been able to get in. He said, "I never heard of the place before. I applied under a Fulbright to teach English in Germany, and they sent me to Swat!"

This is an example of an amazing phenomenon which the Holy Spirit has brought about in our day. God revealed to Daniel that in the end times travel and education would be vastly increased (Dan. 12:4). This is certainly true today in spite of the fuel shortage, as many millions are traveling all over planet earth and are making it a "global village." But, evangelistically speaking, this worldwide communication explosion can be the providential factor in completing Christ's commission.

A Christian engineer several years ago taught at a secular university abroad in a country where missionaries were not allowed. Besides doing a top-notch job in his profession, he led some of his students to Christ, discipled them in their faith, conducted prayer meetings and Bible studies in his home and with his family took an active part in the local church for internationals. He also was able to give away over half of his salary to help support missionaries and Christian projects around the world.

We thank God that there are more missionaries serving abroad today than ever before. Nevertheless, government figures show that for every one missionary from the United States and Canada there are over a hundred others from North America living around the world in commercial, professional, technical and governmental capacities. This affords a fantastic potential for supplementing and supporting the missionary forces in the evangelization of the world.

The Biblical Basis of Self-Supporting Witness

In 1 Corinthians 9, we have the apostle Paul's justification for this type of service. He had been accused of not being a bona fide apostle because he was self-supporting. He answers this by saying he could have received support from the churches, even as the other apostles like the Lord's brothers and Peter along with their wives had done. But he had chosen to be self-supporting to make the gospel free so he could "win the more" for Christ. As Paul testified to the Ephesian elders, "These hands have ministered to my own needs and to the men who were with me" (Acts 20:34).

He also wrote to the Thessalonian Christians, "With labor and hardship we kept working night and day so that we might not be a burden to any of you; not because we do not have the right to this, but in order to offer ourselves as a model for you, that you might follow our example" (2 Thess. 3:8-9).

Many of the "cloud of witnesses" in the Old Testament were also self-supporting. Abraham was a cattle raiser, Isaac a farmer, Jacob a roving rancher, Joseph a national administrator, Moses a sheepherder, Joshua a military commander, Ruth a gleaner, David an emperor, Amos a fruit gatherer, Daniel a prime minister, Queen Esther a ruler and Nehemiah a governor.

Also in the New Testament, Luke was a doctor, Barnabas a landowner, Cornelius an officer, Priscilla, Aquila and Paul tentmakers, Lydia a seller of purple dye and Zenas a lawyer. Even our Lord, though he was God, humbled himself to become a self-supporting carpenter (Mk. 6:3). But he also set his seal of approval on full-time missionary work since during his ministry he was supported by his friends: "Certain women ... and many others ... ministered unto him of their substance" (Lk. 8:2-3).

The Historical Basis of Self-Supporting Witness

Recent scholarship has shown that one of the main motives for the explorations of Marco Polo and Christopher Columbus was evangelization, incomplete as their idea of this may have been. William Carey, the father of the modern missionary movement, supported himself and others in his mission by running an indigo factory as well as being a salaried professor of Sanskrit at the University of Calcutta. He wrote, "We have ever held it to be an essential principle in the conduct of missions that, whenever it is practicable, missionaries should support themselves in whole or in part through their own exertions."1

Because Henry Martyn was not allowed to go to India as a missionary, he went out as a chaplain for the East India Company. Robert Morrison, who translated the Bible into Chinese, also supported himself by being an interpreter for a trading company. Many do not realize that David Livingstone became a consul for the British government in Africa and pictures often show him wearing the hat of his office.

Sir Herbert Edwardes, who in the last century was the general in charge of the Khyber Pass area of the Northwest Frontier, was firstly a "soldier of Jesus Christ." He invited missionaries to enter that previously closed area. When another officer challenged him, saying this was sure to result in trouble, he answered, "I far more fear disobeying my Lord's explicit command than I fear trouble among the local people." And because of his faith and courage, this area today is dotted with little Christian churches.

Captain Janes, an American self-supporting witness teaching in Japan, led many of his students to Christ, establishing the Kumamoto Band which made a great impact on the emerging church in that land.2

Or again, Miss Jenny de Mayer, an amazing Russian Christian, went into Siberia and Central Asia as a Red Cross nurse, witnessing for her Lord and distributing Scriptures in these unreached areas.

Employing this method of self-support, Muslims have spread Islam mainly through their traders and government administrators so that today their adherents number over half a billion, which is more than twice the population of North America. Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses have lay missionaries by the thousands through whom they are spreading their teachings. Why should others use this method so effectively while evangelical believers neglect it?

In 1951, my wife and I followed other Christian teachers to the closed country of Afghanistan and worked as "tentmakers." Be- fore signing my contract to teach English, I told the Afghan ambassador in Washington that I was also a Christian minister. He said that this would be quite all right since most of their teachers were Muslim priests and therefore it would be good to have a Christian priest also teaching their young people. It has been exciting but hard work.

And since receiving the invitation a year ago to come to Urbana, work with the blind that my wife, Betty, was engaged in has been closed, the only church building on neutral Afghan soil has been demolished and we as well as others have been asked to leave the country. But we thank God that the new government is much more favorable and that the living cburch of Jesus Christ has been planted there even as our Lord promised, "I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it" (Mt. 16:18).

The Practical Basis of Self-Supporting Witness

You who are Christian students can carry on one of the most strategic ministries there is as you study in institutions all over the world and witness for Christ. What an opportunity you have among international students at home and abroad! After the first IVCF-FMF missionary convention, I went to Scotland to study. It proved one of the greatest privileges of my life to work and witness with other young people there.

I met a lonely Chinese Christian student in Edinburgh with whom I studied the Bible once a week. He was Philip Teng, who has been teaching us "The Biblical Basis of Missions." You cannot tell what God can do through those whom you encourage and love for Jesus'sake.

If the trend continues, next summer there will be more Christian young people helping on the mission fields of the world than all of us here at Urbana put together. And most will be paying their own way. What a wonderful opportunity not only for witness and service, but also for cross-cultural experience. This was not possible until recently. It took my parents three months travel to get to their mission field in Iran in 1919, or six months for the round trip. You could not spend a summer helping there then. But now you can make the trip by jet in a matter of hours.

Today there are also hundreds of churches around the world caring for the swelling crowds of internationalists. These need evangelical pastors. A classmate of mine in seminary told the Lord that he would be willing to take a church anywhere, provided it was in the United States. He candidated in different ones but could not find out where the Lord wanted him, Finally, as he was riding on public transportation in his home city of Boston, he was so miserable that he told the Lord that he would even go overseas if that were his will. Immediately a wonderful peace came over his heart, and he knew for the first time that God wanted him to take a church in his home city of Boston. Christ is either Lord of all, or he is not Lord at all. Until we are ready to go anywhere, we are not ready to go anywhere.

I have met committed Christians overseas in international business positions, in secretarial jobs, in medical work as doctors and nurses, in military service, in assistance programs, in teaching positions, in student research projects, in diplomatic service and in United Nations missions. A Christian petroleum engineer I know not only holds an important oil company position in the Middle East but also preaches and leads a Bill Gothard type seminar on the side.

Interestingly enough, his oil company has not boycotted the West. If Christians do not take advantage of these opportunities, others will who can be of more harm than help to God's work. A heavy drinking American in Afghanistan was shocked by his Muslim neighbor who informed him that he had become a Christian. He said, "What do you mean you've become a Christian?" The Afghan man answered, "I drink whiskey now like you do. Do you have any you can give me?" To him becoming a Christian was leaving the prohibition of Islam and indulging like this foreigner, since this was all he had seen of Christianity. It breaks your heart to meet people who have never heard the good news about Jesus Christ but who have learned to swear in his name from secular internationals.

Dedicated Christian tourists can also be wonderfully used overseas. One friend, an electronics engineer, on a world tour led two of his guides to Christ. I know another Christian couple who after retirement have lived abroad on social security and have led many to the Lord. Today as never before we are seeing men and women catching the vision of the truth that "every Christian is a missionary" not only at home but also abroad. We, however, must recognize real difficulties and limitations in this type of self-supporting service. The agency for which one is working may seek to curtail one's testimony. But this is true of secular employment at home, too. Furthermore, as Ted Ward pointed out at the last Urbana convention, this kind of service requires one to be a missionary on an "overtime" basis.

But you can also witness while you work by letting Christ communicate through your life as well as your lips. A former Inter-Varsity staff worker and her husband are now self-supporting witnesses in Latin America. She was recently asked by a national woman why she was different from other foreigners. This gave her a marvelous opportunity to share Christ and explain the difference he makes. As preparation for self-supporting witness, cross-cultural orientation can be of great value. Forward-looking mission agencies give this to their candidates, but often those going as "tentmakers" must arrange for this on their own initiative.

Language learning is extremely vital, too, and therefore courses in linguistics are also helpful. Studies in the art of successful "overseasmanship" bring out the need for cultural empathy, professional quality, political savvy, organizational ability, real humility instead of an attitude of superiority and adaptability in facing clashes of personality.

The Spiritual Basis of Self-Supporting Witness

Bible training as well as reading of missionary biography and history on your own or in missions courses is also helpful. Learning to lead a person to Christ is a must because if you cannot do it at home, you probably will not be able to do it abroad.

Another essential is to have effective prayer support. Regular missionaries usually enjoy this because people who give also often pray. But those who go in self-supporting capacities must enlist prayer support from friends, fellowships and churches. Paul as a "tentmaker" repeatedly wrote to New Testament churches asking for prayer. More and more mission boards are starting field partner or lay missionary programs whereby they assist self-supporting witnesses in placement, orientation and prayer backing as well as linking them with missionaries and national Christians on the field.

There are also definite advantages to self-supporting witness abroad. A Christian businessman working in Tehran told me he finds many receptive to what he has to say about Christ since they realize he is "not paid to witness." Also, "tentmakers" can go practically anywhere in the world - even into Red China, Russia and many Muslim areas which are off limits for missionaries.

But I can hear someone say, "With the great needs at home, why bother about the rest of the world?" Bill Borden used to answer this by saying, "If you saw ten men carrying a log, and nine were on one end and one on the other, and you wanted to help, to which end would you go?" Dr. Ralph Winter in his booklet Seeing the Task Graphically, points out that while the number of non-Christians in Africa and Asia has more than doubled since 1900, the number of people who call themselves Christian has multiplied thriteen times .3

But the task still remaining is tremendous. According to statistics in 1965 quoted by the same author, three out of four in the West called themselves Christians, one out of four in Africa and only one out of twenty-five bore the name of Christ in Asia, a continent which today has over half the population of the world.4

If every creature is to be evangelized in our time, it must be through self-supporting as well as regular missionaries. This tentmaking type of service should in no way detract from the fact that many more full-time missionaries are desperately needed around the world; but "tentmakers" can provide much help and encouragement, as self-supporting witnesses and those wholly supported by other Christians work in fellowship.

Difficult as world evangelization is, our Lord has promised us success. He said, "You shall receive power after the Holy Spirit has come upon you andyou shall be witnesses unto me ... unto the uttermost part of the earth" (Acts 1:8). Or as Adonirarn Judson Gordon has said, "It is not a matter of bringing the world to Christ; it is a matter of taking Christ to the world."

I was once on an airplane in Afghanistan. Our seat belts were fastened, the door was shut and we seemed ready for takeoff. Then, as I looked out of the window, I noticed a man running toward the plane. I thought he must be a late passenger and wondered whether they would let him on. He started knocking on the door of the plane. The steward looked at his watch and it was time for takeoff so he was not going to open the door. But the man knocked louder and louder, so the steward went back and opened the door a crack to see who it was. To our amazement, it was our pilot! We had locked the pilot out of the plane. The stairs had already been taken away so they had to reach down and lift him up by his arms. He then walked up the aisle to the cockpit, and we took off.

When this happened, I thought how much like our lives this is. We may think we are in the right place and that everything is set for our trip through life. But is the Pilot in charge, or have we left him out? Jesus said, "Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if any one hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in" (Rev. 3:20). Will you right now make Christ the Pilot of your life, turning over the controls to him that he may direct you in the perfect plan he has for you personally? For as the Scriptures say, "The world passes away, and the lust thereof, but he [or she] who does the will of God abides forever" (1 Jn. 2:17).