When I was a young boy growing up in Argentina, I met a fabulous woman missionary named Theda Krieger. Theda was a single woman who directly and indirectly taught me and my 5 sisters how to win scores of people to Jesus Christ.

Through the years, it is said she and another missionary partner planted over 120 churches in Argentina. 120! They did this by connecting with children in neighborhoods and putting on Vacation Bible Schools. Through the children, they would get to know the parents.

Eventually, whole families were converted and began to attend church. Even though Theda, an American from South Dakota, is now in her 90s, she’s still serving the Lord in my home country.

Whenever I think about missionaries, it brings me back to the basic evangelism question: Why do we do what we do? We need to know the answer, so that our motivation is in line with what the Bible teaches.

Second Corinthians 5:12 says, “Christ’s love compels us because we are convinced that one died for all.” We share the Good News because we know and love God through Jesus Christ, that’s why. It is so thrilling that we want everybody to know Him!

Theda Krieger’s love for Christ gives her the motivation to share the Good News. May Christ’s love also compel you and me to be faithful in reaching your world, wherever that may be, till our dying day. Are you committed?

Years ago, I met Cameron Townsend in Mexico City. I had always admired this missionary because of his faith and vision to start Wycliffe Bible Translators.

So when I saw Mr. Townsend in a coffee shop, I wanted to hear what he was working on. He was about 65 years old, but I knew he wasn’t slowing down in his evangelism efforts.

Cameron Townsend told me he was studying Russian. “Why?” I asked. He said, “Because I’m going to go to Russia and I’m going to place missionaries there.” Now this was in the days when atheistic Marxism-Leninist was still in power in Russia and it sounded like a crazy idea.

“How are you going to get permission?” I asked. He said, “The Lord told me to go. I will get permission.” And then he said, “Luis, never take no for a negative. When somebody closes a door, it means the Lord probably wants you to come in through the back window.”

A few months later I saw Dr. Townsend again. He said, “Luis, we’ve already got three couples in Russia!” They were translating the Bible into some of the esoteric languages of the old Soviet Union!

In Matthew 19:26 Jesus tells his disciples, “With God all things are possible.” When you share the Good News, God can open doors you never imagined would open. Choose to believe Him, and then go for it, just as Cameron Townsend did. And look at the results.

There was a humble British maid who lived in the early 1900s. Her name was Gladys Aylward. She was uneducated but she believed that God had called her to China. Yet because she wasn’t educated, no mission society would send her.

But Gladys was tenacious and she finally found a way to get to China without the support of a missionary agency. Finally, with a few coins in her pocket and a one-way train ticket across Europe and Russia, she said good-bye to her family, and she set out to go to China.

Once in China, Gladys shared the Good News wherever, and however, she could. First, she began working at an inn and told Bible stories to the travelers who stayed there.

She later started adopting orphans, and saved scores of boys and girls when World War II broke out in China. At one point, she walked for 12 days with 100 orphans to escape the bombing of her city. She led them to safety, and then collapsed with Typhoid fever.

Gladys later wrote, “My heart is full of praise that one so insignificant, uneducated, and ordinary in every way could be used to His glory…” First Samuel 16:7 says “Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”

God can use you (look, he can use me!) so, whatever your shortcomings, lacks, failures, or fears may be, He will use you. He has chosen you to spread the Good News to your world. So make the most of it.

Cameron Townsend was a missionary who was working on translating the Bible for a tribe in Guatemala but was frustrated that he couldn’t reach more tribes with Bibles in their languages. So he came up with an idea.

Dr. Townsend’s goal was to go into the jungles of South America with groups of linguists, learn the languages, form alphabets, teach the people how to read, and translate the Bible into those languages.

Now, Cameron Townsend had no funding, no linguists, no help of any kind. But he had faith that God would bring it all together.

Townsend went back to the United States to begin recruiting the finances and volunteers. Only a few months later, he returned to Guatemala with a group of linguists to start his project.

Essentially, that’s how Wycliffe Bible Translators began. Because of Cameron Townsend’s vision and faith, there are now people groups all over the world who have the Bible in their own language.

What is God calling you to do? Where is He calling you to go? Who is He calling you to serve? Philippians 4:13 says, “I can do everything through Him who gives me strength.”

So take a step of faith right where you are. Watch the Lord work in miraculous ways as you reach your world for Jesus Christ.