A Long Journey in the Same Direction:
an Interview with Dr. Carl Boonstra

Yesterday, Sonrise hosted Dr. Carl Boonstra as our special weekend guest. Dr. Boonstra, among many other ways over the years, served the Baptist Bible Fellowship International as the Missions Director for 13 years, beginning in 1972. Since his retirement, he has served as a missions evangelist or conference speaker. Around the BBFI Mission Office, he is called the Stateman of Missions. He has lived consistently the famous Eugene Peterson quote, “A long journey in the same direction.”

Think What We Can Do Together – Harambee and Fantástico

Dr. Carl Boonstra visited with Pastors Craig and Kevin at Sonrise about his life and ministry. Almost 98 years old, Dr. Boonstra has followed Jesus Christ for 81 years and has served Christ in ministry for 76 years. While presently on hospice, he asked us to pray for him to be able to experience the grace for keeping on keeping on.

Over the years, one of his key themes he taught was to think what we can do together for worldwide missions. Using a cow’s tail from Kenya, he emphasized the word Harambee, a Swahili word which means “all together for one” or to “think what we can do together.” Further, he used the word fantástico also in his conference ministry.

When asked about his favorite missions verses, he shared Psalm 126 and Matthew 28. He talked about our action – going, attitude – compassion, and gain – growth of the church to see people accept Jesus Christ as personal Savior.

In addition to many things he shared with us, we reflected on our life-long friendship together. Dr. Boonstra is a dear friend of our family and church family at Grace Baptist Church in Bowling Green, Kentucky. 

He implored us “young people” to Keep the Main Thing the Main Thing.

As I mentioned above, he has demonstrated a long journey in the same direction.

Video of Our Interview

Here is the video of our interview with Dr. Boonstra at Sonrise.

Here are Pictures of Our Day Together

Image Credit Screen Grab