A matter of a tithe: From South America to South Asia

Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?" He said to him, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and most important commandment. The second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself.
Matthew 22:36-39

This week is the International Mission Board week of prayer for international missionaries.  Read these stories each day and open your heart to these missionaries.  Pray for them and their families as they are accepting the challenge to do whatever it takes to take the Gospel of Christ to the world.

There was little in life to predict that Cebrián Bolívar* would one day become a missionary in one of South Asia’s most populated cities. He grew up on a farm high in South America’s Andes Mountains where his parents and siblings still scratch a living from the soil.But that was before he met Sam Cordell*. (Names have been changed to protect the individual’s privacy)

Sam was a Southern Baptist missionary with a plan. In less than a decade, he trained a cadre of Quichua Indian believers to range the scattered mountain villages of their people, planting churches. And Cebrián was one of the best; he planted 26.

When Sam announced he was leaving South America for Asia, Cebrián asked if he could go with him.  You have always told us to reach out beyond ourselves, he said. Sam agreed. But it won’t be easy, he warned. Life is hard in the high Andes. Farmers earn little more than enough to survive. There is not a lot left over to support someone on the missions field. Cebrián’s going came down to a conversation with his father.

“Father,” said Cebrián, “if you have ten sheep, how many go to the Lord?” “One,” said his father. “You have ten children,” Cebrián continued. “Shouldn’t one go to the Lord?” In the end, it was a matter of a tithe.

Pray that through the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering, more workers like Sam can be sent to train cross-cultural leaders like Cebrián.

Pray for churches to be planted in South Asia.

Scripture to Claim:
How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? Romans 10:14