The “outpost”

Think of this lunar picture.

Moon rover on lunar surface

The lunar mission is often referred to as an “outpost on the moon.” The dictionary defines an outpost: “a small group of troops stationed at a distance from the main body of an army and assigned to guard a particular remote place or area. A settlement in unfamiliar territory or on a frontier.”

The earth’s highest mount, Mt. Everest

Consider the awesome Mt. Everest.

At 8,848 metres (29,029 ft) it is the highest point on planet earth. Its remotest “outpost” is the basecamp in Nepal at 25,364 metres (17,598 ft) This basecamp is where the most skilled mountain climbers in the world launch their assault on the bewitching ascents of this mountain of all mountains. Eleven thousand climbers have risked their lives to achieve success. The success rate is 29% and 250 have died on the mountain. Let’s draw some conclusions.

• We are missionaries who are part of a greater entity and assigned to a particular remote area. Upon finishing our first assignment in El Dorado, Kansas, we were assigned to Lebanon, then years later to Australia. The Lord put the burden of missions in our hearts and assigned us to the area of Lebanon. The lunar mission was to an unfamiliar, hostile environment. As servants of the Most High God we go out in a world that is hostile to Him and no friend to Grace. The lunar mission carried with them that which would allow them to survive in a harsh and hostile world, else they would certainly perish. We carry within us that which will allow us to survive in a world that is at enmity with God: “Christ in you,” “Without Me, ye can do nothing,” and certainly “God which worketh in you…”

• Missionaries are “sent ones.” We have gone out. Churches helped send us out. There was a need: people who had not heard. Truly at the time it seemed like the barren surface of the moon; it was previously unknown to us. In Tripoli, Lebanon, there were few Christians and only one other church to give the Light to a city of 250,000 in the midst of an area of hundreds of towns and villages with no Gospel witness. For most of the seventeen years of our ministry there we were the only missionaries of any kind in all the North of Lebanon. We went out to the post, the outpost.

• The outpost is a place of duty and responsibility. Few are there, and there is much to do. We are to be like a solid rock, unmoveable, doing our God-given duty faithfully at the post. The watchman must stay at the post. Our homepage sketch was called a “lunar outpost,” but there is no one at that post now. We are to remain at the post of duty.

Human footprints on lunar surface

Climbers on summit of Mt. Everest

Tracks in the lunar sand or the snows of Mt. Everest
God will multiply us and make of us an effective tool, if we are broken, so that we can leave an imprint and influence, not in the sand, but in human lives. The tracks of the lunar vehicle left on the moon’s surface are temporary and of little effect now. The marks, the tracks we leave on people’s lives can be of great blessing and remain through the ages of eternity. “That ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain.” (John 15:16) The deep desire of the hearts of the missionaries at Missionary Outpost, and that of all our fellow missionaries, is to leave an imprint, be a blessing, be a godly influence upon the lives of those we touch. We do it at the outpost, out there at the post, during our duty. That is the very least we can do, Our wonderful Lord Jesus has done so much for us.