Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.
Luke 6:38

Last week at this time I had the privilege of visiting a number of churches in the Syracuse, NY area and sharing at their ABC-New York State regional gathering for mission advocates and pastors.  It was wonderful to learn how deep the roots of passion for Christ’s mission go in those churches.  While visiting the First Baptist Church of Hamilton, NY, Pastor Joe Glaze gave me a tour of Colgate University and described how the mission call came to students of Colgate in the 1800s to tackle the tough assignment of taking the Gospel to the hill tribes of North East India.  At the regional gathering, a pastor related to me the history of an 1853 Mission Society meeting in Albany, NY in which a poem by Samuel Smith titled The Lone Star Mission, saved the Baptist work in South India so that the years of patient commitment to witness for Jesus Christ eventually brought great fruit for the Kingdom among the Telugu people.  So much sacrificial giving of lives and resources!

The real joy was seeing that mission investment coming full circle, as Pastor Paul Bailey of Camillus Baptist Church took me to join the worship service with Burmese refugees at the Karen Christian Church in Syracuse, NY.  Beginning with Adoniram Judson, American Baptists have given of their lives and resources to witness for Jesus Christ to the Karen tribal people of Burma.  They are now a people whose deep faith has carried them through persecution in their homeland, refugee camps in Thailand, to new homes in the USA.  After the worship service, one of the older women in the congregation came up to speak with me.  As Peetaw Oo Junian pressed her “widow’s mite” into my hand, giving to my mission work in India, she told me about her commitment to sharing the Good News of Jesus around the world.  I told her that my great-aunt, Charity Carman, had served as a missionary in Burma for many years.  “Mama Carman!”  Junian cried, “She was my teacher in school!”  As I listened to the stories of how these refugee people are now revitalizing and transforming American Baptist churches here, I marveled at God’s way of bringing giving and receiving full circle within the family of faith.