CEE Story From The Mission Field
A Waffle, not a Pancake
November 15, 2002
A word picture currently popular among mission strategists and church planters is, "the world is not a pancake; it's a waffle." You can pour syrup over a pancake and it will spread fairly evenly to the edge of the pancake and beyond. But when you pour syrup on a waffle, it flows, hits a barrier, goes over it, hits another, and so on. Well, it's sort of the same concept with spreading the Gospel.
The Gospel doesn't advance evenly, saturating the entire world at a steady rate; instead it moves until it hits a wall, a barrier that needs to be overcome. It is God who tears down these barriers of course, but it is the job of the missionary to join in with what God is doing and be ready to rush in when the walls come tumbling down. It's not something that can be accurately predicted because it is God who is at work and His ways are surely higher than our ways. A good example of this grid like movement of the Holy Spirit is happening in Macedonia. As God moves and His missionaries "go with the flow" (trying to stay with the syrup imagery!), amazing things are happening.
It all started with a lady in Germany. She opened her home to a Roma (gypsy) family who needed shelter. Through her act of hospitality they became Christians, then returned home to Macedonia. She contacted missionaries there and asked them to contact the family and look after their well-being. Coming from a Muslim background, the family would need support and spiritual food to help them in their new walk with the Lord. The missionary in Macedonia went to check on them with thoughts of inviting them to a local church.
"Well, we could go to church, but if we had church in our home, we could invited our family and friends," said the mother of the family. Voila! The walls of Muslim and Roma culture have a gaping hole and the gospel is flowing over yet another barrier.
Well, the family from home church #1 did indeed invite their family and friends to a new bible study in their home. A friend attended from another part of town and really enjoyed it. She asked if the missionary might bring her over to the Bible study each week, as it was too far away from her home to come regularly. The missionary said, "No, but we could start a Bible study in your home." She liked the idea and thus began another home Bible study in another district. More walls are breeched. The syrup is flowing!
Not long after home church #2 had begun, the husband and wife in that family were saved. They spontaneously began to witness to their family and friends, some of whom lived in another district some distance from theirs. The family members were so excited about what they were hearing that they asked to have a Bible study in their home as well-another wall overcome, another district touched with the gospel, and home church #3 was born. The leaders of this study, 3 of their 4 children, and their parents have all been saved since this study began. Their testimony is strong among their friends and family, and only God knows where the next wall will collapse.
The missionaries in Macedonia pray and witness--and look for falling debris. They don't know what will happen next among these Roma Christians, but they are satisfied to follow God wherever he leads and watch the gospel flow.