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Winter has arrived and with it the first snow. Gifted writer Peggy Noonan (former speech writer for President Reagan) wrote a marvelous column in the Wall Street Journal about the first snow in New York City:

Strangers smiled at each other as they trudged by on the street. Outside a church they were leaving noon mass, and a woman with an unplaceable accent said, “Nice day!” And we all smiled at that because we were in the middle of a storm but it was true. It was nice. It was beautiful…it was heavy, wet, coming down in a slant, it is building. It is a real snowfall. And it is beautiful.

As I read this I was reminded of the infamous winter of ’79, that worst winter in Chicago’s history, which no one who lived in the Chicago area then will ever forget. It began with a vengeance on New Year’s night. We lived on a cul-de-sac, and the entire neighborhood was out in force shoveling walks and driveways. Everyone was jovial, and we enjoyed a lot of bantering and helping each other with the huge accumulation that was piling up. Cooperation was the order of the night.

But as the winter wore on the snow piled up. No sooner had one blizzard abated than the temperature dropped precipitously, and the snow froze and did not melt. Then the next blizzard piled on top of that layer. By the end of February we had drifts up to seven feet high in front of our house.

But the camaraderie of Jan. 1 had evaporated. We all felt like a punch-drunk boxer barely hanging on, longing for the bell. Each of us was struggling just to keep our front doors and driveways at least partially cleared. We had no energy to try to help each other.

I was reminded of the enthusiasm on the mission field when a special effort of cooperation is initiated. Everyone is working together, and the exhilaration is strong. But then the specific work of each group or individual begins to sap our energy, and the enthusiasm for cooperating with others begins to wane.

We saw this happen in one country with which I am familiar. Billy Graham came to town, and the entire evangelical population rallied around in wonderful cooperation. As a direct result a national evangelical fellowship was formed with great anticipation. But as time wore on, and Billy was long since gone, the pressures of work enervated the people and undermined the cooperative mind set. Eventually the evangelical fellowship became inactive and almost dormant.

As I think back on the winter of ’79, I wonder what would have happened if our spirit of cooperation had continued through the winter. Would we have been so exhausted at the end if we had continued to help each other? I think not.

Cannot the same principle apply in our mission work? Will not cooperation with others, whose policies and goals are similar to ours, help make our efforts easier and more effective?

Peggy Noonan concludes her story saying, “After snow gets you out of the house, and out of yourself, and into the world, it stops you in your tracks. Because it reminds you of something you know and forget to think about. It reminds you that there is a higher force at work, it is beyond and above, it governs all the heavens …”

In our cooperative efforts in missions we know who and what is the “higher force at work.” We know the One who prayed “May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me” (John 17:20-23).

David M. Howard is the former international director of the World Evangelical Fellowship.