A missionary spent his entire life in the mission fields of Africa telling the story of Jesus. During those days, missionary support was meagre at best and nonexistent at worse. But, struggling the best he could he stayed on the field. In the latter years of his life, his wife died but he did not have the money to take her back to her home for burial, so he was forced to bury her in a makeshift grave near his home.

Finally, with his health, his money, and his family gone he scraped together enough for boat passage back to NY. As the boat entered the harbour, suddenly it was surrounded by fire boats spurting spray of water and tugs blowing horns. As the boat docked, a band began playing and a crowd of people began shouting and waving their arms as a celebrity walked down the gang plank. As he watched all this from the railing, this elderly missionary, knowing he was coming home alone, began feeling sorry for himself and began to pray something like this.

“Lord, I have given you all I have. I gave you my life, my family, my health. Now, at the ending of my life, why couldn’t I be welcomed home with caring people who appreciate what my life has meant for the glory of God?”

Then, almost as if it was an audible voice, this elderly missionary felt God speaking to him saying, “Son, you are not Home yet!”

Author unknown. If anyone has a proprietary interest in this story please authenticate and I will be happy to credit, or remove, as the circumstances dictate.

Thanks to WITandWISDOM(tm) – April 5, 2000 subscribe-wit-wisdom@xc.org