Missions is for everyone

My parents were very welcoming, and we had missionaries come to stay with us from time to time…It was the first time I ever heard anyone speak in something that wasn’t English.

I was always interested in missions, but I never imagined doing it myself.

In university, I was taught for the first time that missions is for everyone.

I thought eating worms and caterpillars was a basic missionary’s skill that I did not have. I was a bit of a picky eater, so I just thought missions is not for me.

Doing different kinds of jobs

When you look at the vacancies, every mission field in the world needs finance people. This is a good call for the financial people, the mathematicians, accountants: missions is for you.

Turnover

You get much closer to people much quicker; they’re like your family. And then they’re gone.

Embrace the pain. Don’t close your heart to new people.

On a lot of fields, a lot of people go for one or two years. So it’s like a quarter of your church moving every year. You never get that at home. Whereas on the field, a quarter of your team leaving every year is normal.

Conflict on the field

There are some times when you just should assume the best in people. Assume that the person means to be kind, and polite, and loving, and it came out wrong.

You can’t take offense at everything because then you will never get anywhere.

When you’ve got over the shock of whatever happened, your choice is, are you going to walk the path of bitterness, or are you going to walk the path of forgiveness?

See everything through the lens of people care.

Most of the time, when someone snaps at you, it has little to do with you; it’s probably mostly about them and how they’re doing.

You can forgive them a lot easier when you realize what they are going through.

I think it’s biblical to be un-offendable. Jesus died for us. Everything is paid for. We don’t need to be fighting a lot of battles.

How the field helps you back home

They used to tell us on the field, “embrace discomfort.” It’s ok to be uncomfortable.

On the field, someone would say, “You’re going to do a talk tomorrow. Make it happen.” But you come back to the West, and there are people in their 20s who have to get a visiting speaker if they want a talk. Seriously, we’re in a room of 30 people, and none of you are able to give a talk at an evangelistic event?

Re-entry

All three of my re-entries were completely different.

I came back and I felt very foreign. My church had a ministry with international students, and that was the only time in the week where I felt like I was at home.

After COVID, people’s personal space bubbles were a lot bigger, and mine was a lot smaller.

Marketplace missions

I found marketplace missions was great.

It was very natural. They didn’t have any suspicions of why I was there.

Most of my colleagues had never met a Christian before. That was just an opportunity. And these were people who wouldn’t normally hang out with Westerners, or they wouldn’t mix that much outside their families. These are people that wouldn’t ave been reached by other methods.

I chose to dress very modestly. Most of the Westerns thought it was a little weird. But it gave me a level of acceptance with the local women that none of them had. 

I had been taught about modesty, but I didn’t realize how many doors it opens. When you’re dressed a certain way, people are then comfortable to invite you to their house and introduce you to their relatives in a way that they’re not if you dress in a typical Western way.

It’s a great way in. You don’t have to fudge while you’re there.

In the Middle East, people don’t separate home and work or sacred and secular like they do in the West, so it’s much easier to talk about faith.

There’s always people who know more than you, usually they’re very happy to share their advice. You don’t know everything. Even if you’ve been there 20 years, you don’t know everything.

Singleness on the field

I think mostly being single on the field makes it easier because going into missions is a big upheaval.

As a single person, it’s so easy to just go somewhere.

But I think the reentry part is harder because you’ve literally left everyone behind. If you’re married, you brought your teammate with you.

I think some mission organizations are not set up well for older singles. They kind of treat all singles the same. A 50-year-old single gets treated the same as an 18-year-old single. But actually, you’re different, and your needs are different.

I don’t think it’s healthy to always be around single people. Being around couples and families is really good. Especially because realizing that being married is a beautiful romantic thing in the movies. It’s actually hard, and you don’t always agree with each other. And children are not always perfectly behaved how perfectly you parent them.

Life is tough. So if you see the other side of the fence and you’re like, you know what, both sides of the fence are difficult. That’s much healthier than imagining that all the people are having a perfect life that you’re shut out from.

A Middle Eastern second wife means, in addition to, the first wife.

Staying spiritually healthy

There has to be the bedrock of you and God every day.

Controversially, I don’t like reading the Bible in a year. It’s too rushed, and it’s too much.

I’m at the point on the Bible app that my streak is so long that I’m a bit obsessive. I have to read it every day. Because I love Jesus, not because I like my Bible streak.

I think lack of confidence in the Bible trying to be a bit more politically correct a big temptation for a lot of people in the west. But also comfort. The idol of comfort. We don’t want anyone to push us out of our comfort zone.

We are never going to find answers to spiritual problems in political parties.