Mothers, Grandmothers, and Missions
“You have the faith of your mother, Eunice, and your grandmother, Lois. That is why I remind you to fan into flames the spiritual gift God gave you…” (2 Timothy 1.5-6).
By Grant McClung
“So, what is this with the McClungs and missions?”
Janice and I had just been seated with our guest at a local restaurant. We were hosting an international missions prayer leader and visionary. She was well acquainted with the “McClung missions heritage” among me and my cousins Floyd, Alan, and Judy (Orred) McClung – all of them longtime missionaries with Youth With a Mission. Other cousins have also served overseas.
After a short pause, I gave her what seemed to be the consensus across our extended family:
“My Grandma McClung prayed for her grandchildren to be missionaries.”
Grandma McClung was the only one of my four paternal and maternal grandparents who lived long enough to witness my answer to the missionary call (to Germany in 1976). Yet, many family stories and recollections about my other grandparents — passed down around holiday meals and family reunions — have convinced me that all of them held me in prayer before the throne of grace long before I set foot on foreign soil. My grandparents lived out a committed Pentecostal faith and made the kinds of discipleship decisions that left lasting, Christian family legacies.
This Sunday, September 9, is “National Grandparents Day,” designated by a presidential proclamation in 1978. The Christian Grandparenting Network is capitalizing upon the special day to call for a “Grandparents Day of Prayer.” They recognize that our grandchildren are forced to navigate a confusing, uncertain and turbulent world and believe that godly grandparents are in a position to stand in the gap through prayer, encouragement, and positive action. They have published a “Prayer Guide for Grandparents,” along with other resources at www.christiangrandparenting.net.
Our grandparents and parents were serious about their personal faith, sincere in their love for their families and church, and sacrificial in their giving to evangelism, church planting, and world missions. Now it is time for today’s grandparents to “pray it forward” for this generation’s grandchildren! Through our prayers, encouragement, and support, may they, like young Timothy, “fan into flames the spiritual gift” God has given them and begin their own global missional stories!
Grant McClung, President of Missions Resource Group (www.MissionsResourceGroup.org) is International Missionary Educator with Church of God World Missions. His latest resource, with an international team of missions leaders, is Together in One Mission: Pentecostal Cooperation in World Evangelization (Pathway Press 2012).
