In this way, the photo served a great and worthy purpose. Symbols are powerful, and this one served that purpose well.

Unfortunately, the photo does not tell the complete story. As we approach another Memorial Day, it is good for us to be reminded. For the six Marines pictured in this photo, the exposure was not a blessing. America needed heroes, so we made heroes of Ira Hayes, Franklin Sousley, John Bradley, Mike Strank, Rene Gagnon, and Harlon Block, and in so doing six young men – not one of them was over the age of 25 –  became the unwitting icons of our national pride. The job was a brutal taskmaster.

Symbols are larger than life. Reality, however, is always messier and more convoluted. These boys had fought for their lives on Iwo Jima and watched many of their friends die violent deaths. When they raised the flag on that February morning they were not flush with victory. No, they were numb with hunger, grief, blood, death, and utter fatigue.

And they weren’t done fighting. Mike Strank and Harlan Block died the next day in the continuing battle for the island. Franklin Sousley died a month later from stubborn Japanese sniper fire. Only three of the six survived. Soon after the photo became famous, the surviving three flag raisers were shipped home to a new assignment: to spend the rest of their military careers traveling and making public appearances before thousands of adoring fans. To the admiring public their flag raising courage represented quintessential nostalgia. Their private truth, however, was something altogether different. They struggled constantly between overwhelming public praise and equally overwhelming personal anguish that only a veteran of battle can understand.

Ira Hayes died ten years later, an aimless and impoverished alcoholic. He was found frozen on the ground outside a friend’s home. Rene Gagnon lived a while longer, then died of a heart attack at his janitor job. He had seemed to enjoy the limelight, but in fact was pushed in front of the cameras by his attention-seeking wife. The fame brought him only one consistent reward: marital strife. Admonished by his adult son to resolve things with Mom, three days before his death, he replied, “I have no answers. There is no way out. There is no escape.”

John Bradley, the man in the center of the photo, was the only one who lived out his remaining life with some normalcy. He moved back to his hometown, married, and built a funeral home business. Through the years he loved his wife, raised his children, and lived in the same small community. He rarely spoke about his celebrity and refused to talk to reporters. Why? He offered only one explanation: the pain of losing his friends. He did not want to be a hero. He had only done his job. After his death, his son James recounted the story of the flag raisers in the book, Flags of our Fathers.

Do we disparage these men by pointing out their humanity? Absolutely not. On the contrary, we honor them by dispelling the impossible myths of heroism. Ira Hayes, Rene Gagnon and John Bradley were heroes, but they were three men in a company of 70,000 who fought at Iwo Jima. The fact that our nation made examples of three young men does not diminish the greater truth: Everyone who does his job, in the final tally, is measured equally. These surviving flag raisers wished that honor for every American soldier of Iwo Jima, especially those who died.

They knew the secret of true heroism – that it is not a public thing at all. It is earned in trenches with friends, doing dirty jobs, without fanfare, without acknowledgement, and without expectation of reward. All a real hero needs is to be connected with his buddies, and to serve a noble cause.

There is another group of such heroes. They are our missionaries, our international ambassadors of Jesus Christ. They do their job for money or glory. They don’t go to get rich or to gain public praise. They serve only to make a difference in the world, to advance the cause of Christ, in a remote place among unknown people. We could all learn from them. If more Christians lived and served this way, the world would quickly become a better place to live, and Jesus, our ultimate Hero, would rise adequately in our midst to lead the way. He, through our quiet service, would draw the world to Himself.

Carl’s tragic death was not the only trouble Ron and Mary have endured. Ron was in the ministry for many years, and then resigned after a moral failure. Later, he left the Lord altogether and abandoned his family too. The marriage ended in divorce. Mary is a godly, capable woman. She kept the family together, returned to her career in education, and paid the bills while Ron virtually ignored her and the children.

With the loss of their son, Ron and Mary’s grief was almost unimaginable. The divorce was painful enough. The kids really suffered. Mary endured years of loneliness. But this, this is indescribable. At the funeral, Ron helped carry his son’s coffin. He also read a letter he had written to his son, asking forgiveness for all the pain he had inflicted on his firstborn.

Life is fraught with painful roads down which all of us are sometimes forced to walk. We don’t choose these roads. We just suddenly find ourselves on them, often because of the actions of someone else. Our faith does not guarantee avoidance of these pathways.

I’ve had my own experiences with pain. On October 14, 1984 the telephone rang, waking me from early morning sleep in our home in Thailand. It was my Dad calling from the United States to tell me that my brother Dale had ridden the elevator to the tenth floor of the Hilton Hotel in Van Nuys, California and jumped to his death. Nothing I had ever experienced in my twenty nine years of life, nothing I had ever read in a book, nothing in my walk with God for the previous eleven years, prepared me for what I felt as Dad’s words crackled over the telephone.

That was the first time that I really met grief face to face. It wasn’t to be my last.

Isaiah saw the Messiah in a vision, and he wrote about Him: “He is despised, and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief.” Jesus was acquainted with grief. At this time of year, when we remember the Cross at Calvary, it is good for us to remind ourselves of this fact.

Grief is not someone we want to meet. He is not our friend, and we don’t want to know him. Unfortunately, at some point in everyone’s lifetime he comes knocking at our door and we must let him in.

Another painful road Beth and I walked in earlier years was a chemical imbalance that Beth suffered. It thrust her into severe depression and harassed her with wild, angry thoughts, many of which were directed at me. Years passed before we finally found a cure that worked. It almost wrecked our marriage and I nearly quit the ministry. Even now, it is sometimes difficult to talk candidly about this experience. Grief and personal suffering take their toll, and change us.

I don’t want to suffer any more grief! It is not fun. It is not easy. It just hurts. It hurts. It hurts. But, three things I have learned. First, I do not fear suffering anymore. I am acquainted with grief. I know what it looks like, smells like, feels like. And I now know it can never take from me anything that has eternal value.

Second, I can empathize with others who are suffering. I don’t know if empathy is a spiritual gift or just the natural by-product of difficult experiences and the healing God brings to our souls.  But, now, because I’ve suffered, I can understand what other people go through. I can’t take away another person’s pain, but I can be a friend walking beside them in it. Empathy cannot be taught in Bible college or learned in Sunday school. It is acquired, step by painful step, on the rocky road of experience.

Finally, if we persevere, Jesus ultimately prevails! That is the story of the Cross and the Resurrection that followed! And, it is the promise of our own experience. We too become more than conquerors. Now I understand the pain associated with the death of a loved one. Now Beth and I are helping others whose marriages are suffering.

Empathy is what Jesus did for thirty three years. His acquaintance with the human plight is the essence and the miracle of the Incarnation. He condescended to men of low estate. He was tempted in all points like we are. He wept. He suffered. He died. He became sin for us. He can relate to us because He is a man of sorrows and is acquainted with grief.

Quite a number of our missionaries have walked down difficult roads in the years I have served them. The longer we live on this broken planet, the more we – like Jesus – become acquainted with grief. If you are suffering, I encourage you to walk through your grief and let God heal you and your circumstances in His time. Keep your head up and don’t let your pain press you into making bad decisions. Walk forward, even on a road that seems to lead to nowhere. Don’t quit. Gather your loved ones around you and weather the storm! Someday you WILL get through, and THEN you will be even more effective in your calling. Yours will be a testimony of victory! You’ll be a better human being, better prepared, and better equipped to serve others in need.

Remember Paul’s words: “Our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.” (2 Corinthians 4:17)

James said it another way: “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” (James 1:2-4)

In this Easter season, we remember the suffering of Jesus, and His acquaintance with grief. We too celebrate His resurrection!  This is the most powerful story the world has ever heard!

• Small is Big, by George Barna
• House to House, by Larry Kreider
• Starting a New Church, by Ralph Moore
• The Emotionally Healthy Church, by Peter Scazzero
• Church Planter, by Patrick Darrin and Mark Driscoll
• How to Multiply Your Church, by Ralph Moore
• Untamed: Reactivating a Missional Form of Discipleship, by Alan and Debra Hirsch

In January Globe hosted our annual Globe Network Summit in Pensacola where about thirty Globe leaders and church planters from around the world came together to be trained by Bill Smith, a former International Mission Board (Southern Baptist) leader and now consultant on Church Planting Movements. For three days Bill taught us about the essential, observable characteristics of every indigenous Christian movement. None of this is new. The model is in the New Testament, particularly the Acts of the Apostles, and it is a No Brainer for most missionaries.

But, in fact, it is easy to forget the simplicity of leading people to Christ and helping them gather together for the purpose of expressing, growing, and sharing their faith. It is easy, with the cacophony of two thousand years of church history echoing in our heads, to forget that “DOING CHURCH” is really not all that complicated. One of my most profound “take-aways” from the Summit was George Patterson’s list of seven things that distinguish a church from the New Testament record. If these things are happening in a group, then that group is doing church:

1.     People are repenting and believing in Jesus
2.     People are being baptized
3.     People are worshipping God
4.     People are loving each other
5.     People are giving to needs
6.     People are discipling and being discipled
7.     People are celebrating the Lord’s supper

Now that we have both the Old and New Testaments as Scripture, I would add an eighth to the list: People are learning (reading, hearing, sharing) the Bible. Hmm. Pretty easy. We all should be DOING CHURCH more. DOING CHURCH everywhere, in new villages and towns, and in new areas of the city. We should encourage others to help new believers to DO CHURCH too. This is precisely how New Testament Christianity turned the world upside down.

I just bought a new book – “Viral Jesus: Recovering the Contagious Power of the Gospel” – where author Ross Rohde again insists New Testament Christianity – what we read about in Acts – was a simple, viral model of Christianity that, because of its simplicity and its oddity (the bold faith of the followers) it spread like fire across the known world.

This is a challenge to all of us! If DOING CHURCH is that simple and easy, all of us should be sharing our faith and starting more churches, all the time, all over the place!

Not to disparage the short-term experience. I received my call to missionary service on a short-term trip and ultimately our family spent fifteen years overseas. Many short-term ministries are providing vital services to missions. But there is simply no replacement for career ministry. A friend of mine, Ben Veazey, who serves career missionaries through building and construction services, put it this way: “We (the short-term missionaries) are the helping hands of front-line warriors (career missionaries)” who are doing the real work.

Unfortunately American culture is losing the value of long term commitment to anything. Instant gratification is the paradigm value of 21st century pop culture. When over 50% of American marriages are failing – in the church and in the world – it is no wonder people can’t make a long term commitment to anything less important.

But God is still looking for heroes of the faith, who will invest themselves in unreached peoples and cultures and change the status quo! That kind of labor of love will never happen on a weekend expedition or even a year or two on the field.

If you are considering a call to a missionary career, let me suggest a few ways to ensure that you stay on the field for the duration of God’s call.

1. Pace yourself. Remember, every good thing takes time; great things take even longer. Be patient, and let Jesus carry the emotional and logistical load. Work one day at a time and build for the future. I have always believed in the fire of God, but I want the kind of fire that burns like an internal combustion engine and goes for many years, not a brush fire that burns out in two weeks.
2. Join the culture. Language acquisition and cultural assimilation are vital to your ministry success and personal fulfillment. Without them, ineffectiveness and loneliness will kill you long before any real battle.
3. Develop strategic skills. Any long term success story, whether a business enterprise, a large church, or a missionary career, is built on a foundation of planning and good administration. You will never see lasting fruit in your ministry if you don’t learn how to plan for the future and manage the details of your work. Minister to people. But manage your money, your time, and the details. If necessary, hire or recruit someone to help you. But DON’T NEGLECT THE DETAILS! Good management builds trust, and trust is GOLD in ministry.
4. Communicate your vision. Let people know what you are doing, and why. MONEY FOLLOWS VISION! If you are struggling financially you either do not have a vision or you are not communicating it effectively. In today’s high-tech culture (where most of your support comes from), you need to stay alert about how to communicate.
5. Take vacations, get a hobby, recreate. I can’t say enough about this. I’m still amazed at how many missionaries don’t take vacations or have hobbies. There is no substitute for “recreation.” A person “recreates” him or herself through distraction – sometimes pointless distraction. When I need inspiration, I change my environment. I do something different. Give yourself regular opportunities to rest and be re-created. The Sabbath is God’s idea and His command!
6. Love your spouse and children. Have fun with your spouse and family. Don’t just work together. Play together, and include them in your ministry. Give them genuine involvement and inspire them by affirming their worth and calling.
7. Advance your learning. Prioritize regular time to learn about your field of ministry and other areas that interest you. Keep growing, in mind and soul. It will broaden your horizons, give birth to new dreams, and positively impact your ministry.

God loves the career missionary! Jesus spent thirty three years in Israel before he finished his work. Some things just take time. Heaven is being populated, and Hell depleted because people like this are making a difference in life-time cross-cultural ministry.

We watch this stuff on television and shake our heads. These acts defy logic, even if we allow for the oft-demented rationale of terrorists. Afghan and Iraqi families are suffering ten times more than anyone else. Not that we’ve been spared. America got the message on September 11, 2001. But the whole world is hearing this message: That lunatics – real hate-filled killers – live among us, brandishing weapons and threatening to sacrifice anyone to further their cause.

One of the greatest values I cherish is that the Christian life, when lived according to Biblical values, is sane and sensible. God’s people, the followers of Jesus, are committed to a reasonable and judicious way of living. The world may be coming unglued, but Christ-followers stay cool, calm and collected.

A lot of Christian organizations use superlative terms in their slogans and promotion materials: radical, extreme, mania, etc. I don’t have a problem with this because, in truth, the Christian norm is often radically different from a lot of other things in the world. The slogans simply champion our commitment. But make no mistake: at the core, we are a sensible and responsible people. We love God, love our families and care for people. When all the world is going crazy and calling for blood, it ought to be the Christians who are living an example of temperance and mercy.

There is a time to preach, of course. Jesus stood before the masses and declared God’s truth. There is a time to “fight” for right. Jesus confronted his enemies and stood His ground. But when the world went crazy on those days surrounding His crucifixion, Jesus showed himself a model of self-control and repose. He quietly and, with the strength of a thousand men, carried out the Father’s will. Our faith today, our way of life, is built upon this example – not only what Jesus accomplished at the cross, but the way He did it!

The world is an uncertain and often tumultuous place. Christian and secular commentators tell us how to respond to current events and future scenarios. Some of the advice is good. Some is reactionary. A lot is really negative. I’m trying to stay informed. I’m making some adjustments in my life. But for the most part, I’m just living the Christian life. People used to ask me how we could work in war-torn Sri Lanka. I simply said, “The large majority of Sri Lankans are trying to live normal lives, despite the war raging around them. We’re just doing the same.” Babies are born and kids go to school, even in the worst of times.

I’m committed to love my wife, love my kids, and keep my house in order. I’m staying out of debt, being a good neighbor, guarding my tongue and my heart, and taking time for physical recreation and spiritual reflection. I’m a giver, a witness for Christ, a lover of God, and I’m trying to be a decent human being.

THAT – not the radical rhetoric – is what really makes the world go ‘round!

Today, in my fifties, I sometimes reminisce about those years and can’t believe I had so much energy and got so much done! I also remember the passion and almost endless self-sacrificing vision of my youth.

Every generation produces new young people. From these youth new sources of energy, passion and vision are bestowed on the world. And, the older generation that spawned them, who are now slowing down, must come to terms with their zeal, their hope, their innocence, and their potential.

If you are over forty, you probably have begun to forget some of the power of being young. You have lost much of your youthful passion. Your energy levels are lower. Your vision is more “refined” which might mean it is more cynical or cautious. It is certainly more realistic. Your passion is more compromised, meaning you now balance sold-out service for self-serving interests. You now think about retirement, not just winning the world for Jesus. You look back with regret as often as you look forward with hope.

Youth aren’t encumbered with such conflicts of interest. Their life is ahead of them, and they are ready to live. In the words of Saturday Night Live character Matt Foley, young people want to “grab life by the tail, pull it down, tie it in a knot and put it into your pocket.” Many of them are willing to make big sacrifices for what they believe. They don’t have much experience, they lack knowledge, and they make a lot of mistakes, but they want to change the world.

Problem is, they don’t know what too many older folks now believe, that – again in the acrid words of Matt Foley – they probably “won’t amount to Jack Squat.”

Cynical, yes. But too often these are the sentiments of the older toward the younger.

David accomplished his most famous deed when he was a teenager. By himself, despite his brothers’ insults and the army’s mass cowardice, he killed Goliath with a stone and a sling. King Saul had offered a huge reward – money and his daughter – to the man who killed the giant. David, however, didn’t confront Goliath for money. He did it for an ideal. He loved God and his people and would not stand idly by while both were mocked by a tyrant. David’s faith, borne on the wings of youthful zeal, killed a giant and inspired a nation.

Everyone who knows me knows how much I love surfing. People joke about Doug Gehman’s passion for surfing. Some have criticized me for it. But I am unapologetic. Historically surfing was a sport for rebels. Maybe that is why I love it. I’ve always been a little bit of a rebel and a loner. In recent years, and to my surprise, God has used surfing to connect me with today’s youth.

In the 1960s, when I was a teenager, surfing became one of the icons of a generation who were turning their backs on “The Establishment” and the greed and war it had come to symbolize. A whole generation – hippies, flower children, surfers, run-aways and rebels “turned on, tuned in, and dropped out.” Our parents did not know what to do with us. We marched against Vietnam. We stood up against big money. We quit college and got stoned. We rioted and protested on college campuses across the nation. It was a messy time in America. Yet, out of that cultural conundrum God brought forth the Jesus People. I became one of them in 1973, at “Jesus ‘73”, the first big Christian youth rally for our times. 15,000 young people gathered on a Pennsylvania farm for three days of music and Christian ministry. I gave my life to Christ at that rally.

There were no churches for us in those days. Not a single youth focused church existed in the area I lived in. In the early 70’s one Presbyterian pastor started a Saturday night meeting for young people. It drew hundreds of high school and college kids. When I went to college in Indiana, there were only two churches in the county that focused on marginal youth. I joined one of them, Zion Chapel. I grew up in the Lord in that church. I met my wife there, got married there, and got sent to the mission field from that church.

At the other side of the nation, in California, Pastor Chuck Smith of Calvary Chapel in Costa Mesa, started welcoming hippies into his church. In Pensacola, Pastor Ken Sumrall began reaching out to young people, loving them into the Kingdom. Liberty Bible College and Globe Missionary Evangelism were born from that love, and from Brother Ken’s belief that youth would change the world for Jesus Christ.

Many of these churches and ministries still thrive today. Many are now huge and are still growing. Others have become stale, middle-aged, and almost irrelevant to this generation. But, their legacy is profound. God moved on young people, and a few leaders said yes to God and loved them, trained them, and turned them loose on the world. Many of Globe’s senior missionaries are the fruit of that time.

A steady stream of young people are coming to Globe to talk about how they too can become involved in missions. They are interested in short-term assignments, intern assignments, outreaches, and any kind of new, radical, youth-oriented missions opportunities. They are doing skate and surf outreaches, they are planting new churches, they are making films about missions, and they are going to some of the hardest places on earth! I am continually amazed and challenged at their willingness to give their lives, and make huge sacrifices, for what they believe is a noble cause – to reach the world for Jesus Christ.
And we are responding to them. Over the past decade Globe has retooled on every level to connect with young people and help them get on God’s mission!