Always Abounding - Fall 2018 - Volume 3

PATIENCE IN MISSIONS
by Missionary Dan Canavan (‘97)
“For ye have need of patience, that, after
ye have done the will of God, ye might
receive the promise.” (Hebrews 10:36)
Our task as missionaries is to leave
behind a self-supporting church
and self-governing church. This
is accomplished through soulwinning
and preaching until a saved, separated
congregation is established and built.
This building on the missionary’s part
continues until it can be led by a Godcalled,
biblically qualified national pastor.
It is my understanding that we have not
completed this task until the mission
church’s giving enables the church to pay
all of its own expenses and a majority of a
pastor’s living expenses in that area.
It takes at least a few years for
missionaries to adapt to the language,
culture, methods, and thoughts of a foreign
country. The further the missionary’s
adaptation advances, the more effective
and valuable the missionary’s work is on
the mission field.
God sometimes leads good men
off the mission field for His sovereign
purposes. However, I have observed the
huge loss of many highly adapted, godly
families because they lacked patience in
preparing. Most lacked the patience to see
a work through to the self-governing, selfsupporting
stages.
When churches support the ministry
of deputation and the early years on the
field, they are primarily supporting the
missionary as he prepares for greater
usefulness in the coming years. It is after
a period of adaptation and ministry
experience in a foreign context that the
missionary becomes most effective.
America is a country of immigrants
from widely differing backgrounds, who
have melded into a disparate group
where the rights of the individual are the
cornerstone of society. In Ireland, to a
much larger extent, the rights of society
trump the needs of the individual. The
Irish are primarily guided by “group think.”
For example, most houses in a subdivision
are exactly the same. One-off houses are
the exception. Over 40% of Europeans live
in apartments or condominiums, and the
vast majority of the rest of the people live
in duplexes. Almost half of the Irish people
get some form of government assistance,
leading to much higher taxes and cost of
living to support the social fabric of their
society. Americans have traditionally
chaffed against this socialism and demand
that the individual make his own way or
suffer the consequences.
Irish and most European societies have
existed in continuity for a few thousand
years. The roots are deep and things
change slowly. In Ireland, they still speak
of Oliver Cromwell’s destruction of Roman
Catholic institutions as if it were yesterday.
When a European missionary attempts
to convey the truths of the gospel to this
deeply ingrained, socialistic society largely
6 | ALWAYS ABOUNDING