Dear Editor,
I was one of those present in 1955 in the famous Henry Martyn Hall in Cambridge when one man stood up and shared his vision that, following the Cambridge Seven who went out nearly 70 years previously, we should pray for 70 of our generation to go and serve God overseas. (In the July issue of en, there is a review of a book telling of how this vision was realised.)
When I left Cambridge, I taught in a school in this country, then went to be a lecturer in Physics at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria. On the strength of this, I learnt relatively recently that I was counted as one of the Cambridge Seventy. If teachers, doctors, etc. are included, the total number who went abroad from our generation was over 80.
One thing that led me to want to go abroad was that UCCF was promoting the idea of overseas employment as a way of serving God in what was essentially missionary work, but not needing to rely on other Christians for our income. While out there, I married a lady who, up to that time, had worked in a missionary society. Sadly, after we married, some of those supporting her no longer regarded her as a ‘missionary’ in the accepted sense of the word, and so we lost contact with them.
But I believe that we should consider all Christians as missionaries in the sense that we should all be spreading the Good News as we have opportunity. And we should all be serving God ‘full time’ in the sense that everything we do should be God’s service, whether we are a plumber or a preacher. This means that churches should pray as much for its members in this country as for those who happen to live abroad.
Yours sincerely,
