Interview with Delgado

Q: You went to a country that you won’t name, with an organization you won’t reveal . . . and yet you wrote a book about it. Why?

D: In Mark 5:19, Jesus said, “Go home to your people and report to them what great things the Lord has done for you, and how He had mercy on you.”

God did great things, He had mercy on me, and I’m home, so I’m reporting back.

And I’m the kind of person that learns from a story. So I think, “If you give people a story, they can learn together.”

Q: What does learning together look like for you?

D: If a missionary came when I was a kid, they could speak for the whole service. They’d show some slides, tell a few stories that would inspire us to pray, and then we’d pray. But we’d always pray for the people group, not so much for the missionaries, because we’d never hear about the personal difficulties they faced, except for maybe food poisoning and tarantulas.

That was then. Now?

Now, to no fault of their own, missionaries have to condense their speaking so they can share a verse, a quick story, and pitch a vision—all in ten minutes.

Maybe if you’re in a class studying to enter missions, your professor can share longer stories with you. But you’ll only ever go so deep in exploring the story or the theological reasoning behind your professor’s actions because—I mean, hey, it’s your professor. Are you going to challenge your professor’s decisions with your classmates looking on?

Q: Probably not. But with your story . . .

D: You can openly discuss and argue against my points of view, my understanding, and my decisions because 1) I’m not handing out grades; 2) I wasn’t professionally trained in missions, so if you disagree with me, you’re not challenging the establishment; and 3) I’m no threat. I’m not even in the room.

But . . . I have let you inside my head.

I’ve given you an uncompressed story, a chance to take the physical, emotional, and spiritual journey that I’ve taken and to learn from it without having to get your passport stamped.

Q: What was the most important lesson you learned for yourself?

D: It’s not a call to missions. It’s a call to Jesus. And that call is for everybody.

We run around with all these things that we think are our callings, stuff we’re going to do for Jesus, but the main circle spinning at the center of it all is: Jesus wants you.

Yes, He may call us to tasks that branch off from that central call, but no matter how hard you run, doing whatever else you’re doing, eventually, you have to come to grips with . . . it’s you and Jesus.

And as you work through that call to Jesus, through getting closer and closer to Him, everything changes. It can be quite the ride!

Q: As you tell your story, you disclose your sin against the team. Can you tell us why?

D: Sure. I spell out my conflict with leadership to highlight the impact of my sin. I could’ve skipped that, but then you wouldn’t see what it’s like when the effects of sin ripple out on a team. It feels more honest for me to say, “Hey, you know what? This is how it went down, I own it, and I’m sorry.”

So, yeah, I expose my sin. But I also include moments of reconciliation, team building, and unity. When you have an uncompressed version of all that, you can better see God in action.

Q: Is that the heart of the story? Seeing God in action?

D: Hearts are at the heart of the story. Mine, particularly.

Hopefully, readers will sense God speaking to their hearts as well. Speaking about how we can better support and care for missionaries as they leave and return. About having a heart for the lost—even the lost that your culture tells you are your enemies.

The book opens with some street preaching scenes that are pretty hostile because the culture has pitted people against each other. How do we respond? Can we have compassion and pray for our “enemies”?

How does that translate over to sending a New Yorker to a militant Islamic country?

I remember 9/11. I could say, “No thanks, God. They’re the enemy.” But that’s not my heart. That’s not Jesus’ heart.

And so we go, and we end up crossing the religion gap, the culture gap, and the gender gap. You end up with a Christian male making friends with a Muslim woman. How? Because they teach the same children and work together? Nah. That’s just the setting. The real power behind it is God at work, in hearts.

Q: Do you have a theological point you’re trying to make? A message?

D: You mean like “Love Your Enemies” or “Trust God”? I don’t blatantly say those things, but you can see them, for sure. And I suppose you could fish out the phrase, “If prayer changes things, lack of prayer changes things,” and say the story is a call to prayer—

Huh. That’s funny. A missionary in a Muslim country answers the “call to prayer.”

—but that ends up being a call to action.

I’m more concerned with that. Action.

You don’t need to be a “hero of the faith” to take action.

I’m not trying to make a point. I’m trying to let you live the story and respond.

Enjoy the story. Feel the conflict, the heartache, the joy. Discuss and debate my theological views all you want. Just don’t stop there. Answer the call to Jesus Himself. Then go and do.

It doesn’t have to be missions. It doesn’t have to be ministry.

Wait on God. Hear from Him. Walk with Him.

Don’t worry about you. It’s not about you.

In the end, all our stories are about Jesus.

. . .

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