Deep Sea Fishing

Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch.              —Luke 5:4

Darlene and I were both only nineteen years old and had been married less than a year. We sat in our home church’s fellowship hall eating cookies after a missionary and evangelism service. As we visited at one table, members from our youth and young adult small group were beginning to cause a commotion in the other end of the basement.

Several of our group had been on choral mission trips to Haiti. They decided among themselves that since Darlene and I had not yet been on a mission trip that they would send us on one next year. The commotion was excitement caused by deciding who and how they would tell us. Upon hearing their plans, we felt God was calling us to “put out into deep water.”

For us, deep water, was stepping out in faith and committing to something we could not afford. Deep water was leaving the comfort of our small little church, small little hometown, and family to travel to the third world. We were only nineteen and had never been anywhere, alone, together.

The door to Haiti closed to us, but God opened a new door to Honduras. We went on a three week mission work tour during November, 1975. We took our first plane ride to Miami, but no one from the mission team was there to greet us. We literally ran through the construction-ridden Miami airport, got our luggage, and hopped our first taxi ride to the hotel. The taxi nearly crashed in road construction, but we eventually found our hotel and our team.

We handled the stress well enough, but, during this time, we discovered how desperately afraid of flying Darlene was. The two airlines we flew on from Miami to Honduras were TAN and SAHSA. I think they were Honduran airlines but cannot remember what the letters actually stood for. The locals told us TAN meant Tragedy Arrives Nightly, and SAHSA—Stay At Home, Stay Alive. We landed on short runways in the mountains; we believed their jokes.

We worked hard for three weeks building a church in the outskirts of the capital city of Tegucigalpa. We toured the country, met many great folks, and became committed to world missions. We were definitely fishing in deep water, but God protected us and gave us strength.

Sometimes the deepest water is a situation in your own home or the difficult neighbor across the street. If we are willing and available to be used by God, the Holy Spirit will call us to join Him in reaching the lost of our world. When Jesus told Peter to “Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch” (Luke 5:4), He went along with him. They caught such a large catch of fish that they had to call their partners to come help them with a second boat.

Jesus begins the Great Commission in Matthew’s Gospel by telling the disciples that all power and authority had been given to Him (28:18).  Jesus then commands them and us to “Go make disciples of all nations” (19), but concludes His command with a promise, “And surely I am with you always” (20). What deep water is Jesus calling you into? Across the table, across the street, or around the world? Take a step of faith. Hear God’s voice and go deep sea fishing for men.