Monday, March 07, 2005

Doug Oyen

We received word today that a man from our church, Doug Oyen, died yesterday in Ecuador, on a short-term mission trip. I just did a google search on Doug's name, and it only yielded four hits. Probably very few people in the US have ever heard his name. But he made an incalcuable impact for the cause of Christ in the world. It'd be interesting to know how many short-term trips he took in his life. I believe it was at least one every other month. No one was more aggressive than Doug in moving toward need for the cause of Christ. He didn't wait for others to go. He went and sent freely and frequently.

I didn't know Doug well at all. But I do know that he had an abiding sense of the presence of Christ. He knew that thousand of people groups around the world did not know Christ, and he wanted to take Christ to them. He was content in God, and discontent with others not knowing God.

In 1801 William Cowper's posthumous collection, Po­ems Trans­lat­ed from the French of Ma­dame de la Mothe Guion [Ma­dame Guy­on] was published. One of the selections, "My Lord, How Full of Sweet Content," was originally written in 1722. It was eventually turned into a hymn and set to the music of Lowell Mason's "Hamburg" (1824). I think it helpfully summarizes Doug's heart, and the perspective all of us should have on the presence of God, freeing us to be happy in God whether we go or stay:

My Lord, how full of sweet content;
I pass my years of banishment!
Where’er I dwell, I dwell with Thee,
In heaven, in earth, or on the sea.

To me remains nor place nor time;
My country is in every clime;
I can be calm and free from care
On any shore, since God is there.

While place we seek, or place we shun
The soul finds happiness in none;
But with a God to guide our way,
’Tis equal joy, to go or stay.

Could I be cast where Thou are not,
That were indeed a dreadful lot:
But regions none remote I call,
Secure of finding God in all.

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