Tim Keesee - Dispatches from the Front: Stories of Gospel Advance in the Worlds Difficult Places

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DISPATCHES

FROM THE

FRONT

STORIES OF GOSPEL ADVANCE IN
THE WORLDS DIFFICULT PLACES

TIM KEESEE

FOREWORD BY JUSTIN TAYLOR

Dispatches from the Front: Stories of Gospel Advance in the Worlds Difficult Places

Copyright 2014 by Timothy D. Keesee

Published by Crossway

1300 Crescent Street

Wheaton, Illinois 60187

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher, except as provided for by USA copyright law.

Pseudonyms for people and places are used in this book to protect the identities of individuals who are serving Christ in difficult and dangerous places.

The Power of His Rising, harmonization copyright 2013, Fred and Ruth Coleman. Used by permission.

Alas, and Did My Savior Bleed, Isaac Watts and Bob Kauflin, copyright 1997, Sovereign Grace Praise, www.sovereigngracemusic.org. Used by permission.

Graham Kendrick, Knowing You, copyright 1993, Make Way Music, www.grahamkendrick.co.uk. Used by permission.

Eddie Askew, I See Your Hands, copyright 1985, The Leprosy Mission International. Used by permission.

Cover design: Faceout Studio

Cover photography: Jason Speer. On the Plains of Ur, southern Iraq

First printing 2014

Printed in the United States of America

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from the ESV Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version), copyright 2001 by Crossway. 2011 Text Edition. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked KJV are from the King James Version of the Bible.

Trade paperback ISBN: 978-1-4335-4069-1
ePub ISBN: 978-1-4335-4072-1
PDF ISBN: 978-1-4335-4070-7
Mobipocket ISBN: 978-1-4335-4071-4

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Keesee, Timothy.

Dispatches from the front : stories of gospel advance in the world's difficult places / Tim Keesee ; foreword by Justin Taylor.

1 online resource.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record and CIP data provided by publisher; resource not viewed.

ISBN 978-1-4335-4070-7 (pdf) ISBN 978-1-4335-4071-4 (mobi) ISBN 978-1-4335-4072-1 (epub) ISBN 978-1-4335-4069-1 (tp)

1. Missions. 2. Christianity21st century. I. Title.

BV2061.3

270.8'3dc23 2013046692

Crossway is a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

To my father
Carlton Eugene Keesee
(19342013)
a hero in the battle of life

Blessed are the eyes that see what you see! For I tell you that many prophets and kings desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.

Luke 10:2324

Little by little
One travels far.

J. R. R. Tolkien

The apostle Paul, responding to criticism that he was putting himself forward and commending himself, acknowledged that he and his gospel coworkersmen and women on the frontlines of the advance of the kingdomactually do commend themselves in every way (2 Cor. 6:4).

But how? What could he cite to demonstrate their missional integrity? What items make it on to their ministry rsum?

Explaining that they experienced the following with great endurance, Paul paints a picture of what they have endured:

• afflictions
• hardships
• calamities
• beatings
• imprisonments
• riots
• labors
• sleepless nights
• hunger (2 Cor. 6:45)

Welcome to life on the frontlines.

But this isnt a Pauline pity party. He goes on to explain that in the upside-down, world-confounding kingdom, things are not as they seem. From a limited, worldly perspective, these workers on the frontlines look like losers. But in reality, they are men and women of whom the world is not worthy. Paul makes the contrast between how they are perceived and what they really are. They are treated:

• as impostorsand yet are true;
• as unknownand yet well known;
• as dyingand behold, we live;
• as punishedand yet not killed;
• as sorrowfulyet always rejoicing;
• as pooryet making many rich;
• as having nothingyet possessing everything. (2 Cor. 6:810)

In particular, its the phrase sorrowful, yet always rejoicing that comes to mind when I think of Tim Keesee and his ministry of visiting gospel workers on the front lines.

Theres nothing fancy about the man. Hes not famous. In fact, unless youve watched the Dispatches from the Front DVD series, youve probably never heard of himand even if you have, you probably didnt catch his name. Hes quiet and unassuming. Hes humble and without guile. Hes a faithful and ordinary man who serves an extraordinary God.

Theres a certain world-weariness etched onto his face as he has spent years crisscrossing the globe, visiting and supporting and documenting the church around the world. But if you look closer, there is unmistakable joy. You can see it in the warmth of his smile and the twinkle of his eye and the welcome of his embrace as he greets a new brother and a new sister on the other side of the world and worships with yet another outpost of the global family of God. If the new heavens and the new earth will be filled with the redeemed from every tribe and language and people and nation (Rev. 5:9), then Tim Keesee has gotten a foretaste of the world to come.

In this book you will have a front-row seat to the most important work in history, as the great news of a bloody-sacrifice-turned-risen-King transforms lives around the world. Youll follow along with Tims journeys over the past several years as he travels from the former Soviet Republics to the Balkans, from China to Southeast Asia, from Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan to Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea, from the Horn of Africa to Egypt, from Afghanistan to Iraq. Youll see the joy and the sorrow, the pleasure and the pain, as he sees the glory of the gospel revealed afresh and yet still mourns the danger and bondage of soul-destroying sin.

No one will be reached with the gospel unless we go to them. Because no one will hear without someone preaching (Rom. 10:14), we must go therefore and make disciples of all nations [Greek, ethn e , or people groups] (Matt. 28:19). In order to do this, some of us are called to send them on their journey in a manner worthy of God (3 John 1:6). But whether you are a goer or a sender, none of us can see it all. We can only get a small glimpse of the kingdom based on where God has called us to serve. That is why I am excited for you to read this book. You can read it straight through or skip around according to your interests. But as you do, you will see the curtain pulled back on the glorious and unstoppable advance of the gospel. This is a dangerous book to read, for you may never be the same.