Today, I am thinking about the story of the “four lepers.”   I am presently in Asia where masses of people swarm like an ocean of fish.  Each one has a face, a name, a personality, a family, a need.  Jesus.   Why is missions becoming the lost subject in Christianity with these billions yet in darkness?

Now, we come to the “leper lessons.”  They were starving outside the gate of a besieged, starving city.  They represent me, you, all Christians.  Their story should be our story. 

Here are four lessons I learn from them:

40 years ago this week, I got married.  Two weeks later, I was in Africa with my bride.  I spent the better part of two years with her in the “bush” of Ghana and Nigeria often with no electricity and no running water.  Why have I invested 35 million dollars of the Lord’s money overseas in the last 33 years (and almost that much in local missions in the U.S.)?

As I reflect on this last forty years, here are a few thoughts that come to my mind: