One of the striking exhortations that the New Testament writers give their Christian readers is to persevere: to keep serving Jesus for as long as the race he has called us to lasts. James, for example, reminds Christians that ‘perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything’ (James 1:4).
“And while our faithfulness and godliness is not measured by the length of our ministry, there is often great value in a long ministry.”
And while our faithfulness and godliness is not measured by the length of our ministry, there is often great value in a long ministry. We see the results of faithful, long-term gospel commitment to the task in many different areas of Christian service: church pastoring, campus student work, cross-cultural mission, child-rearing, scripture teaching, chaplaincy and many other ministries.
Recently I had the delight of spending a morning with an SMBC graduate who has just turned 100. Ray Cunningham studied at the College in 1947-48, graduating with his diploma. He had previously served in the Engineers division of the AIF during World War II – in Papua New Guinea (along the Kokoda Track) and later in Labuan, Borneo. When he finished the war there, a few local Christians had implored some of the Christian Australian servicemen to return and bring the gospel to the animistic Dayak tribespeople of Borneo.
Ray teamed up with Bruce Morton, a discharged RAAF pilot who also had Bible college training. Both were convinced of the need for the gospel to be taken into remote regions of Borneo. So shortly after graduating, Ray and Bruce acquired a small second-hand single engine aeroplane no longer needed by the Royal Flying Doctor Service in Parkes. They dismantled the plane and wrapped the parts carefully.
The Shell Oil Company signed the men as crew on an oil tanker bound for Borneo. By now accepted as missionary candidates by the Borneo Evangelical Mission (BEM), the two men took their little plane in pieces, as baggage, on a Shell ship. After the three-week voyage, they arrived in Labuan, Borneo, in 1949. Over the next year they supervised the construction of an airstrip, the first of several which were built and used for BEM mission transport throughout Sabah and Sarawak, in Malaysian Borneo.
“They were part of a marvellous revival in 1973-1974: large numbers in Sarawak and Sabah turned to Christ”
In 1953 Ray married Evelyn, a NSW school teacher who had gone independently to Borneo with BEM. Evelyn had some linguistics training, and together they were engaged in Bible translation, church planting and equipping local churches for evangelism. The Cunninghams worked in several different areas, helping to accomplish the BEM’s objective of planting and building up a self-supporting and self-propagating indigenous church.
Initially they learned the Malay language. Then later, in order to evangelise and disciple indigenous Borneo people groups, they also learned and translated the Scriptures into the Kenyah, Kayan and Iban languages. They were part of a marvellous revival in 1973-1974: large numbers in Sarawak and Sabah turned to Christ and gave up their pagan fetishes and medicines as God’s Spirit worked powerfully. Many sick people were wonderfully healed.
“The church they helped plant, the Sidang Injil Borneo, is a fully indigenously-led church. It now has over 720 congregations, with over thirty languages and cultures”
Ray (and later Evelyn, with him) taught the gospel of Jesus Christ in Borneo from 1949 to 1990. Forty-two years, and four languages! The church they helped plant, the Sidang Injil Borneo, is a fully indigenously-led church. It now has over 720 congregations, with over thirty languages and cultures combined into a unified fellowship in Christ.
Please pray with us that God will continue to use SMBC to fashion faithful, sacrificial, long-term servants of Christ who, like Ray and Evelyn Cunningham, will ‘run with perseverance the race marked out for us’ (Hebrews 12:1).
