Missions: being a purposeful movement; in this case, gospel focused,—being sent from one place to another for a purpose.
I grew up in a family and church that heavily supported, encouraged, and talked about missions. From a young age, I participated in a children’s program at church devoted to teaching children about missionaries and sharing the Gospel. At home, I remember my mom reading books and biographies to me and my siblings about missionaries. And I can recall countless times listening to missionaries share about their work in different places, both near and far.
I went on my first “missions trip” with my family when I was ten. We traveled to Georgia to volunteer at a children’s home. It wasn’t with a group of church people, and the trip wasn’t planned by an organization. My parents decided that our family “vacation” that year would be to serve other people. So the six of us just went! I remember pulling weeds-LOTS OF WEEDS- and getting attacked by fire ants.
Another memorable missions experience happened during my freshman year of high school. I loaded up in a 15 passenger van with six other high school girls from a local church, and we traveled to Mexico for a week. We built, painted, and cleaned a house. The work was hard, it was hot, and we found a tarantula.
At some point in middle school/high school, I was exposed to an organization called YWAM (Youth With A Mission). A family friend’s daughter was participating in YWAM’s “Discipleship Training School” in Minneapolis and we visited her on a couple of occasions. As I sat in on a class with her, I was intrigued by the diverse group of class participants. All these people, (young, married, mid-life, etc.) came from all stages of life, and were devoted to this training and gospel work. As I sat there, I instantly knew that this was what I wanted to do when I graduated from high school. So, at age 18, my parents dropped me off at YWAM’s Discipleship Training School (DTS) in Atlanta, Georgia. I knew no one. The DTS program is about six months long and happens in two parts: the lecture phase and the outreach phase. My outreach phase included living in Togo, Africa for 6 weeks, serving and encouraging local churches, playing soccer, and building relationships in the community.
The YWAM/DTS experience was life changing for me, but what I remember most was one of my leaders telling me, “Your experience here should not be one of those moments that you look back on and think, ‘That’s when I was closest to God.’ Because your relationship with Him should continue to grow deeper beyond this experience. His Spirit has more for you to do!” Often, I can be deceived by the lie that you have to go to a different country, live in a hut, and eat couscous for every meal to be truly doing “mission work.” But in contrast, your mission (a purposeful, gospel focused movement) should be in the context of where you are right now. The key word is purposeful.
As I’ve become a mom and reflected back on my childhood, I’ve noticed the other ways my parents lived on mission in their context, raising eight kids. My mom would bring some configuration of my siblings with her to a women’s shelter and help sort clothes. My dad would forgive clients’ debts and explained that Jesus forgives us when it’s not deserved. Countless times, I’ve watched people in my life buy groceries, invite people to live in their home, give a car away, scrub floors, pray, and openly allow God to use them for His mission wherever they are. Mission living purposefully for the Gospel, near and far, wherever God has you right now.
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