“How, then, can they call on him they have not believed in? And how can they believe without hearing about him? And how can they hear without a preacher? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news” 10:13-15
How many times have you heard this passage preached to call you (in the West) to evangelism and to missions? We talk about beautiful feet and how we should have them. Honestly, beauty (and especially feet) is in the eye of the beholder 😊. Most of us don’t mind our own feet, but we aren’t usually signing up to praise the feet of other people. In my world, though, the most beautiful feet are often dirty, calloused and well worn… they are always African feet, and man are they beautiful.
It is a wonderful thing when the mission field becomes the mission force and that is what is happening in Africa. African tribes who were at one time the recipient of missionaries are now the ones sending out their own missionaries. They are going to the tough places, they are doing the hard work and their beautiful feet are poised to carry the rest of us across the finish line of the great commission. What makes feet beautiful is not their outward appearance, but the roads that they take and the gospel that they carry. I get the wonderful privilege of training them, pointing them in the right direction and then sending them. How can they preach, Paul says, if they are not sent?
Pray with us that the African church will have the capacity to send out those beautiful feet and that we will have the wisdom to know how to come alongside them, encourage them and train them. Later in the chapter, Paul quotes Isaiah and says, “I was found by those who were not looking for me; I revealed myself to those who were not asking for me.” 10:20. For over 100 years the missionaries who came before us were faithful to take the gospel to a people who never sought Him or asked for Him. Now, having learned about Him, they are turning to Him in record numbers and rising up. They are looking beyond the borders of their own people and countries and asking “What is God calling us to do?” Pray for them as they take those bold, beautiful steps to be the next wave of Kingdom advance.
