For Those Who Wonder Why We are Going

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Why Go to Finland as a Missionary when I’m Old, Tired and Arthritic? 

Jun 1, 2024 3:15 PM This is when I wrote this entry.

In thinking and praying about our decision to serve as missionaries in Finland I desire for our family, close friends, and church family to understand why we would choose to spend our retirement years (late 50’, 60s, and possibly some of our 70s) in a foreign place that is beautiful but frankly cold and dark much of the year. I believe many will conclude that the late-life DNA revelation I experienced in March of 2021 set us on this new trajectory to sell our worldly possessions, pack up, say goodbye to our adult children and extended family and church family, and depart for Finland. That would only be part of the truth. Like most things in life, the truth is rarely as black and white as we think in our youth. Life is much more nuanced and grey if you will. For Peggy and myself, the motivation for missionary living was put in motion in the morning of our adult lives. 

When I left Woodstock Georgia and many dear high school friends to play football and attend West Georgia College I had very little spiritual insight or understanding of biblical Christianity. Almost all of my experiences with church or Christianity had been profoundly negative and I  was content in my life and way of living. However, it was at training camp during my first year at WGC that I was introduced to the teachings of scripture firsthand through teammates and bible studies. I was assuming I was a Christian because I believed in God as far as I knew of Him and I was trying to be a good person. Like most, I believed my good life and good deeds outweighed my bad life and deeds and I would be accepted into heaven when I died. Death seemed so far away frankly I gave very little mental time and energy thinking about it. Life was to be lived now while I was still young. I wasn’t doing drugs or other obvious reckless and self-destructive behaviors and the world was my playground it seemed. 

As I opened the Bible with my teammates I was confronted by the scriptures. I began to see that the Bible revealed God to be Holy and mankind to be unholy or sinful. It wasn’t just the people committing murder and rape that were sinful. Jesus says you have heard it was said to not commit adultery, but I tell you if you even look at a woman lustfully you have sinned. He said the same kind of thing about murder. If you even look at a person in anger you have committed murder. God’s standard for man to be Holy was unattainable. As I read the Bible I realized God hated man’s sin because He was Holy and that same Holiness would lead him to judge justly all men’s sin. I realized for the first time that God was at least as much a Holy Judge over man’s sin as He was a loving father with open arms willing to forgive anyone. A just judge doesn’t simply wink at a murderer and let him go free. So God, being a just judge cannot wink at our sins and let us go free. Your sin and mine are magnified by who we sin against. For example, if I slapped a classmate in the face for making me mad I would be wrong for using physical violence against him, but if I slapped the King of England in the face I would most likely spend some time in prison. Who we sin against matters. In mankind’s case it is against the God of the universe and therefore eternal punishment is at stake. Christ taught more about hell than any other character in the Bible. 

Heb 9:27 Just as people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment,

For the first time in my life at 20 years old I realized that my views of God were not biblical views of God. He would not grade on a curve so to speak. God would one day judge my life and I would be found guilty before a Holy God for my sins in thought, words, and deeds. If this was really what the Bible was teaching I was in big trouble. I had some big decisions to make at this point. I wrestled internally with the question of did God exists or whether creation was put into motion by a “Big Bang” that ultimately led to humans being born and living random chance lives with no bigger story or meta-narrative. Tim Keller quotes Shakespeare saying

On the hopelessness of the world without God

Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.
– Macbeth in Macbeth
Bible refs: Ephesians 2 v 12; Ecclesiastes

Something deep inside was saying there was more than this. Life cannot be a walking shadow that is here today and gone tomorrow with no reason or purpose. If this were the truth it would be the cruelest of worlds and realities it seems. I chose then to believe there is a God and I realized the scriptures have reliable manuscripts and the most manuscripts of any literature passed down through the centuries. The words of scripture ring true and the wisdom is unparalleled by other books. The more I read and thought the more sure I was that this was God Himself speaking to His creation through these words and this book. This culminated for me in Feb 1987 at a Winter Conference with a campus ministry called Campus Outreach. As I sat there in my chair in “nowhere” Alabama I knew I needed to ask Jesus to forgive me for my sin and I needed to trust Him to begin to live and walk out the Christian life. Orthodox biblical Christianity teaches that God’s Spirit enters into the life of a new believer and never leaves him from that point forward. The Holy Spirit of God then guides, convicts, and directs the Christian and is a pledge or down payment of our eternal life and forgiveness of sin. I did not have some mystical experience but rather a sense that I was right with God and that He had adopted me as His son. 

I began to see through scripture and discipleship with other Christians that 

2 Cor 5:17 was indeed true

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!”

I was changing in my desires from the inside out. I had tried to stop doing bad things before this experience but I never seemed to have the power to stop. Now life seemed much different. I was able to cut things out of my life that had been impossible before it seemed. I felt free and whole like never before.

 I knew in my soul I was right with my Creator.

 I could die and be sure I was right with Him. I began to look around me and noticed that there were so many people who did not have this relationship and sadly many did not want to hear about this new life in Christ that I had found. I began to see in the scriptures exactly why I did not want this before and why others did not want this now. 

“For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God” is a verse from the Bible, 1 Corinthians 1:18

This passage captured my reality and interpreted it for me. God knew people would think it was foolish, and they do, and so I did until His saving work was revealed to me. 

“I thought Jesus was some European White man with a golden halo hovering over the top of his head or perhaps He was the obnoxious bumper stickers or road signs that people put up in Jesus’ name but so often have little if anything to do with the God revealed in the Bible.”

There is a cultural Christianity in America that makes my skin crawl to this day. 

It is not biblical Christianity and Trump is not our savior. Syncretism has crept into the church and into the hearts of so many that fill the church on any given Sunday. 

The scripture teaches that God is saving and redeeming a people for Himself. He has another kingdom that is not of this world and that is the meta-narrative that is playing out when we turn on our televisions and see the wars in the Middle East, and Russia and Ukraine. It is not obvious that God is working in all and through all but indeed He is. There are so many world religions and so many more world views that it can be very confusing. Perhaps they are all right like the bumper stickers that have a symbol for all the world religions and say “Why can’t we just get along?” 

I can certainly appreciate that idea but it was Jesus himself who said

John 14:6

6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

‌The key idea here is that there is only one way for man to be right with God and that is through the person and work of Jesus Christ on the Bible’s terms. When other books are used to teach Christianity other than the Bible it is heresy. Only the Bible is God’s word reaching down to mankind to show us how to be right with our wonderful Creator. Other books teach a false Christ. 

Matt 7:15

“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.

Rev 22:18

8 I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book,

Before Christ would ascend to take His rightful place at the right hand of the Father until his second and final coming He said to his people

Matt 28:18-20 The Great Commission

8 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 

19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 

20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

I was 20 years old and on a summer project in Panama City Beach Florida when I first memorized this passage of scripture. It is a call to God’s people to go and make disciples of all nations and that He will be with us. This passage is the soil in which our decision to go to Finland found its roots almost 40 years ago. Peggy and I have been doing our best with God’s strength to live out this great commission our entire lives. This has been our marching orders and our soul’s delight since we were young adults. We were once preparing to move to South Africa in 2007 until we believed God was closing that door. I was also planning to move to Mexico City after college graduation in 1991 when that door closed as the team leader and the team decided not to go. For us, it would be a tragedy to spend our retirement years playing golf or as John Piper has famously said collecting Sea Shells at the Beach. Some might think it would be a tragedy if we arrived in Finland just in time for Russia to invade and perhaps take our lives in a bombing of Helsinki. We think a real tragedy would be to piddle here in the USA trying to “Make America Great Again”  or simply trying to be comfortable in our golden years while the world needs someone to tell them of God’s plan for redemption. 

We fully understand that our decision is not what God is calling everyone to do and we each must work out our own salvation with fear and trembling but we believe He would have us do this and we are trusting that He has 

As it says in 

Ephesians 2:10

10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

Join us in praying God would be at work in the life of the Finnish people. We have reason to believe God is doing a new work there and is calling people like us to join Him in this work. There seems to be a groundswell of young Finns coming to faith in Christ and beginning to lead for God’s Kingdom in the Nordic countries. We desire to join this work and humbly serve in any way possible to see Christ be Treasured as the all-important treasure that He is. 

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11 responses to “For Those Who Wonder Why We are Going”

  1.  Avatar
    Anonymous
  2. Todd Brooks Avatar
    Todd Brooks

    Clint, you had a big impact on me all those years ago as our team leader in Mexico and as a roommate. I know you will serve God for his glory in Finland. Praying for you and Peggy, my brother.

    1. Clinton Avatar
      Clinton

      I still remember the pick you set on me in a pick up basketball game and I thought I had broken my neck. LOL. I pray you are well my friend. God bless

  3. Dan Case Avatar
    Dan Case

    Greetings Clint!
    Thanks for your post on FB that led me to your story above! WOW! Love your hearts to continue to be used by our King to expand and extend His Kingdom! I would love to connect with you again bro! We walked a lot of miles together! I want to hear more about your and Peggy’s next assignment!
    My cell number is 404-372-3146.

    1. Clinton Avatar
      Clinton

      Dan, I will call you. Always grateful for your investments in my life. Talk soon

  4. Elizabeth Renae Vaughn Avatar
    Elizabeth Renae Vaughn

    Big Brother and my sweet Sister in Love. I pray your journey to Finland and time living there will be safe and blessed and in God’s favor. I know you are both being led by him so I believe this is going to be a Blessed Life in Finland. We will miss you both so much. Please always keep us updated and please call as much as you can. With my whole heart I love you both. 💚Renae

    1. Clinton Avatar
      Clinton

      We love you and will work hard to stay connected to family and friends while there. Still have 6 months or more before we leave. Talk soon,

  5. Sandra Hearon Avatar
    Sandra Hearon

    Clint, praying for and following your journey closely. Love and blessings, Sandra

    1. Clinton Avatar
      Clinton

      Grateful eternally for your labor in our lives. Love you guys,CW

  6. Elaine Conn Avatar
    Elaine Conn

    Clint and Peggy,
    I know you have had this calling in your heart for a while. May the Lord Bless you both in this new ministry. Follow you heart and Jesus as you step out in his name.
    I would love to follow and pray for both of you in this new adventure. Love you both. In Jesus name.

    1. Clinton Avatar
      Clinton

      You and Sid have been a gift while we have been here at FBCC. Grateful for your hearts and kindness toward us. CW