Missionary Names the Names of God’s People

Jacoba Spyksma has always felt honored and grateful to be known by her grandmother’s first name.

While she also goes by the nickname “Ko,” it is Jacoba that resonates most deeply, reminding her both of her grandmother and of how important names are to God’s people, she said to a group of Christian Reformed World Missions (CRWM) missionaries who had gone through several days of orientation last week.

“I love carrying her name. Names are important to us. They are personal to your identity,” said Spyksma, a CRWM regional mobilizer. “Names are significant in God’s world.”

Spyksma, who served as a missionary for many years in West Africa, gave the message on names during a commissioning service late last Friday for the 16 missionaries.

The missionaries, both career and partner missionaries, went through a week of orientation that dealt with a range of topics from how to raise support to dealing with cross-cultural and security challenges. They will now be leaving to serve ministries and schools in Asia, Latin America and Africa.

The commissioning service began in the Michigan Room of the Christian Reformed Church’s Grand Rapids, Mich. office with a congregational reading from “Our World Belongs to God,” the CRC’s contemporary testimony. A song, various readings and a prayer preceded Spyksma’s message on the sacred significance of names.

She mentioned that right at the start of the Bible God shows that names matter by having Adam name all of the animals. God himself changed the names of Abram to Abraham and Jacob to Israel. Jesus changed Simon’s name to Peter.

“God changes a name to what he wants a person to reflect and what he wants a person to become,” she said.

God himself goes by different names such as Yahweh, the Hebrew name for God, and “I Am Who Am,” the name God gives himself when talking to Moses in Exodus. There are many names for Jesus as well, such as “Son of Man” and “Savior.”

Looking out over the missionaries and their families, she asked, “What about your names — you who are called to serve in various places around the world? As the prophet Isaiah says, God has summoned you by name.”

She then individually mentioned names of the missionaries — Nathan, Kim, Renita, Marc, Gretchen, Bethany, Andrew, Ruth, Sarah, Brad, Ruth, Tim, Stephanie, Sosthene, Kara and Justin.

“God calls you for his glory,” she said after speaking the first name of one of the missionaries. “God knows your name, your every thought, your every struggle. He knows who you are. He redeems you. You are his.”

To another, she said: “Go to see all of the beauty that God has created. Know that you will learn much from those you go to serve... Know you will be prayed for by God’s people by name.”

After the message came the commissioning. The missionaries and their families gathered in the front of the room as their foreheads were anointed with oil and people laid hands on them.

Joel Hogan, CRWM’s director of international missions, began a time of prayer.

“As we anoint these men, women and children for your purpose, Lord, we pray you give them faith, hope and love, but most importantly love.”

Heads bowed, eyes closed, the missionaries listened, taking in the final activity of a long and challenging week — a week of preparation from which, Hogan prayed, they would gather confidence and strength.

“Give them abundant grace, Lord, for each and every challenge. We send them in Jesus name to faraway places to spread the same Good News.”