On August 18, 1977, I was born to Elmer and Kathy Akers, residents of Potosi, Missouri. Both sides of my family have deep roots in the Midwestern soil of Missouri because they have resided in the state (and indeed the same county) for over two hundred years. God placed me in a family that also possesses deep spiritual roots. My parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents all are followers of Jesus Christ. One of the most influential people in my early life was my great-grandfather John Britton, who served as a missionary and pastor in the Ozark Mountains region of Missouri for over sixty years.
Potosi serves as the county seat of Washington County, and boasts a population of almost 2,700. Although the town is roughly sixty miles southwest of the melting pot known as the Saint Louis metropolitan area, Potosi’s ethnic makeup is fairly uniform. In the 2000 census, 95.6 percent of the population was Caucasian, 2.14 percent was African American, 0.45% was Native American, and the remaining 1.81 percent originated from miscellaneous countries in Asia and Europe.
Although only a handful of Potosi’s residents hail from an international background, two early experiences in my life left me with an appreciation for other cultures. At Breton Creek Baptist Church, my childhood congregation, I became acquainted with Doctor Rustico “Rusty” Simpelo, a physician from the Philippines. As a young child I was fascinated by the fact that Rusty’s home lay far across the ocean and that he spoke a language other than English. As he slowly pronounced some basic Tagalog words so that I could get a feel for his native tongue, I considered how interesting it would be to possess the ability to communicate with non-English speakers.
Sometime during my years in elementary school, a missionary who served in Honduras spoke in a church service at Breton Creek. David Dickson ministered to the Garifuna people, and he shared the difficulties of learning the language, as well as the blessing of sharing the Gospel with people who never had heard the message before. After all these years, I vividly remember him teaching us that the word ídabiñan is a typical Garifuna greeting. While Rusty had made me aware that there were distant lands peopled by individuals who spoke other languages, David caused me to realize that missionaries often learn other languages in order to tell those who do not speak English about Jesus Christ.
My next exposure to other cultures came as a teenager. Potosi High School required students to learn either Spanish or French, so I arbitrarily signed up for Spanish because I hoped to visit Hawaii someday. For some reason, I believed that Spanish was the official language of the fiftieth state! I failed to see an everyday application for Spanish, however, so I barely passed the mandatory four semesters. I reasoned that because only one Hispanic lived in Potosi, and I assumed that I would live and die in the town as had many generations of my ancestors, I would never need Spanish. God has a way of directing the courses of our lives in ways that we would never expect! As you probably know, I have served as the pastor to Hispanics at Nueva Vida for the past 6 years.
The point of the above autobiographical account is that we never know how God will lead us in the future, but we can be sure that He is preparing us in the present. For this reason, we should treat every occasion as a God-given opportunity in which we should serve Him to the best of our ability, through His power, and for His glory!
He who is faithful in a very little thing is faithful also in much; and he who is unrighteous in a very little thing is unrighteous also in much. (Luke 16:10)
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