An analogy for the consideration of Missionaries!
Imagine a tap which releases water droplets onto the surface of a lake on which buoys are dotted around. In so doing, concentric wavelets are generated which radiate from their source, passing through the locality and gradually fading as they reach out further and further. The buoys respond to the waves as they pass through. The more powerful the source, the higher they rise up above their position of rest.The tap denotes a missionary, the water droplets the message proclaimed, and the buoys on the lake the people listening to the message. The height of displacement above the usual place of rest represents the degree of spiritual inspiration attained by the listener, and subsequent peaks at regular intervals indicate sustained Faith.
Once upon a time there were various makes of taps which had established by and large mutually exclusive spheres of influence - the wavelets they generated were often at opposite ends of the lake and travelled without much hindrance.
Many years later this had changed: the lake was full of wavelets generated by various makes of taps and they were interfering with each other. The resultant wavelets, depending upon to what extent the tap sources were synchronised were often irregular and perhaps all but neutralised; hence the buoys' motion was confused. Yet, if the taps could have been synchronised, the buoys could have reached for the skies!
The metaphorical moral of this tale is that the taps must operate in unison; so from the analogy we draw the real-life conclusion that there should be appropriate communication between the missionary sources, i.e. dialogue!
- Paul Trafford
