Building bridges to the gospel is a phrase often used to describe our synod’s (WELS) mission work around the world. Much like Jesus used a woman’s need for water to start a discussion about spiritual matters - so we often use medical care and other humanitarian aid to open the door for outreach. It’s something we first learned through the Central Africa Medical Mission, this year celebrating its 50th anniversary.
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| Trabalho Missionário WELS |
Raymond ‘Ray’ Cox is one of those men with a God-given passion for mission work. A U.S. Marine veteran of the Korean War, he was motivated, in part, by the horrors of battle. “I thought there has to be another way to reach people,” he says, “not through an M1 rifle, but through the Word.”
So he studied his way through Lutheran ministerial training schools and graduated from Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary in 1961. He hoped to be assigned as a missionary, and his prayers were answered.
That summer, Cox and his wife, Lois, and their three young children packed their bags for Zambia - then known as Northern Rhodesia - to join two other WELS missionaries already on the ground there. Combined, the three men had less than four years mission experience. In those days, missionaries received no special training before heading overseas. “We were so naïve in a way,” recalls Cox. “We didn’t know squat.”
But armed with the message of salvation, Cox says he and the other missionaries found receptive ears. “The people seemed so eager and willing to listen to the Word of God,” he recalls. Part of the reason was the novelty in an “oral” culture of listening to white men telling stories. But as the winds of change moved the country toward independence in 1964 and away from the colonial society established by the British, animosity and mistrust between whites and blacks grew.
It was in this climate, says Cox, that the Central Africa Medical Mission became such a vital piece of the mission strategy in both newly independent Zambia and Malawi. The medical mission helped our missionaries and nurses reestablish trust with the people. The change in Malawi was most dramatic. “It took about eight years, and then the Malawi church exploded.” Why has the Holy Spirit chosen to bless this mission field with growth more than others? The parable of the sower and the seed offers some insight. Malawi, says Cox, “was and is fertile ground.”
After spending 30 years in Africa, Cox is now retired and living back in the United States. He sees the indifference of so many Americans to the gospel - and counts as a blessing his time among a culture and people so receptive to the Word. “I left my heart in Malawi.”
