A Pioneer Ponders

Years ago I heard a special song while driving to a supporting church. "Pioneer" describes both the loneliness and the joy I find in being at the spearhead of ministry. It explains what it was like to lay the foundation for the work in Ireland. It captures my calling in returning to the WHM office when we were creating the infrastructure for sustainable overseas missions. It sings of the essence of what I have done in building new teams and launching missionaries toward the field.

Pioneer, pioneer

Keep pressing onward, beyond your fears

Only the Father goes before you

To your own frontier

You're a pioneer

You travel light, you travel alone

And when you arrive, nobody knows

But the Father in heaven, He's glad you can go

For those who come after you, will need the road.

What you have done others will do

Bigger and better and faster than you

But you can't look back

No, you gotta keep pressing through

There's a wilderness pathway

and it's calling you

So keep pressing onward--you can't stay here

Only the Father goes before you

to your own frontier--you're a pioneer

Nancy Honeytree

What does it now mean to be a 55 year old pioneer who has watched "my homestead" leveled this past year? A widower nine months into a new leg of the journey?? A guy who has never been that enlivened by routine who now contemplates vital new partnerships and intriguing possibilities??? Where does this old frontier scout go??

Only the Father goes before me to my own frontier--I'm a pioneer. Pray for me. I will keep you posted as the journey moves from the valley to the frontier.