Adventuring with God: Saying Yes to Jesus and His Mission

By Tim Mengler

There is a great need for adventure in our lives. Why not adventure with God? Say yes to Jesus and His missions. 

We are not tired because we lack sleep. We are tired because we lack adventure. God has given us all the opportunity to go and adventure with Him. Tim shows us how to adventure with God by saying yes to Jesus an

• Language: English
• Publisher: Trilogy Christian Publishing
• Release date: Sep 4, 2023
• ISBN: 9798890412331

Tim Mengler

Timothy Mengler (MDiv) is husband, father, pastor, and part-time missionary. Tim has been married to his wife, Amy, for thirty-four years and is the father to two adultchildren. Tim pastors a small Vineyard Church in greater Chicagoland. Tim is also part-time missionary to Senegal and Mozambique. Tim holds a Master of Divinity from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School.

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By Tim Mengler

Trilogy Christian Publishers

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Copyright © 2023 by Tim Mengler

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise noted, taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Scripture quotations marked (KJV) taken from The Holy Bible, King James Version. Cambridge Edition: 1769.

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Trilogy Disclaimer: The views and content expressed in this book are those of the author and may not necessarily reflect the views and doctrine of Trilogy Christian Publishing or the Trinity Broadcasting Network.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.

ISBN 979-8-89041-232-4

ISBN 979-8-89041-233-1 (ebook)

Dedication

This book is dedicated to my wife, Amy, who has been by my side through every step of this adventure

Acknowledgments

Thank you to everyone who has ever been a part of our prayer teams.

Our adventures with God would not have been possible without your prayers.

Introduction

This book is a collection of stories—often unbelievable stories. But I assure you, they are all true. I lived through and survived them all. I don’t tell you these stories to impress you or to entertain you. I tell you these stories to hopefully inspire you.

Now, I am sure there are other missionaries and other books out there that have even crazier stories. But I wanted to paint a picture for you of what it looks like for an average person to go on the mission field and do short-term missions.

There is this amazing mission conference I am invited to attend every year. When I attended that conference in 2022, something struck me. While sitting in the main meeting room one day at this conference, I looked around the room and notice all the legends in the room. People who are absolute legends in the world of Christian missions. For a moment I was sort of awe struck to be in the same room with these people. But then something sad dawned on me. Every one in the room was older; they all had as much gray hair as I do (and I have a lot of gray hair). The thought that went through my head in that moment was, Where are all the young people willing to give their lives to the cause of Christ on the mission field? Missions could end with the people in this room. Missions could end with my generation. So, I hope the stories in this book will inspire a few younger (and older) people to head onto the mission field (Luke 10:3; Matthew 28:19).

Ultimately, this is a book about missions: Christian missions. I will further define what I mean by that in Chapter Nine. This is not a how-to book on mission. There are plenty of those already out there. Although, in part two, I do discuss practical next steps. This book is meant to inspire you. To spark your imagination for what could be. Critics might say that the Christian life is boring, but when we truly say yes to Jesus and His mission, I assure you it is anything but boring. The following stories will demonstrate that. It is an adventure!

On my first trip into the West African nation of Senegal, I was out in a remote village helping with an outreach. We asked the people of this village, if they had ever heard the name of Jesus. They said no! But as I looked around the village, I saw Coca-Cola products. I said a silent prayer. God, how is it that they have never heard your Name, but they have Coke? What I felt like God spoke back to my spirit was, Coke is motivated by profit, but my church is motivated by comfort. Ouch! It quickly became clear to me, that being on mission with God would require leaving our comfort zone. Are you willing to go to a place that has no running water, no toilets, no electricity, no roads, and fly twenty hours or more, for the sake of the Gospel? Are you willing to leave your comfort zone?

What breaks my heart is this map we have of Africa. It shows every nation where our denomination is working in missions. There are so many nations where there are churches but no partnerships and other nations where there are no churches at all. I want to adopt them all, every last one. But there is only so much room in my heart and life for this kind of committed relationship. Plus, I want others to be able to share in the extraordinary blessings and joy of international missions. There are lots of nations and people groups that don’t know Jesus yet. Will you help?

There are many other incredible stories that I can’t share here for the safety and well-being of the other people involved. And some stories are just too embarrassing and personal to share. When you spend time in the developing world, you will get sick. That will lead to embarrassing moments.

I have changed most of the names in these stories for the protection, safety, and privacy of those people.

Part One

Adventuring

Chapter One

Shipwrecked

The largest cyclone (hurricane) to ever form anywhere on Earth formed off the coast of East Africa in March of 2019. This storm named Idai would hit the east African nation of Mozambique as the largest cyclone in history. Mozambique is a developing word nation and ill-equipped to handle such a storm. My wife and I had been working in Mozambique for several years and typically hosted a pastor’s conference each year in June. Because of the cyclone we had to cancel our plans to visit Mozambique in June of that year. I did end up traveling to Mozambique in September of that year to check on our people and survey the damage and recovery efforts. Because we had been doing missions work in Mozambique for several years now, we had developed deep relationships in this beautiful country.

When I arrived in Mozambique that September, our leaders there wanted