What I Published This Week (And Why I’m Telling You About All of It)
From a 250th birthday to a friend I still miss every day, here’s what’s been on my heart.
This week I found myself writing about some very different subjects: America, false accusations, cancer, faithful friendship, God's grace, and missionary work. At first they didn't seem connected. By the end of the week, I realized they were all telling the same story.
Let me walk you through what I've been writing this week—and why I think these stories belong together.
Whether you're looking for biblical encouragement, answers about suffering, reflections on God's unconditional love, or practical insight into missions, I hope one of these articles meets you where you are.
Grateful for America (July 4)
This one wrote itself, honestly. On America’s 250th birthday, I found myself thinking about what it actually means to love this country as a man who spent decades overseas. Loving the nations never made me love America less. It made me love her more clearly, the way a man appreciates his own home after years of sleeping in other people’s houses.
I talk about why gratitude doesn’t require pretending a country has no flaws, why my heart is still set on the nations, and what I’m actually praying for America these days.
👉 https://waustingardner.com/grateful-for-america/
What To Do When Someone Lies About You (July 4)
Psalm 35 has been a lifeline for me in seasons I don’t talk about much. David wrote it while surrounded by people who repaid his kindness with cruelty. He didn’t pretend the pain was small. He brought the whole weight of it to God.
If you have ever carried the ache of being misunderstood, misrepresented, or falsely accused, this one is for you.
👉 https://waustingardner.com/psalm-35-false-accusations/
Fifty Years to Learn One Truth (July 4)
I spent fifty years in ministry, thousands of sermons, decades on the mission field, and more than a few hospital beds to learn something a child could understand in an afternoon. God loves me. Not because I earned it. Because that is who He is.
Psalm 36 finally broke something loose in me. I share what it taught me, and I hope it saves you some time.
👉 https://waustingardner.com/gods-unconditional-love/
My Testimony of First Nations Clinic (July 5)
I need to say this plainly. I am grateful for the team at First Nations Clinic in Kingston, Tennessee, in a way I don’t have adequate words for.
For sixteen months now, Betty and I have made that drive every month. Before every appointment, someone from their team prays with us by name. They open the Word. They speak hope into whatever we’re facing good report or hard one; it makes no difference. We have never once left that clinic discouraged. Not one time in sixteen months.
They have studied my specific cancer. They have treated me as a whole person, not a case number. They have paired real science with real faith. My circulating tumor cell count has dropped. My kidney function has held stable. None of that is guaranteed, but every bit of it is grace.
I wrote this testimony because I want you to know who these people are and what they have meant to us.
👉 https://waustingardner.com/first-nations-clinic-testimony/
The Rare Gift of a Faithful Friend, Paul Forsyth (July 6)
This one is the hardest to write about and the most important.
Paul Forsyth was the truest friend I have ever had in ministry. I have spent more than fifty years serving alongside missionaries, pastors, church planters, and believers on two continents. And I can tell you without hesitation: Paul Forsyth remains the best yoke fellow and ministry partner I have ever known.
I wrote his full story today. The nine trips he made to Peru. The tractor money he gave away so Lighthouse Baptist Church could have land. The monthly calls that cost him over a hundred dollars each because he refused to let an ocean keep us apart. The way he noticed my son Chris’s diabetes before anyone else did. The way he stood beside me when my ministry fell apart and told me, in his own words, that he would “come kick my butt if I quit.”
He loved my children like a grandfather. He taught them silly songs. He bought and installed a basketball goal with his own hands. He wept before God until the front of his shirt was soaked through. He was tough and tender and completely real, and I still miss him.
Dozier Paul Forsyth Jr., July 31, 1942 to March 8, 1998. I wanted you to know who he was.
👉 https://waustingardner.com/the-rare-gift-of-a-faithful-friend-paul-forsyth/
And from Alignment Ministries this week
While most of what I wrote this week came from Followed by Mercy, I also continued writing for Alignment Ministries, where my heart for church planting and missions has found another home. Here are four articles from that series.
Built to Send, Not Just to Seat (July 3)
Why the Great Commission measures a church by those it sends, not those it seats.
👉 https://www.alignmentministries.com/built-to-send-not-just-to-seat
The Greatest Export America Has Ever Produced (July 4)
Why the gospel has been America’s greatest gift to the world, and why Peru gave me far more than I gave Peru.
👉 https://www.alignmentministries.com/the-greatest-export-america-has-ever-produced
Planting Indigenous Churches (July 5)
A work that outlives the worker. How to build something that lasts beyond your own lifetime.
👉 https://www.alignmentministries.com/planting-indigenous-churches
The Indigenous Church: Two Principles for Getting There (July 6)
The greenhouse principle and the raising-children principle. This is how you actually arrive at a self-governing, self-supporting, self-propagating church.
👉 https://www.alignmentministries.com/the-indigenous-church
If you read nothing else this week, read the Paul Forsyth story.
I mean that. Some friendships are worth remembering out loud, and Paul was one of those. He showed me what it looks like to love people the way Christ loves them: without condition, without retreat, and without end. The world needs more of that kind of love, and I wanted you to see what it looks like when it’s lived out.
And if you’re facing cancer, or someone you love is, read the First Nations Clinic testimony.
I don’t promise anyone a cure. I can promise you what I have witnessed with my own eyes, month after month: a team of people who treat you like a whole person, pray with you by name, and remind you that your identity was never meant to rest on a scan.
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If any of these articles stirred something in you, I would love to have you along for the rest of the journey. I write every week — sometimes about grace, sometimes about suffering, sometimes about the books of the Bible, sometimes about people I’ve loved. Subscribe below, and each new piece will land in your inbox.
Let’s keep walking this road together.
Austin Gardner is an international speaker, author, and mentor with over 50 years of ministry experience. He writes at the intersection of grace, covenant love, and the finished work of Christ.