Patrick's Paragrpahs - The Numbers Game (Feb 2006)

We made it a rule some years ago never to report statistics. I firmly believe that we are too quick to judge a work of God based on numerical results, and I am too quick to be prideful if the numbers are in my favor.
With a growing number of missionaries supported through IOI in a growing number of countries, we have a growing number of statistics. In addition to the growing numbers there are growing needs. It was easy to keep my ban on numbers when the numbers were small, but now I feel an ever-growing temptation to report numbers. I hear myself thinking things like, “IOI is a good investment,” and “Look at the bang for the buck.” That is balanced with the fear that the numbers may not add up or that some other organization can do it cheaper.
What matters most to me in the end is not the numbers. Large or small, it really is of no consequence. Obedience to the revealed will of God should be my ambition. What is the revealed will of God for IOI? To make disciples, to love God and to love our fellow man.
IOI is in reality nothing more than a ministry extension of the individuals and local churches that support us. As Marciano Teixeira, missionary to Ethiopia and Brazil, put it, “(Ethiopia) is just another room of the church back home. You go from one room into another; same Church, one big family.”
In addition to being an administrator, I am a storyteller. In reporting news from Ethiopia, I have had a desire to share stories and not statistics.
Jon Jones recently returned from a visit to Ethiopia, and soon I hope to share with you some of the stories he collected. They are true stories of success and failure. Not all of the news out of Ethiopia is “good,” but any realistic appraisal of the Christian life proves that we fall down and we are raised up.
I would love for each person who received this newsletter to see with your own eyes the mighty works of God in the destitute villages of the Ethiopian countryside. For you to take a drink of clean water and hear a village elder proclaim that you are visiting a “paradise” that was created with the completion of a water well. I want you to walk the streets of Addis Abeba with an evangelist supported through IOI and witness the miracle of faith as a hearer becomes a believer. I want you to hear the praises to God that come from the congregations we work with. I want you to hold the orphans that are now living with families in Mekele. I long for you to take the hand of a little boy as he takes his first steps with used leg braces that were provided by IOI. What I would give to have you sit in the mud home of Micah’s mother as she serves you coffee and recounts to you the mercy, love and blessings of God toward the mother of a dying child (for whom the Micah Fund is named). How much I desire for you to visit the simple home that Geremew can now afford to rent after serving as a minister for years despite being homeless and sleeping on the floors of fellow church members. I want you to visit ships in Bremerhaven, Germany alongside Ecki Breitenmoser as he encourages fellow believers from around the world and preaches the Gospel boldly in the mess halls. What a joy it would be for me to take you along on this journey.
Until you can go with me, LORD willing, I will continue to share the stories of God, good news from a distant land that makes the heart glad.