Loren Cunningham - Daring to Live on the Edge: The Adventure of Faith and Finances

A Word from the Author

This book is for two readerstwo very different audiences, with different needs and reasons to read this book.

In one audience are the missionaries, the full-time Christian workers, or the potential workers. They need to know how to step out, to trust and obey God for finances.

In the other audience are the people in the pewsthe people working in secular jobs. They, too, need to learn not only how to obey God but to trust Him for the miraculous.

Youre not supposed to write one book for two such different audiences. But God has so designed it that His work cannot be done except in partnership.

There is much in this book for each of these key players in world missionsthe one serving faithfully in the local congregation, praying and giving to Gods work, and the one going out as a missionary.

Because each player is significant in Gods scheme of things, I have an unusual request of you. Will you read this book in its entirety? While chapter 9 is directed primarily to those in the workaday world, the same principles will be important for those in full-time Christian work or missions.

Likewise, those in the workaday world will find much in chapters 11 through 14 to help them as they become partners with those in missions. You will notice throughout the book that most of our examples come from thirty-one years of trusting God to provide for mission work in over two hundred countries. However, as I have shared financial principles based on those experiences in conferences with business leaders, CEOs, and government leaders in a number of nations, I have learned that we all face the same challengesto step out, to dare to live on the edge for God. Besides, we all need to learn more from one another so that we can have effective partnerships in fulfilling Gods work on earth.

Its never easy to step out on that tightrope for God. Whether its your first opportunity to hear and obey or your thousandth, it is always exhilarating. But once you have experienced the thrill of radical obedience, you will never be the same. I am praying that as you read this book, you will be willing to take the first step, or the thousandth, in following our courageous Commander.

LOREN CUNNINGHAM

Kona, Hawaii

chapter one

Spoiled for the Ordinary

CLOUDS OF DUST FILLED the air as we bounced along the rutted roads in Ibo land, in eastern Nigeria. I glanced over at my host, Walter Kornelson, his ruddy complexion now wreathed in sweat and dirt. I would be with this older missionary and his wife for five daysfive days I was really looking forward to. He was a rugged, go-for-broke evangelist, and even though I was young and just starting out in missions, I felt comfortable with the idea of holding evangelistic meetings with him. The most exciting prospect was five nights of preaching to the pagan Ibos.

Loren, were sure glad you came! he said, turning his eyes from the road but never slowing down. Chickens fled, squawking in protest, from before our station wagon. Ive been preaching in one of these villages every night without a break for four months, he said, grinning. Itll be great to hear someone else for a change!

I nodded, about to reply, when, bam! then a sickening flap, flap, flop against the hardened dirt road. The vehicle lurched, but Walt held the steering wheel tight and brought the car to a stop. I didnt need an explanation. I got out with him to inspect the damage. A tire blow-out sounds the same anywhere in the world.

Oh, Lord! What am I going to do! Walt exclaimed, heading to the back of the car for the spare, his shoulders slumped with a new weariness.

Whats wrong? Cant we buy a tire in Enugu? I asked.

Well, yes, but... His voice trailed off as he wrestled with wrench and lug bolts.

He didnt say much after we got back in the station wagon and limped down the road. Finally he said, Im sorry to let you down, Loren, and Im sure sorry not to get to those people, but itll be a while before we can get the money to replace this tire. With duty and all, they cost about forty-five dollars here. I dont know what were going to do.

You have forty-five dollars, a small voice inside said. Yes, but thats all I have! I protested. And in five days I would leave here, and the relative security of people I knew, and fly to Khartoum, Sudan, for a two-day layover. Two days in a strange city. Id have to have a place to stay, something to eat, bus fare Forty-five dollars wouldnt even be enough for that.

Then I thought, Mom and Dad would give him the money, even if it was their last. I had watched them trust God and give to others for twenty-five years, and God had never failed them.

Walt, I said. Let me pay for your tire. Lets go get it right now. He protested a little. Are you sure, son? You have a long trip ahead of you. But I insisted, and we found a shop on a dusty side street.

It cost forty-two dollars, and I now had three dollars in my pocket, but the Reverend and Mrs. Kornelson didnt know it. We launched into five hard, wonderful days and nights. In each village, as soon as we arrived and began to set up the equipment to show our Gospel film, crowds appeared out of the bush as if by magic. Sometimes wed have a couple thousand people by the time it was dark, pressed tightly together in front of the screen. After the film, I preached with the help of an interpreter and a hand-held bullhorn. It was great.

But my secret Saturday deadline was coming. I still had only three dollarswhat would I do in Khartoum?

Each day I quietly wondered when Walt made his routine stop by their post office box. Maybe there would be a letter for me with something in it. But did anyone know I was here? Could mail find me, out here in Ibo country? On the last day Walt went by the post office once more on our way out to the bush. He came ambling back to the wagon, his large frame hunched a little as he rifled through a bunch of letters.

Look, Loren, he said, theyve found you all the way out here! And he handed me a single letter from some friends in Los Angeles. I opened it and swallowed. One hundred fifty dollars. From someone who had never given anything to me before.

I shouldnt have been surprised at the faithfulness of God, but somehow, when youre living on the edgetrusting God and not knowing where the next dollar is coming fromit never gets routine.

I know what youre thinking. Youre saying, Sure, God came through that time, but you werent in any real danger. You werent in Khartoum with no money. You could have stayed on with the Kornelsons until funds arrived. Let me tell you about Evey and Reona.

Evey Muggleton and Reona Peterson believed God was leading them to Albania, one of the countries most hostile to the Gospel in the early 1970s. In 1967 Albania had declared itself the first atheistic nation in the world. They closed every church, synagogue, and mosque and had a harsh answer for those who refused to say there was no God: they sealed them alive in barrels and threw them into the Adriatic Sea.

For three years Evey and Reona prayed and planned. During one of their prayer times, Reona saw a clear mental picture of herself in Albania, as well as a tour bus and a womans face.

Finally they were given visas to Albania, joining a tour group of mostly Marxist youth from Western Europe. They went by bus, just like in Reonas vision.

Reona and Evey smuggled Albanian Gospel portions past the border, taped to their bodies. Once inside, despite strict supervision, they were able to secretly place the booklets here and there for people to find.

One day an Albanian servant entered Reonas hotel room. To Reonas amazement, it was the same woman she had envisioned three years before! She knew she was to try to speak to the woman and give her one of the Gospel booklets. Reona broke through the language barrier in the simplest words she could use: Marx, Lenin, no! Jesus, yes! The woman took the Gospel eagerly and clasped it to her chest. With tears in her eyes, she said, Me Christian, too! and slipped the booklet into her pocket.