An Interview with Dr. St.eve L.ee

Dear Theophilus (DT): What was your favorite aspect of the mission conference?

Dr. Steve Lee (DSL): I think I'd have to say the best part of the mission conference was to see the active interest in the people who at Emmanuel who really want to serve God through the missions field. Even on Saturday night the many people who stood up and made a commitment before the others that they want to be devoted to missions in some way or at least investigate and take the next step. Even in the Saturday morning session, to see all the people who came and asked a lot of practical questions, and even came up to me to talk throughout the conference. I think just many of the individual conversations with people who were really expressing a very active participation in world evangelization and showing how they've already taken several steps and are looking to see what the next step is in their life...I just think that kind of active involvement is the most exciting thing about the mission conference.

DT: Take a minute to tell us some details about what you're planning on doing in K.en.ya and beyond.

DSL: Once we get to Ke.nya, I will be spending the first five months living with a national family doing no ministry but only learning the language, and it's sort of the emersion philosophy, just totally having you involved in the culture, through language study, and walking through the marketplace, walking through the street, having conversations, and really trying to integrate with the society as much as possible. After that, I'll be going to Kij.abe h.spi.tal, which is about 45 min north of N.air.obi, the capital of Kenya. The reason why I'll be going there is to really learn the ropes of missionary medicine, to spend time with other missionary doctors, and just to consider it almost as a training period for the first 6-12 months of our time there. After that, we want to move away from the hospital base ministry and either go to a smaller clinic or even a place where there is no clinic and then start to utilize not only my medical knowledge, but also my seminary degree toward being involved in things like church-planting and leadership-training and so hopefully to be part of more of an interdisciplinary church planting-type team that will go there and do medical missions, evangelism and teaching --- more of a holistic ministry model.

DT: Of all the countries in the world, why did you pick Ke.n.a?

DSL: Since I received my call to missions in high school, very early on in my research in the whole area of missions, my interest has always been in frontier missions work, meaning to bring the gospel where there is no church present, to share the faith with those living in another language group. K.en.ya, when you look at it, is a very reached area and if you look at Ke.ny.a in context of the whole landscape of Africa, why K.en.ya then? Largely I don't really see it as my calling particular to Kenya in terms of a lifetime commitment as a missionary, similar to what I shared in the previous question. In my mind, it's more of a starting block where I can go there and where I can get trained and learn the in's and out's of missionary medicine. There are, however, some areas of K.eny.a, even in places like Ke.ny.a that seem so heavily reached with missionaries,...that remain unreached, like the northern frontier near the Som.al.i border. When you get up near the Su.dan and out west toward T.anza.nia, there are still difficult missions fields out there where workers are needed. So that's one area, the northern frontier, where we'll be investigating. But after the first 6-12 months, there is a very good likelihood that we will move on beyond K.en.ya to possibly some areas of Africa that are French-speaking or Muslim-dominated.

DT: With all the obstacles to going on the missions field, how were you able to overcome them?

DSL: I think when we talk about obstacles, for me, personally, when I first became a Christian, I needed to let go of this need for financial security. And in my testimony, always one of the big obstacles even in coming to Christ was this need to be well off financially and to be able to take care of my family as well, so that they will never really have to experience any of those times of poverty that I had to when I was younger. I do think the struggles that we bring into our Christian life often times are the same struggles that will frequently rear its ugly head when we start struggling in our faith and our walk with God. I find that to be true even in myself whenever I start to flounder and when I start to question things. It tends to be along those areas of the need for security, even not just security but the luxury of a more affluent lifestyle that starts to tempt me. I think it's in those moments always that I have to anchor myself to certain key moments in my spiritual journey when sometimes the only thing that I can hang my hat on is that sense of calling, that this is what God has called me to do in my life. So regardless of what I have to give up or what I may be tempted toward, I would be disobeying God if I didn't do this. And so it's often going back to my roots, to those times when God spoke to me very clearly, that I find strength and am able to overcome these temptations. So I would say largely that's how I've been able to make it this far. To me, it's purely the grace of God, and just remembering how 15 years ago, He had spoken so clearly to my life and seeing that is still the call for my life to the present day.

DT: Why should missions be important to the average Christian who isn't called to the missions field?

DSL: It is my deep conviction that world evangelization is the responsibility of every single believer in Christ. And I think it's unfortunate that, often times at church, missions becomes a sub-department for these crazy radicals who want to change the world. But I think to be a Bible-believing Christian is to be a mission-minded Christian because the Bible is basically a book of missions. It's about God's redemptive plan, starting at that moment that sin entered the world in Genesis to this very day, as God is calling out to the lost who are living in sin. And for a Christian to not understand that fact is to fail to understand an integral part of their very own identity. I would never say that everyone ought to go to the missions field, otherwise they would be living in disobedience, but I think the reality is, whether we stay here in America or whether we go, there is an undeniable responsibility to contribute in some way toward not just evangelization, but world evangelization, meaning reaching out beyond our comfortable communities and going to places that are remote and are very different than us. Now, whether that means financial support or whether it's prayer support or whether it means just increasing missionary awareness or housing missionaries on furlough...there are so many things that people can get involved in. But the bottom line, it seems to me, is if you know Scripture, we have to be involved in some way or another. That command of the great commission was not given to some small sector of the church, but to the church at large.