We knew that opposition from the colonial missions would continue, but did not foresee how intense it would be. Nevertheless, for the sake of our Christian brothers in “mission field” countries who wanted their voices to be heard, we continued to speak out boldly, calling for change. God blessed our witness and Christian Aid grew steadily in contributions received, supporters enlisted, overseas ministries supported and influence upon the thinking of American Christians who are directly or indirectly involved in foreign missionary activities.

But we had some problems. As the work grew we needed to build up a headquarters staff. Some new personnel had been previously involved in traditional missions. Changing their perspective to the non-colonial position was a difficult adjustment. And nearly all of our crew were active in local churches, first in D.C. and later in Charlottesville. Pressures in these churches favored continued support for traditional missions, and conflicts resulted.

Even our Board members had problems. Few had any exposure to foreign cultures or trends in missiology. When they were challenged about things we were saying they did not always know how to answer. In fact, about 15 years ago some of them were so pressured that they requested we change our bylaws to weaken the impact of our call for change. Reluctantly I went along with them to keep peace in the family and avoid disruption of the work. Article VII, Section 6.d was modified to read:

"We will seek to open channels of communication for dialogue with heads of Christian organizations which are engaged in colonial type missionary practices; we will gently and lovingly seek to persuade them to phase out the colonial aspects of their work and encourage them to help indigenous works of like precious faith instead. We will teach what the Bible says about our Lord’s body, the church, and encourage all of our fellow believers to help in building His church in every locality."

Looking back over the past 50 years, I must say that the opposition I have faced has been insignificant compared to that endured by the Apostle Paul. But one thing he said has always sustained me. When he was giving his testimony before King Agrippa (Acts 26:2-23) he rehearsed the events related to his call from God and commission to testify both to the Hebrews and to the nations. “Whereupon,” he said, "I was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision." To that I can relate. God revealed several things to me 50 years ago, including the following:

1. That carnal colonialism in missionary work should be discontinued.
2. That the free enterprise model, dependent upon competition, on which our culture is based, has no place in the service of Christ.
3. That American Christians should recognize that we are one body in Christ with our fellow believers whose works are situated within other countries.
4. That we should not send U.S. workers into areas where indigenous evangelical churches are presently located; that we should never conduct our work in situations that are competitive with native believers who are already there.
5. That the main thing we should do in areas where our Lord already has a people for His name is to get behind those saints with financial assistance to help them in their work for the Lord.
6. We should also reach out to foreign visitors in our country, particularly those from closed lands, who are here as international students, businessmen, physicians, nurses and other professionals. We should seek to win them to Christ and send them home as His ambassadors.