Denver Seminary

SOMETIMES THE PRESENT LOOKS CLEARER AND THE FUTURE SEEMS LESS FOREBODING IF WE TAKE A GOOD, HARD LOOK AT THE PAST. THAT'S THE MESSAGE OF THE AUTHOR OF THE BOOK OF HEBREWS WHEN HE GETS TO CHAPTERS 11 AND 12 OF HIS MAJESTIC EPISTLE. IN CHAPTER 11, HE RECOUNTS HOW THE HEROES OF THE OLD TESTAMENT NAVIGATED THE DIFFICULTIES THEY FACED BY PERSEVERING IN THEIR FAITH. MOST OF THEM ARE FAMILIAR—NOAH, ABRAHAM, JOSEPH, MOSES, DAVID—BUT NOT ALL OF THEM. SOME REMAIN UNNAMED EVEN THOUGH THEIR HEROIC PERSEVERANCE IN FAITH IS RECOUNTED IN CRINGE-WORTHY DETAIL. The author goes on to tell us in chapter 12 that these heroes of faith, both the famous and the anonymous, form "a great cloud of witnesses." We, like them, are privileged to live with enduring faith no matter what our circumstances. The word translated witnesses here doesn't just mean "spectators." Rather, throughout the New Testament it means "those who testify" about something, as in the phrase "to bear witness." In other words, we are surrounded by a great cloud of "testifiers," those whose lives of enduring faith speak to our lives. Their message is simple and profound: Don't give up. Keep believing in Jesus. Keep looking to Him as the focal point of your faith. Keep trusting Him, following Him, obeying Him, and you will experience the joy of living a life pleasing to Him. Just as the readers of the Book of Hebrews were prodded to look to the past and listen to the voices of those testifying to them, so we should do the same. But now, almost 2,000 years after the author of Hebrews wrote his epistle, we have the privilege of an even greater cloud of witnesses. Voices of apostles, church fathers, theologians, pastors, and missionaries speak volumes to us. Their stories are replete with defeats and victories, prosperity and poverty, joy and suffering, honor and persecution. Their lives make up a treasure trove of spiritual riches to encourage us to pursue a life of enduring faith. I need to hear that encouragement just about every day. I suspect you do too. So let's take a moment to peer into the past and listen to the voice of one who lived a life of enduring faith. PERSEVERANCE AND THE MISSION FIELD Dr. Ralph Covell was on the faculty of Denver Seminary from 1966 to 1990 as professor of world mission and eventually, academic dean. Before coming to the Seminary, he and his wife, Ruth, served from 1946 to 1966 as missionaries in China and Taiwan with the Conservative Baptist Foreign Mission Society (CBFMS). The Covells were among a small group of missionaries who had the courage to move to China's Tibetan border to work among the Nosu people. Their story is recorded in the book, Mission Impossible: The Unreached Nosu on China's Frontier. The years between the end of World War II and the advent of the People's Republic of China were filled with political, economic, and social unrest and uncertainty. Yet the Covells, convinced that Jesus' command to "make disciples of all peoples" was their privilege and obligation, moved to China with a desire to translate the Bible for the Nosu, a group without a known Christian community at that time. When the Covells arrived in western China in 1946, the Nosu were a reviled minority. Hostility between the Nosu and the Chinese of the region, always simmering beneath the surface, would often break into open hostility. Covell writes, The issues were usually opium, rifles, and slaves. Chinese bands made quick raids into the mountains, often to wreak revenge for some Nosu offense. This usually included the taking of a few heads. Only a few days elapsed before the Nosu made a retaliatory raid on a Chinese village, with the same bloody consequences. During my first few days living in Lugu, I was horrified to see a man casually walking through the streets carrying on his back a basket filled with ten Nosu heads, still dripping blood. Attempting to establish a Christian presence among a people where there are no known Christians is often called "frontier missions." The people whom God had laid upon their hearts lived in the infamous "golden triangle" of China, an area of incessant conflict where competing warlords vied for dominance in the lucrative opium trade. Covell recalls, "As we engaged in the thrilling and rewarding task of pioneer evangelism and discipling we experienced all the drama of frontier missions—war lords, head-taking, opium, revolution, Communists, imprisonment, romance, spies, house-arrest, deportation, death." As the Chinese government of Chiang Kai Shek began to disintegrate in the face of the communist revolution led by Mao Tse-tung, life ENGAGE 13

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