Fruit is about people, not tasks
by Frank Decker

It had been a difficult month for me, a fledgling missionary in the second year of our first term. Our four-year-old daughter’s pet cat had been eaten by a neighbor; I had received a letter from home informing me that my father had lymphoma; and I was feeling guilty that our infant son had been screaming for no apparent reason for a few nights until my wife discovered the cause: flesh-munching mango worms that were imbedded in his skin which had to be squeezed out.

So there I was, sitting in the Ghanaian heat, feeling low. Messages that I later realized were attacks from below were invading my thoughts: It was a huge mistake for you to come to Africa. You’re not making a difference here. Why don’t you just go home? Then, in the midst of my emotional swamp, I sensed a very clear admonishment from the Holy Spirit who invaded my pity party and seemed to say, “Hey, mister missionary, let’s take a look in your fruit basket.”

I began thinking of the fruit of the Spirit listed in Galatians 5 and I realized that for each of the nine fruit listed, I was experiencing the exact opposite. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; I was experiencing none of these at the time. My fruit basket was empty. Feeling severely convicted, I asked the Lord to begin renewing me and replenishing my fruit basket. As a result, a terrible month became tolerable.

But more importantly, I was learning an important lesson. What I accomplish as a Christian worker is not as important as who I become in the process. People are more likely to be drawn to Jesus through me not because of the things I may accomplish, such as planting a church or training evangelists, but whether or not I do things in a way that reflects Christ’s character. The cross-cultural worker, whether he or she serves for ten days or ten years, is most likely to succeed in ministry by allowing any excessively task-oriented agenda to be balanced by a realization that, in the words of Dr. Richard A. Swenson, “The focus of Jesus’ ministry was the person standing in front of Him at the moment.”

Consider the typical day that Mission Society missionary nurse Joyce Chellis recently had in the remote village where she lives in Kazakhstan. She says “typical” tongue-in-cheek, because it really refers to the fact that there is no such thing as a typical day, except that it is often “bordering on chaos.”

She woke up early to attend a prayer meeting with other Christian workers in the village, something she does three times a week. In her words, those times of prayer “have often made the difference between simply surviving and living in victory.” Before leaving, she must prepare breakfast for some overnight visitors who have traveled to the village and stayed in her home, a common occurrence. On this particular morning every bed and the sofa are filled. Since they are all still asleep she quietly prepares breakfast and leaves it out for them.

After the prayer meeting Joyce returns to her little home and the rest of the morning is a veritable three-ring circus of unexpected opportunities for ministry. Coworker Sergai is meeting with a steady stream of people in the dining room, consulting with villagers who are involved in the micro-loan program that gives would-be small business people a start. Joyce’s housemate and coworker Luba is in a bedroom giving a missionary kid a Russian language lesson. Another missionary is in the guest room working with a villager on a health education program for the village school.

At 11:00 a.m. a woman from a neighboring village arrives at Joyce’s door, after walking three miles to request medical help for her teenage son. She has an abusive and alcoholic husband. Before this visitor leaves, another woman who needs counseling arrives. This lady is not a believer, yet she comes to the Christians in the village for counseling. And all of this takes place in one “typical” morning.

The day continues with unexpected opportunities for ministry, including another medical emergency. Yet Joyce takes it all in stride. In her email to us about this day, she ends with a parenthetical comment that the second lady who came for help did give her life to Christ.

If Joyce had looked at that day in reference to her list of things to do that did not get checked off, the day would have been a failure. But in God’s eyes it was a huge success, because bearing fruit is all about touching lives, not merely accomplishing tasks.

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