A missionary chargeable to no man

by Gabriel Pearl

     When I was fourteen years old, my dad started witnessing to a pot-smoking hippie family living down the road from us.  We went there faithfully three times a week during the first year, sitting around an outdoor campfire (which was their “living room”) in the summer, or around a wood-burning stove in a dilapidated old school bus in the winter. The family’s eldest son, TJ, was saved that year at seventeen years old, and in the sixteen years that I have known him he has never once gone back into sin. After two years of Bible school and a year of intense linguistic training he was called of God to go to a Southeast Asian country closed to Christianity and to missionaries.
     It is one of the poorest countries on earth and has a population of several million. Although living conditions are not as difficult as in Sudan or North Korea, it is not an easy place for a foreigner to live. One must be with a relief agency or in a legitimate business to be allowed to stay in the country. TJ chose the sale and exportation of hand-woven silk as his legitimate occupation because it takes very little time away from his Bible translation work, and he hopes it will provide some needed income for his growing family.
     So while the native ladies weave silk all day, TJ translates the Word. Paul the apostle was a tentmaker (Acts 18:3). Three times Paul tells the saints that he was “chargeable to no man.” He says in I Corinthians 11, “…and in all things I have kept myself from being burdensome unto you, and so will I keep myself.” He says in II Thessalonians 3:8, “Neither did we eat any man’s bread for nought; but wrought with labour and travail night and day, that we might not be chargeable to any of you:” Basically, Paul was saying that even though he was traveling and preaching full time, he still worked making tents, and when he was given support he put in overtime to proclaim his message.
     It is my vision to help TJ become self-supporting – chargeable to no man – while he devotes his life to translation work. This part of the world is known to produce the highest quality hand-woven silk in the world—second to none.
My website, pearloutdoors.com, now carries these hand-woven silk scarves. My wife loves them, my mom loves them, my sisters love them, even my baby girl loves to wrap the silk around her as a light blanket. They are positively gorgeous. I have included a fascinating picture gallery showing how the national women make these beautiful silks. If you want to give your wife or daughter a gift she will really love, then check it out.
      I also have some intricately hand-embroidered hangings depicting the book of Revelation that the Hmong refugees made to help raise money to buy rice for their families. Go to pearloutdoors.com. For a catalog, write to PO Box 309, Lobelville, TN 37097 or call 1-800-394-9080.