Ethan Zimmerman

    Going to Bolivia wasn’t my idea.  It didn’t fit perfectly with my plans.  I had my own missions agenda, and Bolivia wasn’t offering what I wanted.  I wanted to be with a doctor the whole time.  I wanted to see a totally different culture.  I wanted to get some people saved.  I wanted to serve.  I wanted the type of trip everyone would be dying to hear about!  I guess these were not all bad things, but they were my things.

    I look back on this and chuckle to myself.  I was a missions rookie with little understanding of missions’ purpose.  I didn’t realize that missions involves a lot of them – the missionaries and the nationals – and a small amount of me.  And I was even further from understanding this:  When you devote yourself and your time to the service of others, it’s as rewarding as anything else in life.

    As it was, I spent six weeks in Bolivia doing many simple, everyday tasks:  painting a church here, printing out papers there, working with children over there—nothing spectacular at first.  The Bolivians responded by showing me overwhelming appreciation.  They demonstrated the complete joy of Christ.  I was warmly received by people who didn’t hold me at arm’s length and who really got excited when they found out I loved their Jesus too.  It is an experience I wouldn’t have had in a thousand years if I hadn’t gone away from my mission field here in the United States. I tell you, I left Bolivia truly blessed, and I was able to serve too. 

    But the heartwarming stuff is only half the story, of course.  Riding in taxis stuffed with a dozen people I couldn’t communicate with gave me a yearning to take the Gospel to a people who haven’t heard.  I wish I could have shared, “Jesus is alive and He loves you all!”  But that’s why I am back in the States – to prepare for my task ahead and to encourage you to contribute to world evangelism.  Each one of us can do something.  Just be very careful about telling God what it is you can and cannot do.  Trust me!

Published in WGM's Call to Prayer - May/June 2000 

Back to VIA Notes

Back to Ethan Zimmerman