A New Perspective

Belonging to a church whose vision is evangelism, I've been around a lot of missionairies (where's spell check when you need it). Yet, I've never really understood what missionairies actually do or what they go through, even though I have heard their stories. Hence this experiment in a foreign land has been extremely enlightening, but also frustrating. For starters, I've learned that things don't go the way that you anticipate or plan. In fact, things often seem to happen in a spontaneous manner, rather than in a planned fashion. Next, I've learned that you don't have to leave the country to be used by God. For most of the ways that I've seen God use us here have been the exact same ways that He used us in the U.S. But even though you do not have to leave the country to be used by God, leaving the country helps you to focus on Him and His affairs, for the normal cares of life (thankfully) do not accompany you to a foreign land, although new "cares" try to immediately cram their way into your new lifestyle. Third, a mission trip tests your motives: I constantly find myself asking: why am I doing this? Am I trying to please someone back home? Am I trying to impress people? In spite of this, one of the greatest things about going on a mission trip is that you get to know Jesus Christ in a deeper way, for you have additional time to crack open your bible and pray. You get to pray about your motives and ask God to reveal new things to you. Moreover, you get to simply make yourself available to be used by God. With that said, let me encourage anyone who wants to be a missionary to go for it, particularly if you are single. Through all the ups and downs, it's a great life, and I assure you that you'll never regret it.