Winter 2007 | Volume 65, No. 2

Fishing for answers ...

... from the Fish School faculty.

Launched in 2005, the Roy Fish School of Evangelism and Missions has nine full-time faculty members. They come from all over the world. Their academic and in-the-field evangelism and missions experiences are second to none: You can view their complete profiles on the seminary’s Web site at www.swbts.edu/faculty.

Southwestern News wanted to land deeper insights from these professors. So, we lured each of them with three questions. They took the bait with responses that are honest and poignant, not to mention sometimes earth-shaking. We think you will enjoy this harvest of answers from the teachers who are making “fishers of men.”

Question

Where was your first overseas mission trip, and how old were you when you went?

eitel  When my wife and I departed the United States for our first term of three years in Cameroon, West Africa.

morgan  My first overseas mission trip was to Hong Kong when I was 48. Since then I have been to Hong Kong three times, Taiwan three times, Japan three times, Vietnam once, Mexico once and Brazil twice.

crawford  Since there is no “sea” between Texas and Mexico and no “sea” between the U.S. and Canada, my first mission trip overSEAS would be a preaching tour of Spain at age 37.

bowers  Mexico and Guatemala for eight weeks with Practical Missionary Training when I was 25.

mills  My first trip was with the Alabama Baptist Convention to Maracaibo, Venezuela, a city of 2.6 million. We did door-to-door evangelism and crusades, and they assigned me to an area reputed to be where more Americans are kidnapped (by Columbian guerrillas) than any other place on earth. I was in my 20s.

moldovan  Despite all preparation efforts and attempts to substantiate such a mission trip and due to heavy restrictions imposed on the Baptist leaders by the intransigent Communist government of Romania, I was denied permission to travel outside the country. However, following years of arrest, interrogation, surveillance, culminating in 1980 with torture, removal of my citizenship and property, I have found myself (and my family) on the road to exile. For practical
reasons, our approval to come to the United States as religious and political refugees offered an open door for an unorthodox, long-term overseas mission trip – which I am on now! I was 30 then.

maalouf  Well, I was born in a mission field, in the oldest continuously inhabited
city in the world: Damascus (my father lived there for work). Being originally from Lebanon, my first official mission trip was to Amman, Jordan, after finishing my doctoral work.
I was 41.

sanchez  My first overseas mission trip was when I was a senior at Howard Payne University. I was selected to go with an evangelistic team to Guatemala for the
summer. While there, we served among some of the Indian groups as well as in the metropolitan areas. It was our privilege to see more than 300 people come to a saving knowledge of Christ during our revival
services in churches, camps and open air meetings.

forshee  It was in Cambodia with Dr. Eitel and I was 34. It changed my life, and now I try to go every year on an overseas trip.

Question

Is there one particular overseas region, country or people group about which you have a special passion or interest?

eitel  There are many, with varied reasons. I think the urgency of the mega-populations in China and India hold a special challenge for me. But, my heart is very motivated for the people of Africa.

morgan  I am a North American Mission Board missionary, so not surprisingly, my mission passion is the Pacific Northwest and Canada. Even though both are in North America, the cultural differences between there and here are extreme ... The evangelism and church-planting strategies that must be used there have much more in common with post-Christian Europe than those that work in the South of the United States.

crawford  Considering that I spent six years ministering along the Mexican border, two sabbatical leaves in Canada, a sabbatical leave in China, another sabbatical leave in Germany, traveled and ministered in 56 countries, and now work with our missionary personnel in Central and Eastern Europe: No.
I am committed about reaching the lost for Christ wherever they are.

bowers  The Buddhist world of Southeast Asia.

mills  The people groups in the 10/40 window. Editor’s note: 10/40 window-The area of the world between 10 degrees north and 40 degrees north latitude, comprising North Africa, the Middle East and Asia. It’s where 95 percent of the earth’s least-evangelized are found.

moldovan  Like the prophet Isaiah, I am an internationalist, a Great Commission-focused believer. I do have a special concern and interest for the secularized country of France.

maalouf  My passion is for the Middle East and North Africa. I love to do ministry also in France, having been converted there!

sanchez  I am committed to the worldwide implementation of the Great Commission. The areas where church-planting movements are occurring are of special interest to me at this time.

forshee  While serving as a pastor in Virginia, the church adopted the Chadian Arabs; even now they have a special place in my heart.

Question

What is the strangest thing you have ever tasted or place where you have slept?

eitel  Strangest food: Fermented mare’s milk in Kyrgystan. Most unique place to sleep: I was honored to be able to sleep on the floor of an old Chinese farm house along with approximately 100 leaders from all over China who were all underground church leaders.

morgan  The strangest food I’ve eaten was Nato – fermented bean curd. I tried it in Japan. It is brown, and when you pick up a bite it forms gooey strings. The taste is strong and you have to get used to it. The smell puts off most Westerners from even trying it.

crawford  Strangest food would be a tie between snails in China (picked out of their shell with a toothpick), fermented camel’s milk in Kazakhstan and, of course, Hong Kong chicken feet with toenails intact. Strangest place where I’ve slept was a field workers cabin somewhere in the Knod Hills of Central India: no electricity and no plumbing.

bowers  Fried spiders in rural Cambodia. They were not good but actually tasted better than the stuffed goat stomach in Haiti. I have slept on a one-eighth-inch thick mat on a stilt home in rural Cambodia, while the owner talked with my associate and blew clouds of tobacco smoke from a home-rolled cigarette.

mills  I have been treated to unprocessed coffee in the mountains of Colombia. “Unprocessed” means it did not go through factory coffee roasting and packaging and transportation processes. It went from the coffee farmer’s field, was dried, roasted in a home oven, ground, brewed and served. It was typical Latin American coffee (needs one-third cup of cream to tolerate its boldness), but better and fresher. It is harsh and bitter without cream but becomes smoother, of course, with all the cream. Best I’ve ever had! Unique sleeping arrangements? The dormitory of a former communist youth camp in Moldova where I trained pastors in church growth and evangelism.

moldovan  A special Mayan dish, in San Pedro, Atitlan, Guatemala, 1990s.

maalouf  Well, I was offered pig’s blood in sausage form in southern France, back in 1981! But I did not end up eating it. I have slept on the deck of a cargo ship sailing to Lebanon from Cyprus back in 1982 because all major transportation outlets were shut down due to Israel’s invasion of the country. I had left France to Cyprus after my conversion with a burden to share the gospel message in Lebanon.

sanchez  I am sure that when people come to the United States they find some of our foods to be a bit strange. This obviously happens to us, also. I was in an Indian village in Central America where the people would put our food on the table and then go outside and sit on the ground just outside the door while we ate. Most of their food was very good. One time, however, they put a piece of meat on my plate that had a very different taste and was very greasy. Not wanting to offend them by not eating the meat, I decided to give my piece of meat to a dog that was in the room with us. All would have gone well had the dog eaten the meat in the room. Instead, he headed for the door. Not wanting our wonderful hosts to see the dog with my meat, I made an effort to restrain the hound, but unfortunately he started yelping. Hearing this, our hosts ran in and saw me chasing the dog. They were very apologetic thinking that the dog had “stolen” the meat from my plate. They then “helped me” by serving me an even larger piece of the same kind of meat. I guess the moral of the story is, “not every dog is man’s best friend.”

forshee  I was served some wildebeest in Kenya that was delicious.