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Choosing Marriage Over the Mission Field
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.

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, ...

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Crab Grass

June 15, 2013  3:49pm

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.

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Gordon Vaughan

June 14, 2013  11:09am

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.

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Derek Chinn

June 13, 2013  12:40pm

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.

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