Foreword and Introduction to the Third Edition

Foreword

The God who called Samuel to be a prophet, Paul to be an apostle, and William Carey to innovate an eighteenth-century missionary movement has not lost His voice. He still calls.

God calls some Christians who do not respond. He calls others who respond but do not qualify. He calls still others who qualify but do not complete their task.

Called ones who respond, qualify and complete God’s assignment are a very select company indeed. Ted and Peggy Fletcher—with their founding of Pioneers—stand in the forefront of that category in our generation. I value every minute that I have been in their presence, every account I have heard of their exploits.

Our minds readily accept God calling a Samuel in a mid-eastern robe or a Paul in Tarsian sandals. But God calling a Dow Jones executive in a pinstripe suit boggles us! Ah, Ted and Peggy, how you stretch our limited perceptions of what God can do! Thank you!

—Don Richardson, Author of Peace Child and Eternity in Their Hearts

Introduction to the Third Edition

I will bless those who bless you,
and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth
will be blessed through you.
—Genesis 12:3 (NIV)

Ask me, and I will make the nations your inheritance,
the ends of the earth your possession.
—Psalm 2:8 (NIV)

I always enjoy tracing the works of God over time. It’s been nearly 20 years since the first edition of When God Comes Calling was published. At that time, Pioneers had some 800 missionaries serving in 35 countries. We celebrated Pioneers’ fortieth anniversary last year, and we now have more than 3,200 missionaries serving in about 100 countries on more than 300 teams. God continues to answer our prayers that He send laborers to the world’s unreached peoples—still one-third of the world’s population.

When asked to explain Pioneers’ remarkable growth I normally point to the compelling vision, a commitment to churches, growing global partnerships and strong values. Behind all these, however, are God’s enduring promises. To Abraham He said, “All nations will be blessed through you,” and to His Son, “Ask of me and I will give you the nations for your inheritance.”

It was Ted Fletcher’s firm confidence in promises like these that compelled my father-in-law to leave the safe harbor of corporate America in the late 1970s. The voyage, with his wife, Peggy, and their four children took him to destinations he never would have imagined.

Since When God Comes Calling was first published in 2001, Ted was called home to heaven. In preparing the third edition of the book for publication, we have chosen to preserve  the accounts Ted writes about as he describes the work of Pioneers around the world and have not updated them to reflect current realities. Many of the stories you will read were still developing when Ted penned this book, and they continue to be written. New teams have emerged, new disciples have been made and new churches have been planted. Opportunities have opened among people groups that were unengaged at the time Ted wrote. Other areas have become more restricted to international Christian workers, and God has raised up local believers to take up the baton of ministry and continue the work. The ebb and flow of church history plays out around the world as the Holy Spirit works in unexpected places—in ways that even Ted may not have imagined in his lifetime.

Since 2001, God has orchestrated several mergers with like-minded organizations—increasing Pioneers’ impact in different regions around the world—and called us to embrace new levels of training and church partnerships. Pioneers-USA is just one of 16 bases and offices around the world, mobilizing a diverse community of committed followers of Jesus from many nations to relentlessly pursue God’s glory among the unreached.

Just before Ted was called home to heaven in November, 2003, we travelled together to Baghdad, Iraq. It was a nerve-testing trip. Several buildings and restaurants we visited along the way were later destroyed. Despite the dangers, at every turn I would see Ted sharing his faith in Christ with Iraqis who had never before heard the Good News. Ted never lost sight of the bottom line—people need the Lord.

As you follow Ted’s journey in these pages, I invite you to start your own. You can do it by praying a simple prayer of faith: “Lord, make me a blessing to the nations (Psalm 67).” Who knows how God may choose to use you in this final, climactic era of redemptive history?  

—Steve Richardson
President of Pioneers-USA, January 2020

Introduction

It has always been my ambition to
preach the gospel where Christ was not known,
so that I would not be building on
someone else’s foundation.
—Romans 15:20 (NIV)

Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.
—Hebrews 12:1 (NIV)

Twenty years from now, you’ll be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than the ones you did. So throw off your bowlines. Leave the still waters of the harbor. Catch the trade winds with your sail!
—Mark Twain

While I was working on this book, tall ships from all over the globe gathered in New York Harbor. It was a spectacular display of vessels from many places around the globe, sailing the waters of one of the most beautiful harbors in the world. As magnificent as these ships are, however, they’re not designed for safe harbors. Ships are designed to sail the open seas.

So it is with pioneers. When God comes calling in our lives, we often have to push our way out of the safe harbor, lose sight of land, and trust Him to lead us to places where we have never been before.

This is the story of what happened when God came calling in the lives of two ordinary people. He called Peggy and me out of a safe harbor, gave us an impossible dream, then provided the grace, people and resources necessary to bring it to reality. We didn’t know how to reach people in far-off lands or how to start a mission agency, but we trusted God to use us.

It is also the story of hundreds of men and women like us, many who had everything the world offered, but weren’t content because they wanted what God offered. Andrew Carnegie once said, “I surround myself with people who are smarter than I am, and I let them do their job.” That is also the story of Pioneers—a story of many talented, gifted and willing people whom God brings our way. In the few pages of this book, we can’t possibly mention the thousands of people who have been so instrumental to Pioneers in the past two decades. How can we ever thank all our missionaries, prayer partners, supporting churches, donors, board members and volunteers? Without them, there would be no Pioneers. Peggy and I are eternally grateful to each one of them.

This is also the story of another pioneer: You. Has God come calling in your life? Is He stirring you to push beyond what is known and comfortable, to explore new regions, to sail out of the safe harbor and into the open seas? Read this book, and you could find yourself in an Indonesian jungle translating the Bible for an unreached tribe, doing a puppet show on the crowded streets of one of India’s mega cities or quietly sharing your faith over a tiny cup of strong coffee in a marketplace in Morocco.

If you are a pioneer, the way to step toward tomorrow is not to follow, but to lead, to blaze a new path. As we pioneer to reach the unreached, we do it with the strong conviction that there is no place on earth where Christ cannot be proclaimed, and that there is no door too closed that God cannot open it. Lost multitudes continue to pass into a Christless eternity. Now is the time to pray, to give, to go. Now is the time to act. Now is the time to pioneer.

—Ted Fletcher
Orlando, Florida, July 2001