Jun 23, 2020
Andy Samuels
Chief Executive Director
SDB Missionary Society
One of the great joys of my job with the Seventh Day Baptist Missionary Society is the enriching experience of working with, sharing with, ministering with, and communicating with people of a variety of ethnicities from six continents in the world.
I also feel especially blessed to have grown up in a culture which recognized the dignity, value and worth of people of all ethnicities. In the country of my birth, a tiny island in the Caribbean Sea called Jamaica, our national motto is, “Out Of Many, One People.” In the high school I was privileged to attend in Jamaica, I developed strong friendships with classmates who were Caucasians, of African heritage, Indians, Chinese, and of Syrian and Lebanese descent—many with whom I remain closely connected today, more than 40 years later. Prejudice based on ethnicity was not an issue. Admittedly, in that world of mine, there was classism, and other “isms,” which are all sinful realities of our fallen humanity.
When I left Jamaica at age 20, I worked for the Jamaican government at its Permanent Mission to the United Nations and lived in New York City in the UN community. That opportunity gave me the benefit of engaging on a daily basis with people from almost 200 countries in the world. By the grace of God, I learned to appreciate and embrace people who are different and learned to see us all as image-bearers of our Creator. Those experiences helped prepare me for where the Lord has me at the moment.
So, racism and other “isms” pain me. They are ugly, and they deny the infinite wisdom of our God. At the Seventh Day Baptist Missionary Society, the very nature of our mission is furiously antithetical to anything that smacks of racism. The first sentence of our purpose statement says, “The purpose of the Seventh Day Baptist Missionary Society is to promote the sharing of the Gospel with all peoples.” We do not carry out that purpose from a place of superiority. We do it because we love all peoples, and care about the eternal destiny of all peoples. And we understand that God has chosen to involve us in His grand plan of salvation for the whole world.
The church has struggled with that understanding for a long time. The Apostle Peter in the book of Acts had to be dramatically persuaded by the Lord that God cared for the Gentiles as much as He cared for the Jews, and included them both in His redemptive purpose. (Acts 10:9-35)Globally, racism and other prejudices have bubbled up to the surface of our social agenda, and there is a deafening cry for their end. Precipitated by the killing of an African-American man by a Caucasian policeman in an American city, the incident hit a societal nerve and has compelled us all to introspectively and actively address these sins before our heavenly Father. God’s people must play a leading role in this campaign, searching our hearts, repenting, making our voice heard, and living out the Gospel before a watching world.
It is the continued commitment of the Missionary Society to love all peoples, care for all peoples, serve all peoples, minister to and with all peoples, and share the Gospel with all peoples because Jesus died for all peoples. I am even more determined today to be an example as God gives me the opportunity to love my brothers and sisters of all ethnicities, whom He has created. I am determined to speak the words of Jesus to myself, bringing His prayer, the Lord’s Prayer, into my soul, before speaking words into another man’s heart. And I am determined to hurt with those who hurt and grieve with those who grieve. Love takes the pain from another onto ourselves. We are our brother’s keepers.
