The Summer is an intense time for those considering missions. It is the time in between . . . school . . . jobs . . . marraige . . . and it goes on and on.
What are your hands doing this summer that will get you ready for the next step. Those times in the middle serve as the greatest preparation and the greatest focusing.
Find 5 things that you want to do in preparation for the next step and use this summer to get ready!
I just met a person going to the mission field who is very excited. They are ready to go and learning all about the people they will be helping. But they are leaving for a very harsh climate one month after their little baby is born.
They have a major choice - do they go ahead and trust that God will protect their baby or do they change their plans and wait a few months.
The last thing they want to do is wait, but what if something were to happen? Is that a lack of faith or is that good judgement to reconsider?
A missionary has a million choices like this all the time and the biggest problem is that everything is spiritualized. There are those that say, "Do it and God will bless" and others that say, "You have to be out of your mind, God would never want you to do that."
The problem is both of those answers are true sometimes. You need a lot of discernment so you have to be close to your Savior and pray that he does just that!
Have you ever had too much to do? Have you been so busy that you find yourself juggling many tasks at once? That is just life today isn't it.
Missionaries have to be good at many things all at once instead of just focusing on one thing. Greg Yoder, Executive Director of Mission Network News (www.mnnonline.org) has this to say, "I think there are serval top characteristics that are needed to be a missionary in the 21st century. You need to be genuine, honest, ambitious, creative, sensitive and bold all at the same time. You need all of them for daily at home outreach and outreach overseas."
Do those characteristics scare you?
They should, take any one of those and you could spend your whole life working on that skill. The key in missions is being sensitive to all those things and seeing them as all part of the same puzzle instead of completely seperate.
By tackling these characteristics together, we can see God change us and develop us to be useful hands involved in Kingdom Work!
Can you juggle???
We have to be in a constant state of readiness! What an overwhelming thought, but it is a reality. We have to be ready to respond when an opportunity to share Christ appears.
Those opportunities could be anything and they tend to be very unexpected - especially when you are in a new culture.
What if there is a riot in your town? What if an earthquake hits? What if a local leader dies or betrays the trust of the people?
Each of these represent an opportunity if our hands are ready to respond. If we can stay open to God's leading, he will reward us with the opportunities to serve him.
Disclaimer: These blogs are the words of the writers and do not represent InterVarsity or Urbana. The same is true of any comments which may be posted about any blog entries. Submitted comments may or may not be posted within the blog, at the bloggers' discretion.
learn. be. go. serve. ask.
""Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.""
Matthew 24:12-14 (NIV)
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