Many of our congregations support missionaries at home and abroad with financial contributions and prayers but how much concrete information do members and officers have about the men and women who serve the church so faithfully? Certainly we can discover more by reading the Mission Yearbook for Prayer and Study 2006 every day (PDS 70-612-06-450, $8.50.) The companion book, 2006 Children’s Mission Yearbook for Prayer and Study (ISBN 1-57153-057-6, $ 5.50), is handsomely illustrated and is a great tool to teach elementary and junior high youth about the importance and excitement of mission. To learn about current missionaries on the field, the 2005 Directed Mission Support Guide (PDS, 800-524-2612, Item 68700 05-050) lists the missionaries and the countries they serve. A list of new workers for 2006 is available at the same address.
For those who have never had the opportunity to meet a mission worker personally or have not worked on a mission project, a new book provides an inspirational and invigorating glimpse into the life of courageous members who give up so much to proclaim Christ and work to bring healing and justice to other nations. Christ’s Globe Trotter, The Legacy of Edward (Ted) Pollock (Franklin, TN: Providene House Publishers, 2005) was writen by Ted Pollock and Beverly Reeve. It chronicles six decades of Ted’s breathtaking service with his wife Dolly, his children, grandchildren, fellow church members (he is active in First Presbyterian Church, Pittsford, NY), and friends from all over the world.
Those who have been fortunate enough to travel with Ted ( I went on church rebuilding trips to Ethiopia and Mozambique) know him to be a man of indefatigable energy and determination. Even though he is in his nineties he can run most younger men and women into the ground. His enthusiasm about God’s work is so high-powered that people meeting him for the first time worry that he might hyperventilate as he describes it.
Christ’s Globe Trotter narrates his long years of service as a Presbyterian mission worker in places like Egypt, Sudan, Ethiopia, Mozambique, Brazil, and Kenya. As he relates close calls with crocodiles, poisonous snakes, nearly impossible living conditions, and seemingly impassable roads, Ted revels as he recalls the challenges he faced. For him political pressures, governmental turnovers, encounters with hostile tribes, vehicle breakdowns in mud slides, the constant lack of adequate funds only provide new examples of how powerful and great God really is. A setback gives one an opportunity to use common sense and creative energy while waiting to see how God is going to get us out of this one.
For Ted Pollock, serving Christ is the most exciting vocation in the world. To know him is to understand something about the courage of those in the past who were willing to follow Jesus at any cost, and his book gives insights into the continuing dangers faced by contemporary missionaries even though they work with new tools like cell phones, faxes, power tools, global positioning devices, and the Internet to assist them.
In Ted’s view, it not just those who travel to distant places who have the opportunity to be Christian missionaries since we are all called to Christ’s service. As he puts it in his preface,
In the last half century I have seen Christ perform many miracles.Today I am able to look back on a life packed with more high adventure than most people could fit into a dozen lifetimes.
It is my hope as you read this story that you will realize God has a unique job for you too, and that you will respond when the opportunity comes.
Many people with whom I have worked are now gone. But God has given me so much work to do and I am so far behind, I feel like I can never die.
The hair-raising and inspiring accounts in Christ’s Globetrotter provide church officers a wonderful resource to build enthusiasm for mission work in any congregation. Ted Pollock, by the way, now in his 94th year, is leading another tour in August and September, this time to build a church in Ribaue, Mozambique. Those interested in knowing more about this project may contact his daughter, Penny McFarland (JDMCFARLAND@comcast.net).
Earl S. Johnson Jr. is the pastor of First Church, Johnstown, N.Y., and adjunct professor of religious studies at Siena College.
