Sent From Among Us: Commissioning Chris and Sheila to Lesotho

A Significant Morning

Last Sunday, we gathered as Liberty Church to commission Chris and Sheila Dillon as missionaries to Lesotho. Some mornings feel different. This was one of them. In a few short weeks, on St Patrick’s Day of all days, they will cross the border into the Lesotho not for a visit, not for a short-term trip, but to begin building something from scratch.

I tried to think that morning whether there was anything we would ever do as a church that carried more honour than this. To send people from among us. One of us. To another nation with the truth and demonstration of the gospel and a determination to reflect the loving heart of the Father. I couldn’t think of anything greater.

From Vision to Obedience

Five years ago, a team from Liberty travelled to Pulane Children’s Centre in Lesotho. Seeds were planted there. Something took hold in Chris and Sheila’s hearts that never left them.

Over the years that followed, repeated trips back, and a lot of prayer and discussion, the vision became clearer. We would establish loving, safe family homes for orphaned and vulnerable children in Lesotho. The statistics are overwhelming. The need is enormous. But we get to do something. And that something, in the hands of God, can change everything.

We now have land in the Butha Buthe district. A bare site. No electricity. No buildings. No infrastructure. Just land and a call!

On that first piece of land there is room for sixteen homes. Within five years, we believe children who today have no safety and no stability will be living in loving family environments. By the end of this year, God willing, we aim to have the first two homes built and twelve children settled.

That future begins with these two people saying yes.

Stepping Into the Unknown

Chris and Sheila are ordinary people. They love their daughters. They love their church. They love their community. And they are willing to leave all of it. They are going to a mountain with no infrastructure and no guarantees other than the faithfulness of God. They will build relationships, navigate government systems, live simply, and begin laying foundations for something that does not yet exist.

This is so courageous, it blows my mind.

I have watched them come alive in Lesotho. I have seen them operate in authority and favour. I have seen them serve, pray, persevere, and love. The Holy Spirit has already set them apart for this. As a church, we were simply recognising what God had already done.

The Commission

When a brand-new ship is ready to set sail, it is commissioned. A public declaration that the vessel is seaworthy and ready to do what it was made to do. The commissioning is the launching point of active service. That is what we did on Sunday.

We gave them a charge, asking them:

Do you recognise your mission of being sent forth by God to Lesotho?
Do you accept your assignment as a commission from God?
Do you accept the responsibility of representing this congregation in doing the work of God in Lesotho?

They answered, “We do.”

We charged them to: Love unconditionally. Serve sacrificially. Give unreservedly. Forgive readily. Live righteously. Sow extravagantly. Reap diligently. Grow exponentially.

Again, they answered, “We do.”

And then we commissioned them. We laid hands on them. We prayed. We celebrated.

It felt like something marked in heaven.

A Church Behind Them

It’s important for us to remember that this is not Chris and Sheila’s project. It’s the Lord’s and he has entrusted it to us. This is Liberty Church stepping into something far bigger than us.

I am delighted that Chris and Sheila will be fully supported by members of our church, almost 40 of them, giving a small amount each. What a picture of the body of Christ and of commitment to one another. A congregation saying, we are with you. They are not going alone.

A Personal Moment

After the service, Patrice, Penny and I were driving home. I turned to Patrice and said something that surprised even me.

I told Patrice that I felt that if the Lord were to take me home in that moment, I would know I had been part of something significant. That walking with Chris and Sheila to that point, helping send them, standing with them, was part of what I was put on the earth to do.

There are many aspects to ministry. Preaching, pastoring, leading. But in that moment I realised something. There is a unique satisfaction in equipping and sending. In seeing ordinary people step into extraordinary obedience.

It felt complete.

An Irish Sending

There is something very poetic about Irish missionaries being sent on St Patrick’s Day. For generations, Irish believers crossed seas with little more than faith and conviction. Now, from a small church in Bray, we send two more.

Who are we that God would entrust something like this to us? And yet He does.

The Holy Spirit still convinces ordinary people that they can be part of something extraordinary. He still calls. He still sends. He still builds. Chris and Sheila go to a mountain with the backing of the Holy Spirit, a calling, and a church behind them.

And we go with them.