The story of Gary and Bonnie Witherall

Gary Witherall grew up in Crawley, England, and professed faith in Jesus as a boy. After a season of rebellion, he committed his life to the fulltime service of Christ. Ultimately, he joined Operation Mobilization and began serving on one of their ships, as they traveled around the world providing books and hosting mission events. After serving in that way for several years, he was invited to attend Moody Bible Institute in Chicago.

While there, Gary met Bonnie Penner, a beautiful young woman who would become his wife. Bonnie grew up in the country near Vancouver, WA. She spent many summers serving on mission teams and projects, so Bible college was a logical next step in her Christian development. She also attended Moody Bible Institute. Following a mission trip to the Philippines, Bonnie committed to a missional lifestyle.

Gary and Bonnie were married in April 1997, and soon they were seeking God’s will about life and ministry. After a season of employment in secular business, they surrendered to God’s missional purpose as a couple. God led them back into partnership with Operation Mobilization, but there weren’t any openings to serve on the ships. One day, Gary was whining to a friend in an email about the lack of ministry opportunities. His friend replied: “Go to the Middle East and eat sand. Love, Mike.” And, that’s exactly what they did. In late 2000, they moved to Sidon, in Lebanon, and began serving a local church while they learned Arabic. God provided them with numerous opportunities to serve the Muslim community around them.

As their Arabic improved, they were able to engage more people in Gospel conversations. While Gary served the church, Bonnie began to work at a Christian prenatal clinic which offered medical services to Palestinian refugees. She fell in love with the women who came to the clinic, and God began to use her in some remarkable ways.

Their calling was tested in the dark days following September 11, 2001. As they wept at the loss of American life, the people of Lebanon celebrated on the streets with joy. Many of their friends began to urge them to come home. Yet, their theology wouldn’t permit it. Gary reflected on their final decision. “We decided that no man could add or take a day from our lives. So, we decided to stay, no matter what.”

During the year that followed, their work continued to expand. Gary was even more engaged in local church ministry, while Bonnie was now helping to run the clinic. Her Arabic had continued to improve, and she could now share her testimony in the native tongue of her Palestinian friends. On the morning of November 21^st, 2002, Bonnie headed to the clinic like every other day. She stopped to buy supplies and carried them up the stairs and into the clinic. When she turned around a man was standing in the doorway. He shot her multiple times and fled the scene. Bonnie died where she fell, and the terrorist was never apprehended.

As you might imagine, Gary’s world collapsed into a heap of sorrow and confusion. Bonnie’s death was an international incident, and the implications and challenges were immense for all involved. Through it all, however, God gave Gary the grace and strength to both navigate the personal trauma and to lift high the Gospel of Jesus. Christian leaders throughout the world reached out to care for him, as did his co-laborers with OM. After weeks of grieving, Gary resumed his missional labors. And, on December 31^st, 2004, more than two years after Bonnie’s death, Gary married Helena Kachikis, the grand-daughter of Roger Youdarian, one of the missionaries who died along with Jim Elliot and Nate Saint in Ecuador in 1956.

As I reflect on this story of a modern-day, American martyr, recounted in the book Total Abandon, I’m inspired by some of the principles that shaped Gary and Bonnie’s ministry mindset. Here are a few that I hope will challenge and encourage you today and in the days to come as you serve Christ by planting churches.

1. God doesn’t call us to a place, He calls us to Himself. Often, potential church planters spend a great deal of time fretting over their plant location. To be sure, God has a plan concerning our destination, because he leaves nothing to chance. Given the opportunity, I could have chosen a thousand places to plant a church before I chose Florence, SC. Yet, in God’s providence, I ended up planting in a location that was absolutely perfect for me. And now, in my tiny outpost, God has allowed me to serve as a shepherd while He has grown an amazing church, to co-found the Pillar Network, and to partner with church plants around the nation and the globe. Before I ever took on the challenge, however, God had to call me first to himself and his purpose. Remember, the step of surrender always precedes the step of faith.
2. It’s easy to romanticize the missionary life. Gary writes, “The reality is altogether different. It means giving up everything: your language, your car, your friends, your family; it means giving up Walmart and Walgreens and clean streets and safety and working electricity. It means you might be going into a war zone; you might be jailed; you might be kicked out of the country for trying to plant an underground church.” It’s easy to romanticize the church-planting life, too. It’s very appealing these days to be a church planter; to embrace the notion of founding a ministry without the headaches and constraints of leading an existing, dysfunctional church. The reality of the hardships and deprivations of church planting become quickly apparent, however, when the NAMB assessment is done, the commissioning service is over, and it’s time to lug crates through the snow to set up for Sunday worship– week after tiresome week. Church planting is one of the hardest forms of pastoral ministry; yet, it’s also one the most rewarding.
3. You have to die to yourself. Gary writes, “Bonnie and I realized what every missionary must realize: You have to die to yourself. You have to be willing to say over and over, ‘Yes, Lord. Any time, any place, whatever you want, including dying.’ He says, ‘Go.’ And we go.” It was the first church planter, Paul, who gave us those sobering words in 1 Corinthians 15:31. I’m sure there were many times when Paul grew weary of the process. Making tents by day and disciples by night, Paul’s labors were unending. After listing his many seasons of suffering, he wrote, “In toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. And, apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches. Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is made to fall, and I am not indignant? If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness (2 Cor 11:23-30).” I don’t know how many people who would choose to serve Jesus vocationally if Paul’s kind of suffering was listed on the job description. I must even pause and ask myself if my labor would be as joy-filled if God had asked me to serve without the many ministry benefits He has provided for me. Paul chose to live in a perpetual state of dying to self, in order that he might gain Christ. When we commit to plant churches, we must do the same.
4. You have to stay, no matter what. After 9/11, Gary and Bonnie were pressured to go back to the safe confines of America. Yet, they chose to stay in Lebanon. I’m always amazed by the church planters I meet who seem to have a “Plan B” tucked away in their backpack. It’s as if they say, “Lord, I’m going to give this a chance for a couple of years and see how it goes. But if it doesn’t succeed in a way that aligns with my expectations, I’m out.” It’s a far cry from the early missionaries of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. They packed their belongings in a casket when they boarded a ship for distant lands. They had made up their minds to go, regardless of the cost or the outcomes. And, the only way they were coming home was in a casket. Dietrich Bonhoeffer famously wrote, “When God calls a man, he bids him come and die.” Whether fully funded or bi-vocational, we must be 100% committed to the work God has given us to plant a healthy, reproducing church; regardless of how long or difficult the task.
5. Do something worth living for. When Gary and Bonny finally landed in Lebanon, they were struck by the immensity of the task that God had put before them. Yet, they had never felt more alive. Gary described it as “doing something worth living for.” In his book “Don’t Waste Your Life,” John Piper echoes this sentiment: “This is the promise that empowers us to take risks for the sake of Christ. It is not the impulse of heroism, or the lust for adventure, or the courage of self-reliance, or the need to earn God’s favor. It is the simple trust in Christ—that in him God will do everything necessary so that we can enjoy making much of him forever. Every good poised to bless us, and every evil arrayed against us, will in the end help us boast only in the cross, magnify Christ, and glorify our Creator. Faith in these promises frees us to risk and to find in our own experience that it is better to lose our life than to waste it (97).” Anyone can earn a living, toiling away in perceived safety, enjoying the American Dream. Anyone, that is, except for those whom God calls to embrace the beauty and sorrows of the church planting journey. That is our call, and we must embrace it with faith and joy.
6. Trust in God alone. In the days following Bonnie’s horrific death, Gary was reminded of an experience from his life in England. He writes, “In a moment when everything in my life had been stripped away, in a moment when I might have fallen into an abyss of despair, I found myself standing on a rock—safe, immovable. Some years before I had visited Tintagel, a small Cornish village with a ruin of a castle. Legend has it that this was the castle of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table. The castle sits high above the Atlantic atop granite crags. I watched as the huge swells of the North Atlantic pounded the English coastline—but the ancient rock stood defiant. ‘Rock of Ages, cleft for me, let me hide myself in thee.’ That, I believe, is what it means to have Christ in your life. It’s only a matter of time until each of us is tested by some challenge that we cannot meet with our own strength. Where does our help come from? It comes from the Lord.” Friends, you cannot succeed in church planting through your own strength. You’re not smart enough, engaging enough, savvy enough, strategic enough, creative enough or confident enough—and neither am I. God alone possesses the spiritual and material resources necessary to accomplish that task, but that’s exactly what he loves to do! Jesus said, “I will build my church (Mt 16:18),” and by his grace, he gives us the amazing privilege to be his instruments in the new creation of a called out fellowship of new creations. Our confidence must ever remain solely in the strength of our Sovereign God.
7. Do not grow weary in well doing. Ok, so this final one belongs to me, but I’m certain that Gary would affirm it. Fatigue is a great enemy of ministry. Ask Moses when his arms were falling; Elijah after he ran from Jezebel; David when he stayed home from the battle; and Peter when he was up all night following the arrest of Jesus. When we grow weary in well doing, we are standing in the danger zone. So the scripture encourages us with these words: “And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap if we do not give up. So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith (Gal 6:9-10).” This is an analogy from farming. Farming is tiring, time-consuming, and time-dependent. Farmers live with this certainty—crops will not plant themselves (and, BTW, neither will churches). So, if farmers want a harvest, they have to put in the time and effort necessary to prepare the land, plant the seed, pray for rain, and wait—the harvest comes later. This is true in the spiritual realm as well. Jesus said that the fields are ripe unto harvest. He has sent you out as laborers into his harvest. He has told you to broadcast the Gospel to all around you, and he has promised a harvest of 30, 60, or 100 fold. The one thing you cannot do is quit. Church planting is the hardest thing you will ever attempt. You will feel the joy of spiritual victories and the sorrow of spiritual defeats. You will develop great friendships and experience great betrayals. You will be overworked and under-appreciated. You will take three steps forward, and two steps back, over and over again, but remember, you will still be moving forward; maybe just not as quickly as you want. In those times, when all the forces of darkness array themselves against you, remember God’s beautiful promise: “In due season you will reap if you do not give up.” It was true for Gary and Bonnie, and it will be true for you!