When you signed up for this newsletter, it said something about you—that you are someone with a heart for missions. We’re grateful for you! Maybe your passion for missions goes even further, and you are seriously considering next steps. If money has seemed like an obstacle to that goal (or even if not), we have good news. In this issue of Serve, we share the powerful story of Jesse Armstrong. He had a burden for people just like you. Keep reading to learn how his gift might help you experience the mission field firsthand.

Making Christ known

Healthy and energetic, Jesse Armstrong was excited to pursue a ministry God laid on his heart: serving in a Creative Access Nation alongside his wife, Lisa, and their sons. When the Armstrongs arrived in their new country in October 1998, it had taken three days of travel, plus hauling 15 duffel bags up 97 stairs to their fourth-floor apartment. They felt like pioneering missionaries, but the challenges were worth it to introduce Christ to people who never had the chance to hear the gospel. Gradually, they earned people’s trust, and some of their new friends received salvation and began to grow in Christ.

A shocking diagnosis

In 2006, after eight years of blessings, along with soul-shaping trials, the Armstrongs planned to launch a new training ministry after a short furlough. However, Jesse started experiencing strange neurological symptoms that quickly turned serious. Doctors confirmed a diagnosis that shocked Jesse and all who knew him—he had ALS, known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease. As a 37-year-old man who had been full of strength and life, Jesse was suddenly ravaged by the disease. Six months after arriving in the US, he was confined to a wheelchair, and a few months later he was almost completely paralyzed.

Although his physical body was growing weaker and weaker, his spirit remained as courageous and God-honoring as ever. Jesse had devoted his life to the Lord and to making Him known. He wasn’t going to let illness derail the reason God put him on earth. While he could still talk, he preached in church and he shared Christ with other ALS patients. Later, using a speech machine, Jesse laboriously typed out words to challenge people about the brevity of life and about the worthwhile pursuit of missions and serving the Lord.

Worth it all

Jesse knew that his suffering would be worth it all if it led even one person to the Lord. The Lord gave him at least two. One of them, a Japanese woman whose husband said they would “never believe in your God,” prayed to receive Christ shortly before she died from ALS. On their mission field, Jesse and Lisa had prayed eight years for a man who thought he had done too many bad things for God to save him. After Jesse’s last phone call to him, he got down on his knees and gave his life to the Lord.

Jesse dearly loved his sons (Christopher, Corey, Caleb, and Coleton). The last words he typed to them were the challenge, “Serve God, no regrets.” And those words summed up his legacy, when Jesse joyfully entered heaven’s glory on May 7, 2009, at the age of 39. For his gravestone, he requested the engraving: “My work is ended. His work continues.”

The Lord’s work will continue when others take up where missionaries like Jesse left off. His example shows that the length of our lives is not nearly as important as how we spend them. What will you do with your life? Jesse himself has a challenge for you:

Excerpted from the last message Jesse gave to a church group, typed with great difficulty: In the book of James, we are reminded that our life on this earth is nothing more than a vapor or whiff of lingering smoke from an already extinguished fire. Very few have grasped [this truth] to the point that it has become motivation to live today with the conviction that tonight they might meet their Creator. There are a few, however, that have been chosen by the Lord to carry about in their bodies a constant reminder of the difference between the temporal and the eternal. I am among these chosen few. Please allow [my family and I] to be a blessing to you by serving as a living reminder that this life is oh so temporary. Live for Him today, expecting to meet Him tomorrow.

The Jesse Armstrong Next Generation Fund

Jesse finished his life with no regrets, knowing that he had done all that he could to impact eternity. Jesse had a burden to see more people follow God’s leading into missions, and that led him and Lisa to make a profound gift. They arranged to donate a portion of Jesse’s life insurance funds to create the Jesse Armstrong Next Generation Fund. Today, this fund assists those who are seriously considering missions by allowing them to investigate fields of service.

If you are heading toward a career in missions and considering a visit to the mission field, Jesse and Lisa’s gift could help you take the next step. Apply to Baptist Mid-Missions

to see if you qualify for assistance.