We have been reminded lately that life is short. And that this earth is not our home. The words of an old, familiar song come to mind, "We are just a passing through". I wanted to share with you what a missionary friend, colleague and our field leader, Mike McGinty wrote to us as a field.
The OMF Japan team is mourning the loss of our friend and colleague David Ferguson. We deeply grieve that a dear family is bereaved of a beloved husband and father, but as a Fellowship we ourselves struggle to come to terms with the implications of David’s death on both a personal and professional level. We were comrades in arms engaged in a spiritual struggle that bound us together similar to soldiers on a real battlefield. When one of us is wounded or dies in battle, we who remain must continue to persevere but we do so inspired by and strengthened by the faith of our fallen comrades whose task is now finished.
We had the joy and privilege of running the same course with David for a while but our path now diverges and continues while David’s has inexplicably turned heavenward. We still have the shared memories of battles we fought together as well as good times that were shared as we labored together. This all took place in the context of a foreign country that became our home and whose people we learned to love. It was these things that united us and bound us to one another despite our diversity in cultures, personalities and backgrounds. It enabled a Scottish lawyer who had a preference for kilts and haggis to serve alongside an ornery Texan who had a preference for cowboy boots and barbecue.
Obviously, the things that unite us and bind us together run much deeper than personalities and personal preferences. The answer to that is found in the cross where the sin that so easily separates us and pulls us apart into factions was dealt with by the mercy of God. It is that Gospel that led us all from the far corners of the earth to Japan and supernaturally enabled us to serve effectively and joyfully with one another. We have lost a dear brother and we honor him for a life well lived. But we continue to honor David as we press on for God’s glory in the unfinished task before us.
Mike words it so well. We have lost a fellow soldier on the battlefield. When you work together in a foreign country side by side with each other, comrades become family. As missionaries, our family that is related by blood is far away in another country, so the body of Christ that we serve with feels like family. That must be why you'll hear missionary kids saying "Auntie" and "Uncle" all the time. As this picture of David's boys with our son at the funeral shows, these friends who know what it is like to grow up in Japan, feel like cousins. And I guess we really are family, because we are connected by Christ's blood that was shed for us. And we have given our lives to proclaim this blood to those in Asia who have never heard.
