
Image: Courtesy of Tim Kietzman
Choosing Marriage Over the Mission Field
How Tim Kietzman, a successful missionary eye doctor, chose quiet faithfulness despite enormous needs in Pakistan.

6.13.13
As a young man, Tim Kietzman wanted to do "something extraordinary, something very risky" for God. In his mind, that probably meant following in the footsteps of his father, who'd been a missionary eye doctor in Nigeria. As an adult, ...
read more ...
Comments Are Closed
Displaying 13 of 3 comments
See all comments
Crab Grass
Interesting. Many of the same Christians who cry that traditional marriage is falling apart and keep telling Christian singles to marry, are the same ones who will also tell a Christian who confesses to a desire of marriage, that he or she is "making an idol of marriage," to "be content with your singleness," and "Christ is sufficient for you, you don't need a spouse." We singles are told both to get married and to stay single, a total mixed message. I can only suppose what the "wanting to be married is idolatry" crowd would have to say about this guy leaving missionary work to fight for his marriage.
Gordon Vaughan
Great article. With near limitless needs, it's up to us to set limits for ourselves and our families. Then there's the whole issue of compassion fatigue. I often see missionaries & NGO workers mention it, but rarely any advice on how to actually deal with it.
Derek Chinn
I'm not sure the juxtaposition is so stark. Dr. Kietzman was able to serve overseas for a season, and it was certainly significant work. Yet, he is still a "missionary" as he works in the U.S. I respect his commitment to his wife, and I imagine there were hard conversations as they worked through the separation and the impact it had -- wow. This alone can have a Kingdom impact because of what it communicates to other believers.