Touched by Tony: A Mission Support Team Story

Tony and Kelly are partner-supported members of the GFA Mission Support Team.

I remember the first time I met Tony. It was late at night, and I had just arrived at the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport. I was standing at the arrivals curb waiting for someone I had never met to give me a ride to the GFA campus in Wills Point. (I could almost hear my mother’s voice telling me to never accept a ride from a stranger—especially in the dark of night.) Fortunately, the first and only person to offer me a ride was the one GFA had asked to take me to Wills Point.

Turns out that Tony is a member of the GFA Mission Support Team. The drive to GFA provided plenty of time to get to know him. You see, I had thought that Wills Point was a Dallas suburb. But it’s not. I don’t even know for sure how long the ride was or how far we traveled. I’m not saying that the GFA campus is at the end of the world, but in the daytime, you can just about see it from there. I’m almost positive that I saw a sign on the highway that said, “End of the World – 5 miles.”

Back to my story. Tony became my first in-person impression of GFA. He still is. He always will be. From my brief stay at the GFA campus, during which I met many staff members, I learned that Tony is an accurate representation of members of the Mission Support Team. You can read his GFA bio at this link, but the three things I learned about him are far more important than a bio on a website.

He is humble. Those three words will embarrass him if he ever reads them. The first evidence of his humility was his response when I asked him what he does at GFA. I realize that is a common question. I learned many years ago to ask more for personal insight than for information.

The most common response to that question is usually naming a job title—often with a pinch of pride. I still have no more idea what Tony’s job or job title is than what is published in his Mission Support Team bio. He did share some of the various things that he does, including material support and communicating with ministry partners to keep them informed and encouraged. His answer told me less about the specifics of what he does and more about who he is.

He is not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ. Somewhere out in that dark night, we stopped to eat at a world-famous restaurant. Actually, we didn’t go in. We used the drive-thru. When Tony paid for our meal, he handed the gentleman a Gospel tract, told him it was about Jesus Christ and asked him to read it. It was so natural, it was as though he had done it hundreds of times before, which he likely has.

What did I learn? Tony is not just a supporter of missions nor is he just a part of the Mission Support Team as a job. He is doing the same ministry as national missionaries on the field.


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