THE APOSTLE PAUL’S AMBITION
by Erwin Bourne—May 5, 2002
It has always been my ambition to reach the gospel
where Christ was not known, so that I would not be
building on someone else’s foundation (Romans 15:20
NIV).
My first church job in Mexico was in the winter of
1977. I was needing to get away from the severe
winter weather of Alaska, following an extremely busy
summer involved in construction on the “last
frontier.” I had an invitation to visit Mexico for
the winter—so flew “South of the Border.” Within a
week’s time, I was involved laying the blocks for a
new church building in a lovely mountain valley a
hundred miles into Nuevo León.
Here was an established congregation with a pastor and
a missionary. These were my initial days with the
Latin language and culture. However, I was not a
novice in the cement and block business. So here I
was building on someone else’s foundation. I quickly
measured out the foundation and “chalked” the line for
the exterior block wall. But to my dismay, the cement
foundation was far from level. I spent my first day
or two cutting cement blocks horizontally to match the
terrible variations of an un-level foundation; then
laying these blocks to the line.
Now do you get the application? The Apostle Paul was
true to his ambition. He was a “trailblazer.” An
elderly missionary who has since— along with her
husband—retired to a better country, wrote these lines
about the Alaska/Mexico block-laying missionary:
“It was in the remoteness of the Alaska wilderness
that he prayed his way through the bewildering
conflicts that surrounded him. What were the
accomplishments in his ministry in the far north—God
alone has the records.
Through God’s strange providential leadings, Mexico
also appeared upon his horizon. Only by a direct
commission from the Lord of the harvest, could he feel
clear to follow on in this ministry. Perhaps the man
of my story is now realizing a measure of restoration
which may reach much higher and much deeper: much
further out even to those who so deeply misunderstood
him. God has brought this man and his family to a
higher plain of service and a deeper sense of the
uttermost in God’s redemptive plan.”
I have been known as an “Itinerant Missionary.” In
fact, this may very well become the title of my next
missionary book. Concerning the formative years of
the CHINA INLAND MISSION, the question was raised:
“Are the itinerations of the C.I.M. really valuable
from a missionary point of view? Are they not
unproductive and aimless wanderings? Can we hope for
much good from the journeys themselves, and will they
lead to more definite and settled work?” One of the
London Missionary Society wrote about this question:
“They are opening up the country, and this is what we
want. Other missionaries are doing a good work, but
they are not doing this work.”
One of the criticisms charged against me as a young
preacher was that “I had a mind of my own.” After
Jean and I had labored in home missionary work for the
first ten years of our ministry, I was told that it
was time I was moved into an established church. I
needed a church board that would tell me what to do
rather than I telling a young board what I wanted to
see done. I was too ambitious! So I began “building
on someone else’s foundation.” The church itself was
located across a rural highway from the city dump.
The elderly, matured church board fell asleep during
the monthly “bored meetings.” And when I proposed to
sell all the existing property—including a medieval,
two-story brick house—the board members could not find
the titles to the property. The acreage I had located
on which to rebuild the church and school sold out
from under us. My nerves broke under the trial.
Right then is when I resigned and moved to America’s
last frontier, Alaska. We raised our young family in
the wilderness; taught them in a one-room schoolhouse;
and they grew up to be as independent as their
parents.
Don’t go where the path may lead.
Go where there is no path and blaze a trail!
Does all this sound too ambitious? Listen to the
Apostle Paul—Rom. 15;13:
“It has always been my ambition to preach the gospel
where Christ was not known, so that I would not be
building on someone else’s foundation. Rather, as it
is written:
“Those who were not told about him will see,
and those who have heard will
understand.”
I was pleasantly surprised to learn of a young
preacher from a rather cautious background who has
been enjoying my “adventures of faith,” in fact, he is
quite inspired by them. He recently preached on
risk-taking saying, “Since when did cautiousness
become a virtue? Where does it say, ‘Blessed are the
cautious….’” So now Jean and I are down on the
frontiers of Amazonas. Here everything is as fresh as
a newly cut stump. We are trailblazers. We are
pathfinders. Our slogan is: “Don’t go where the path
may lead; go where there is no path and blaze a
trail!”
On the day of this writing, a large group of
indigenous Ticunas, missionaries and many other
visitors are holding the Inauguration service for a
new church building we erected up one of the
tributaries of the River Amazon. One of my newest
ambitions is to reach the frontier of Peru and
Ecuador. Here live the Achuale tribes peoples.
National missionary, Belltran Sandi Tuituy, is calling
for the assistance of AMA, our missionary
organization.
Yours for OUTREACH AMAZON,
Erwin and Jean Bourne