"Running for the River without a Bridge"

A Word From The President:
By Michael G. Loftis, President

A good friend from Mississippi always used a wonderful southern phrase when describing an impossibly busy schedule with hopeless deadlines. He would say, "We are running for the river without a bridge in sight." Imagine a world with no bridges. Most of our world would be dissected into a puzzle of uncrossable boundaries with only an unknown group of people on the opposite shore to wave to on a good day. For places where a long trip around might get you to the other side, the question would always be: "Is it worth my time and effort to go there?"

Many of us appreciate bridges more for their beauty than for their practicality. Yet where would we be without them? If bridges suddenly disappeared, our organized existence would screech to a halt. Without bridges, all the hospitals, airports, schools, cemeteries, and banks would become unreachable and unused. Suddenly all our priorities would go through a major paradigm shift as we rearranged our lives to deal with the new difficulty of life without a bridge.

What a haunting picture. Yet this image describes precisely the life of those who do not have access to the gospel. The millions of non-Christians in this world could aptly be portrayed as masses of people trudging along arduous trails attempting to go the long way around-only to discover at trail's end they have followed a blind alley to yet another uncrossable canyon. What such marooned people wouldn't give for even a simple bridge to span the gulf before them.

Bridges-like faith-carry us across what otherwise would be impassable barriers. But how does a person, standing on the edge of life's canyons, find the one bridge to eternity made available by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross? The answer: someone who has already found the way must guide him or her there. Every Christian has the responsibility to serve as such a guide. But what about those with no access to Christians to show them the way? Such people require missionaries, willing to be trained to build a bridge across language barriers, cultural taboos, and physical or social canyons to bring them to "the way, the truth, and the life."

As you peruse the following pages, understand that this year's group of incoming ABWE missionaries represents yet another wave of bridge builders who have committed their lives to take whatever risk and expend whatever effort is required to build a bridge to the lost of this dying world. These new appointees might even be called an alliance of bridge-builders for world evacuation. This is the story of world missions. This is the story of ABWE.

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