My Heroes Have Always Been Missionaries

My heroes have always been missionaries.  I was privileged as a child to sit at the dinner table with my heroes and hear them talk and share their passion with my parents and as I sat there, I could imagine seeing them "leap tall buildings in a single bound."

It was especially exciting to me that my all-time favorite missionary shared my last name.  Missionary Bob Hughes was a distant relative, raised in Center, Texas, just down the road from my dad. He was saved while stationed  with the military in the Philippines.  When he got out, he went back to the Philippines as a missionary and God did an amazing work through him in Cebu City.

God used him to encourage the churches of the Baptist Bible Fellowship to give to missions through the Faith Promise Missions method and one of his most famous sermons was called “I Sat Where They Sat.” It was one of the greatest missions sermons of all time.  I have included a YouTube link so that you can hear it if you’d like to.  https://youtu.be/GrDnnFJRWJs

After only 20 years on the field, he was diagnosed with stomach cancer, and in August of 1976, at the age of 44, the Lord took him Home.

But his impact on world missions was far from done.  I had the privilege of hearing him preach one of his last sermons.  On December 31, 1975, my family and I attended the watch night service at Central Baptist Church in Center, Texas.  Central Baptist was Bob’s home church and also the church that my dad grew up in. Bob had been to Houston earlier in the day and received his chemo treatment.  He was obviously tired and sick, but when he stepped into the pulpit, he was energized in an amazing way.  He preached a powerful message on Ps. 90:12, “So let us number our days that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.”  He said that today could be the last day on earth for any of us.  He said that his cancer made that fact more evident to him, but it is no less true for any of us.  He spoke of the urgency of the moment to come to faith in Christ.  He challenged Christians to be a witness to everyone that they meet because you never know when it will be your last chance.  It was a powerful message that touched my heart in a special way.

In August of 1976, at the age of 16, I headed off to Springfield, MO, to attend Baptist Bible College.  On my first day on campus, they held a memorial service for Missionary Bob Hughes in the BBC Fieldhouse.  Thousands of people attended, a number of speakers addressed the impact of the life and ministry of Bob Hughes.  As the service drew close to a conclusion, the pastor of Bob’s sending church said this, “Bob’s passion for souls and his heart for missions challenged us all.  His words still ring in our ears and as Scripture says of faithful Abel, “He being dead yet speaketh…”  At that moment they played an excerpt from “I Sat Where They Sat” of Bob passionately crying out, “Why do you need a call when you have a command? Why do you need to hear a voice when you’ve got a verse?  You want a call, how about this? “There’s a call comes ringing o’er the restless wave, Send the light! Send the light.”

I still get goosebumps just writing this story.  Over 140 people surrendered their lives to the mission field at that memorial service alone and it instilled in me a heart for missions that has never faded.

I have been privileged to preach in the church that Bob started in Cebu City.  On the day that I preached, there were over 4000 people in attendance.  I have been able to visit the Philippines five times and three generations of our family have ministered there.

I pray that as we focus our hearts on the nations over these next few weeks, you will catch just a little bit of the passion that has been handed down to me through these experiences.