We must remember for every day that the devil sidetracks us with problems that is a day away from the Lord's work. Just because you become a missionary you do not automatically become supersaint that has no everyday problems.

Indeed, many of the problems are the everyday get along problems that we all face except that on the mission field they are harder quite often due to the culture and the inconvenience of the country.

A missionary from Venezuela that worked with a tribe mentioned the nice two-story house that they had built. This in itself was a real time consumer. The type of construction they used was very loose to save on materials. There were cracks in the floor upstairs so that every time someone walked across the floor the dirt would sift down into the kitchen AND into the food. She was sweeping the floor several times a day downstairs keeping the place clean. She also mentioned going to the river to wash the clothes. The mundane work of the day to exist will be a major battle for some missionaries.

These same missionaries mentioned the constant battle of keeping the airstrip cleaned out so that the forest didn't overgrow it. He had to cut the strip on a weekly basis. That is a big lawn to mow.

I would like to just look at one area that has seemed quite ignored in the lives of missionaries.

Grandparents:

Q. What did you gain from your grandparents that helped you spiritually?

My grandmother had me come to here house on weekends at times. One Sunday she got me up and told me we were going to Sunday school. I really didn't want to so put on the tears and pressure and she finally said okay we won't go. I trotted off to play and have fun. About an hour latter I was informed that we WERE GOING TO CHURCH. The pressure was on but to no avail. She would not change her mind. If I made her stay home from SS I was going to church.

To the best of my knowledge that was the sum and substance of my spiritual training at my grandmothers knee!

Q. What are some of the problems that a Grandparent can place upon the missionary family that is looking forward to foreign service?

1. Well are you certain that the Lord wants you to go there?

2. Well I really think that you are going to deprive your children if you do that! (This usually is verbalized before the children.)

3. Again in front of the children BUT I WON'T GET TO SEE THEM FOR FOUR WHOLE YEARS! OOOOOHHHHHHHH!!!!!!

4. OH HOW CAN YOU DO THIS TO ME?

5. On the other hand the grandparents can be one of the biggest assets a family can have.

1. They can be prayer warriors.

2. They can help the family with encouraging letters and packages.

3. Grandparenting is buying gifts and goodies for the kids. In missions all you have to do additionally is to mail it.

I would hope that our churches begin to communicate the importance of the home backing of those on the field!

4. Grandparents can save their money and go to the field for a long visit. They can help in the ministry. This will help the kids know that this work that mom and dad are doing must be very important if the grandparents come to help out.

5. Grandparents can be a fantastic public relations network for the children if they only try.

Paul seemed to place importance upon the grandparent relationship else why would he have mentioned a grandmother in II Tim 1:5. "When I call to remembrance the unfeigned faith that is in thee, which dwelt first in they grandmother, Lois, and thy mother, Eunice; and I am persuaded that in thee also."

The sad part of this mention of Timothy's grandmother is that this is the only mention of a grandparent in the New Testament.

How sad that grandparents are so eager to leave a good name to the kids, how sad that grandparents are so eager to leave a little money to the kids, how sad that grandparents are so eager to leave the keepsakes to the kids, YET those same grandparents don't give a second thought to leaving their grandkids anything spiritual.

Q. What did your grandparents leave you spiritually?

Proverbs 17:6 states, "Children's children are the crown of old men," How much crown polishing do most grandparents do?

The terms grandparent, grandfather and grandmother are totally missing in the Bible with the exception of Lois! How does that reflect upon the grandfathers of all those generations? Many grandparents are mentioned for what they did in their own right however none are mentioned as being the grandparent of someone.

The phrase children's children appears nine times in the Old Testament, but only a part of these is relating to the family relationship we are speaking of. (Gen45:10; Ex 34:7; II Kings 17:41; Ps 103:17; 128:6; Prov. 17:6; 13:22; Jer 2:9; Exe 37:25.)

Due to the genealogies we know some grandparents: Nahar=Abraham; Abiel=King Saul; Kish=Jonathon; Obed=David; Matthan=Jesus; Heli=Jesus; Lois=Timothy.

The census people are predicting a large number of four to five generation families in coming years.

How about you, are you going to be a Lois or a nobody?

Don't chalk this up to, "well that is way in the future". Yes it is yet every one of us if the Lord wills will be a grandparent. Might I suggest if you aren't, one day adopt a grandkid. Most parents love it and the kid's will eat it up!

If we begin as parents with a proper attitude toward the family and Christian home the grandparenting will just be a follow through on life.

I have heard people say, I won't tell my child or grandchild what to believe in the religious realm."

Why not? The ads will! The press will! The movies will! The neighbors will!

The politicians will! The communists will! The forces of sin will! May God forgive us if we neglect to tell them what they should believe and set an example for them to follow.

Others are very strong that they won't force their children to go to church yet they force them to go to school. The importance of spiritual over secular education is quite clear in some families.

This present older generation was so involved in giving their kids what they didn't have they failed to give the kid's what they did have! That is Jesus Christ as their savior.

Q. How can we be better grandparents? Grandparents that won't be seen as meddling but as loving training grandparents.

1. Be sure your home is based upon Biblical principles. If the kids see grandma running grandpa down or belittling him etc. they will not learn proper husband wife relationships. Grandparents can be strong figures in the young life and must be one of proper example.

2. Begin to pray for the grandchild at birth if not before. Ask the Lord to make that child into a great man or woman of God. Pray that the parents will have wisdom as they raise the children. Pray!

3. Keep their gifts meaningful. Give them Bible stories etc. - records and tapes. Buy them for fun toys as well but be sure that part of their diet is on a spiritual plane. Bibles would also be good.

4. Pray with them. Have your quiet times with them. Use any opportunity to share with them on the spiritual plane.

5. Have Christian music on in your home.

6. Watch the TV that you allow on in your home.

7. Witness to them and be sure they know the Lord!

8. When they come to you for advice be sure you are on the level and Biblical.

9. Be sure you are a part of the discipline and not a cause for the need of it!

10. Be up to date on what is going on in the religious community.

If they ask your opinion about going to Bob Jones University or Dallas seminary. What could you tell them?

11. If the opportunity and possibility opens up when your children are on the field you might offer to house a grandchild for their college years. Even for a high school year or two if there is a need. Be the type of grandparent that the parent would feel free leaving their child with!

12. Be available to the parents for advice and council.

13. Be active in the local church. Part of the reason that the younger generation is following along with the world is that they have not seen Godly grandparent age Christians enough to pattern their life after them. We need the older folks involved in the Sunday school and all areas of the church.

A man I once knew had been a public school teacher for several years. He felt that God wanted him to go into the ministry so made plans to go off to seminary. When he announced his intentions in church one of the old old women came to him and was shaking a finger in his face and said, "________, I've been praying for years that God would take someone from this church and send them off to the ministry and for the last three years I've been praying for you.

A prayer warrior will be of great help to parent and grandchild alike on the field.

14. If you are financilly able offer to help a grandchild trough Bible college for their first year of college.

A hymn writer penned the words that we have often sung:

"Give of thy sons to bear the message glorious;

Give of thy wealth to speed them on their way;

Pour out thy soul for them in prayer victorious;

And all thou spendest Jesus will repay.

Publish glad tidings, tidings of peace;

Tidings of Jesus, redemption and release."

"O Zion Haste"

May we sing this song with meaning as we look to the future years of grandparenting.

Proverbs 13:22 states, "A good man leaveth an inheritance to his children's children;" Have you seen the bumper stickers on the big mobile campers? "We're spending our children's inheritance."

Well the thought of the Prov. probably isn't only the idea of material, but also includes the thought of spiritual upbringing!

My father worked all his life to leave my brother and I something in the material realm. All his life and all he could muster up was a couple of thousand apiece with insurance policies. It was really appreciated, but I am not sure all of his hard work was worth the little he was able to leave.

His spiritual impact upon our lives was very minimal. Not to downgrade him for he most certainly was a good father yet had he spent the energy he did on the material realm on our spiritual realm I wonder if I would have been walking with the Lord in my teen years rather than my twenties and my brother in his teen years instead of his fifties!

Now to apply all this to missions!

Most of it is the type of thing that you will do for any grandchild whether he is going to the field or not. You just have to pack the verbal end of it in faster!

The outworking of your influence through correspondence and prayer and support will be the same as for a grandchild in another state.

Q. How do you help a grandparent understand that they can be an important part of their child's and grandchild's life even if they are half way around the world. Relating the information given in this study.

Q. How else can a grandparent help the missionary family?

1. Go to the field a bit before and leave a bit after the furloughs of the family. They get time with the family. They get to help in the ministry. They can loan their home and car in the states for the furloughing family. My what a blessing that would be in and of itself! They can house sit the mission home for the furloughing family. They can keep up social contacts with the townspeople so that they don't feel that the missionary has taken off.

Many other benefits may come from this. The grandparents will go home to their church ready to be a real pest with the missions program until it is up to snuff. They will have a real "use" to the Lord in their later years when we usually write these people off as excess baggage.

2. They could keep the kids abreast of what is going on in the world of kids here in the USA and help them to know what they are coming back to on furlough. This could be tempered with a proper Christian perspective to what is going on in the kid's world.

3. Keeping up on the news that the kids might need to know. There are kids spots on Saturday mornings that are news for kids. You have to wade through "The Garbage Pail Kids" and the "Teenage werewolf" to get to them however, so beware.

4. Many missionaries or at least groups of workers on the field have VCR's available. The grandparent could make it a ministry to get some good tapes over now and then for the kids.

5. We've mentioned it before but this is probably the most important of all. It is the hardest of all as well! LET THEM GO! It is hard to see the kids go however it is A MUST! Give them to the Lord for HIS HONOR AND GLORY!

It might be a real blow to our ego to realize that it isn't that hard for the kids to leave grandma and grandpa. Indeed, it isn't half as hard for kids to leave the parents as it is the other way around.

We tend to feel that we are irreplaceable but believe me we aren't.