Little Is Much When God Is In It

There is an old gospel chorus that says, “Little is much when God is in it…” That concept is never more true than when we speak about missions.  In my experiences around the world, I have seen any number of illustrations of this point.

A few days ago, I shared the story of Missionary Bob Hughes.  In 1999, I was invited to speak at the church he started in Cebu City, the Philippines.  Dr. Armie Jesalva is still pastoring the church and has had a great impact in the Philippines that stands as a legacy to the work of Bob Hughes.

On the day after I preached at Bible Baptist Cebu, as we were preparing to leave for our trip home, I sat in Dr. Jesalva’s office.  We were interrupted by a phone call from a young preacher that had been sent out of his church to the island of Mindanao.  He had planted a church and they had met under a tree for a few months, but they had grown to almost a hundred people and God was leading them to buy a piece of property and build a building so that the church could finally have a home.  They had found a small, triangular piece of property, just large enough for them to build on for only 35,000 pesos.  The young preacher was asking Dr. Jesalva if he could help them purchase the property.  I asked him how much that was in American dollars and he figured a bit and told me $666.  

I laughed and said, “I don’t think I want to give $666, but I’ll commit our church to send $700 to buy the property. “

I was amazed at how much could be accomplished with such a small amount of money.  I went home and our church raised the money and sent it back to the young preacher and we thought that was the end of it.

Over the next several years, my family took several trips to the Philippines, ministering with Filipino pastors on the island of Luzon.  In 2007, on our last trip there, we had made plans to share the discipleship ministry of our church with the pastors and workers of the island.  55 pastors from all over Luzon came to Rizal for the three-day conference.  It was a tremendous blessing to them and to us.

We were able to give each pastor bibles, books, and discipleship lessons that they could use for personal training and for discipling their people.  During one of the breaks, we sat down with a group of the pastors and they introduced themselves.  There was a young man there who was serving as an assistant pastor for one of the other men and when he introduced himself, he said that he was from the island of Mindanao.  He had been saved in a small church there, gone to Cebu for Bible college training, and had ended up on Luzon working with a tribe of people who just a generation before had been head-hunters.

As it turned out, that young man was saved in the church that we had purchased the property for eight years earlier.  It was a tremendous blessing to me to know that we had played a part in him coming to Christ and that now, he was actively serving God in order to reach others.  The value of that small investment in eternity will only be fully seen when we stand before God.  

You may say, “I can’t give much.”  Maybe not, but neither could the little lad with the sack lunch, but Jesus made it sufficient to feed 5000 people.

Just know, that when we give, even if it is out of our own poverty, God can do great things.  I challenge you to commit yourself to being a part of reaching the world for Jesus Christ through Fatih Promise Missions at Grace Harbor Baptist Church.