He had to find a job and the missionary was no more. I submit to you that such illustrations as these show a crisis of faith in a person's life. God has a work for all of us to do, preacher and lay person alike. He calls us, he equips us, he empowers us, and he works through us. Again, I believe, at times, we experience a crisis of faith in our lives.
Process is slow, sometimes unseen.
But the crisis is a sudden turn of events, most times public, that changes the individual forever, for either good or bad. The sunday school class, the visitation program, the bus ministry, the lady's work, the nursing home, the shut-in ministry, the mission project. It is the vehicle that God uses to let us see inside ourselves, let us learn just what we are as Christians. God uses crisis in our lives to build and make us, not tear us down. The real problem that many Christian workers need to acknowledge is that they are not personally fulfilled in their service to God.