We've exposed you to a lot of things "missions". We've used resources like these (
Missionary Stories with the Millers and
Window on the World) to teach you about past and current missionaries spreading the gospel, we've encouraged your involvement with missions first hand (
MAF), and we've made connection with missionaries around the world to give you the opportunity to bond personally with missionaries in the field (Indonesia, Nigeria, Brazil, China, Mexico, and Honduras, to name a few). We've talked about Paul and the passion he had as a missionary. Some of your closest friends are MKs. But you aren't MKs, you're PKs. We tell you that all believers are missionaries to earth on assignment from God.....yet, we've been known to say "your parents are not missionaries." We seem to always separate ourselves by classification when talking about "missionaries"...."they are missionaries" as if we aren't. No, we are just people on assignment from God, citizens of heaven, on earth (foreign land) seeking to further the kingdom of God (by the spreading of the gospel and it's truth). So, even though we don't have to write a monthly newsletter proving our progress to those who pray for us faithfully (and thankfully we don't have to!), are we missionaries? What about the other believers around us, right here, in this culture? Are they missionaries?
Those closest to me often hear me say "I'm not cut out to be a missionary!" Some of you reading this are probably nodding your heads cause I've said it recently. But the more I say that, the more that God impresses a burden for missions on our hearts. I've wondered from time to time why God puts that burden on our hearts when we feel clearly that we are not called to go oversees? The logical answer has been "because God needs others to support missionaries." Yes, God needs others to feel passionate about supporting missionaries who go oversees. This is true. Yet this past year, my eyes are being opened to the fact that we can say with our lips "we are all missionaries because earth is not our home", but what does that look like? Are we willing to see ourselves as counter cultural in a confused culture? Are we willing to have a Christian worldview or are we just another church goer in our society?
Even though we don't have a language barrier to deal with (although sometimes I wonder about that...especially when we are speaking the same language and still don't understand each other), and unlike oversees missionaries we are super familiar with our twisted culture and it's challenges when ministering (since we've grown up in it), and even though we are more comfortable with the size of bugs we have here than say a foreign land, and yet there are, as my husband puts it, "similar hazards of the job".
Like oversees missionaries we struggle to balance ministry and family life...there are usually no defined boundaries, we are on call 24/7, we are seen as the spiritual professionals in times of crisis, we often carry more of a ministry load than we should, we feel burdened daily for those we are trying to minister to, we have to learn to be flexible, our families are watched carefully like living in a fishbowl, there are many expectations, we live off other people's giving, we often feel like we have to always have it together to be an example yet remain humble and transparent, and there is usually little time for marriage quality time. I guess that's why we are so drawn to missionaries and feel so encouraged by them in our own ministry...we relate to them and sense they understand our ministry.
So, I keep asking myself, are we missionaries? I keep getting invited to be a part of missionary mom blogs because I'm a "missionary on US soil". So, does one have to be unfamiliar with their culture to be a missionary? Do you have to learn a new language to be a missionary? Do you have to move away from "home" to be a missionary and then visit in 2 year intervals? I'm starting to see two types of missionaries, 1. oversees missionaries 2. local missionaries. I know missionaries that are supported in the states (like pastors) and I know missionaries that are in other countries that are self supported (
like my sister and brother-in-law)...so financial support doesn't always define missionaries. What about pastors in churches reaching the unsaved....there are church plants that for sure could be seen as missionary pastors but what about the pastor in an established church? I've learned in ministry that there are plenty of unsaved people in established churches! Just when you think you aren't coming in contact with the unsaved, you're reminded that it's not just the unchurched that can be lost. And what about the congregation? Aren't they missionaries too? Why are they different from the pastor? Shouldn't all believers be missionaries.....I know many oversees missionaries that think so.
I know God is teaching me these things to further His use of me. Am I willing is the final question. If I can view myself as a missionary, am I willing? Or do I hold too tightly to my plans my way? Am I willing to endure the "hazards of the job" like oversees missionaries? Am I willing to witness to a culture that although I'm familiar with, at times I feel totally out of touch with and confused by? Am I willing to live in a way that says "God's will for my life is more important than..... (you fill in the blank)." I want to be used and I'm learning that it means being a missionary in any land, foreign or not, oversees or not, familiar or not, supported or not, comfortable or not.
Signed,
Mom (not a missionary?)
We set up several display tables showing all the work the kids had done on their reports.
Here is Jon and Em in front of China. They wore their clothing that our friends in China gave them.
some of the kids (not all of them could make it) reciting the Great Commission (Matt. 28:19-20)
Emilee reciting two Bible verses
Jon playing two songs on the piano (Yankee Doodle and The Windmill)
