On Being a Missionary...part 1

Steve Saint posted this recently on Facebook, bringing my thoughts on this to a blog post:

I sometimes cringe when I hear us saying,

"She/he is leaving for THE mission field,"

or when we ask youth what their aspirations are,

they sometimes tell us that they want to 

be a missionary in some foreign country.

Now, please don't misunderstand me.

I think it's wonderful that I have

brothers and sisters in Christ

serving the Lord in China,

and in Haiti, 

and in in Guatemala,

and in Thailand,

and I am so very blessed to know

that they carry the love of Jesus

with them in those places of the earth.

But what about those of us who live 

in America?

What about us?

Do we not know that wherever we are

is THE mission field?

Do we not know that even now

on American soil

there are sinners dying without knowing

Jesus Christ?!

 Do we not know that we have been

created to know Him personally

and making Him known to others,

and that this happens wherever He has us?

Why is it that we seem to think that

America is less in need than other

countries?

Or that if you don't go to another country,

then somehow you missed your calling in life?

Jesus said that that fields are white unto harvest,

but the laborers are few.

Let me tell you, friends, that as a discipler of

converts in America, I KNOW this with a

deep sense of disappointment and my heart

breaks at all the masses to be reached who seem

to be passed by as the church sleeps.

Jesus also said,

"Pray to the Lord of the harvest,

that He will send forth reapers."

So...could it be that we do not pray this because

we have no vision for 'mission' 

(making Him known),

or that we are afraid He will send us?

Whether you live in America or Haiti,

Ghana or Tanzania, 

please hear this:

If God calls you to Tanzania to cuddle little babies and to tend the broken bodies

while showing them Jesus who is the Answer to their heart's needs,

then GOD BLESS YOU! Do it with all of your heart.

If God calls you to China to tend the orphans and to teach in their schools,

then do that with your whole heart!

But if God has called you to America,

to preach the Gospel,

to birth and raise children for Him,

to disciple the converts,

to comfort the sick,

to visit the widows,

and the fatherless,

to adopt the orphan,

to help the homeless,

to send your youth to pick up

surplus apples and help

your fellow churches to

dry them for Haitian missions,

to help the elderly neighbor lady

clear her house roof of snow

when it worries her in winter,

to make meals for that busy mom 

in your church,
to care for the elderly,

to have your church families

over to your house for encouraging them

(and in turn yourself!),

to raise extra rows of veggies in your garden

to donate to the food pantries,

to show younger siblings what it looks like

to have Jesus govern your heart,

to help your parents (after they have spent

years raising you and you are now a youth)

to minister in your community in the

part/work of the Vineyard where God
has called your family...

then please know that this is just as important

as being in a country other than America,
and jump in there and do it with
ALL your heart.

There are great needs here.

There are great needs everywhere.

May the Lord depend on you?

Care.

Love.

Pray.

Do.

Be.

Jesus came to preach good tidings.

The good news?

You don't have to live in your

crummy, sinful, selfishness

a day longer than today.

He died to set you free

and He rose to cancel the power

of satan's hold on us on earth.

Do we KNOW this in our own lives?

If we do truly know

my guess is that we already are

making Him known.

Stay tuned for part 2 of

"on being a missionary..."