shadow

missions

FOR THE SAKE OF THE CALL: GOD WANTS YOU!

Posted on: by: Comments: Leave a comment

Jesus is calling us…issuing a special invitation. Will you accept?

 

GOD WANTS YOU!

“Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.” 

Matthew 9:37-38, NLT

Yep. Look around. The spiritual fields are indeed ready for harvest. Multitudes are weary of living with no recognized purpose. They’re desperate for hope and are willing to listen to anyone who offers it. But few workers are willing to accept the call. Why? Because it’s hard work.

When I was a little girl, I remember seeing posters of Uncle Sam in his red, white, and blue uniform. Under the angry face, with finger pointing straight at me, the caption read, “Uncle Sam Wants You!” I just wanted to run away from him as fast as I could. His scornful face did not convey the purpose behind his call to service. God is calling out to us. “I WANT YOU to be my hands and feet in a lost world!”  Instead of asking in anger, He whispers to our hearts and pleads with us to see the needs of those around us.

He knows accepting the call is hard. He knows our fears, and doubts, yet He calls us – anyway. He knows our weaknesses and even incompetence, yet He promises to use us if we will step out in faith – anyway. He knows we don’t have what we need, yet promises to equip us for the job – anyway.

Several months ago, we were on a road trip. In the quietness of the car, I mentally planned our next trip to Nicaragua, and I was worried. “Lord”, I prayed, “I know you are telling us to go, but why haven’t you sent the finances? We just got back from three mission trips, and you know we don’t have the money to even finish the Youth Building in the village of Solidaridad, much less having funds for more books and plane tickets. Please send the finances we need for the next mission.”

This wasn’t the first time I’d reminded the Lord about our need. I guess He got tired of the whining, because I very distinctly heard in my heart, “The fields are white unto harvest. Pray for the Lord of the harvest to send workers for the harvest.”  That was quickly followed by, “I never told you to pray for money for the harvest; I told you to pray for the WORKERS for the harvest.”

Oh. OK.  “Lord, would you please send the workers for the harvest?”

We need workers who are prayer warriors to go before us in prayer, as our front line of defense. We need workers to travel to the foreign field with us. We need writers and proofreaders – computer and tech savvy workers to help us raise awareness about the mission to teach women to Take Back their Families. And we need workers with the gift of giving, to help support our missionaries on the ground in Central and South America. Because givers are workers too.

Pray. Go. Give. Three ways to go on mission with us in 2015 and fulfill the great commission. Won’t you join us? Visit our “Virtual Missions Page” to see how.

Until tomorrow

Your Traveling Partner

Brenda

What Am I Doing Here?: Mission Doesn’t Mean Miles

Posted on: by: Comments: 1 Comment

Having been made in the image of God, our hearts have been set by Him on eternity. Rooted in each heart is a God-given desire to impact the world around us. But in the midst of endless distractions, countless opportunities to live out our purpose can go unnoticed each and every day. Stick around this week as we look at how we live our day-to-day lives in a way that points others to the cross.

 

Mission Doesn’t Mean Miles

Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Matthew 28:19, NASB

tuesdayTo the left of the parking lot exit, the sign reads, “You are now entering the mission field.” I see it several times a week as I leave my kids’ preschool, but do I really believe that?

“Mission field” brings to my mind passports, orphans with shoeless feet, extreme poverty, and a divine calling from Almighty God. While these are often true about missions, there’s much more to it. On our recent trip to Nicaragua, my narrow-minded view of missions was challenged by a teammate during morning devotions.

Building on the wisdom that comes from years of living as a missionary, my teammate and friend reminded me that you don’t need to cross an ocean to be a missionary. Instead, it’s living a life of intention regardless of where we find ourselves. Allowing this message to settle deep in my heart, I left for a day of ministry feeling encouraged and with a strong resolve to live missionally wherever I was.

Wouldn’t you know that I had the opportunity to put that resolve into practice almost immediately after returning home? Hearing yet another sibling squabble as I was washing dishes, I struggled to wrap my mind around the paradigm shift that had just occurred in my life. How was it possible that only two days earlier I had witnessed inmates in a Nicaraguan jail sing praises to God, weeping and falling to their knees praying for forgiveness? It was a hard concept to grasp and quite honestly, my life didn’t feel very missional at that moment. In fact, it felt annoying.

Remembering the words of my wise friend, I reminded myself of my role as a follower of Christ: shaping those screaming preschoolers into disciples is a divine calling. It is kingdom work. Regardless of our season of life or our location on a map, we each have a divine calling: to make disciples.

Jesus commanded believers to make disciples of all nations, but we don’t need to cross oceans to do it. Disciples need to be made in our homes, in our churches, in our schools, and in our office buildings.

Living missionally isn’t about the miles we have traveled: mission is about our hearts. It is about living our lives intentionally in order to share Christ’s love with the world around us. There is no place on this earth that doesn’t need the love of Jesus Christ, so none of us get a pass on this one. All nations means my nation and your nation, my neighborhood and your neighborhood.

Wherever God has us: that is our mission field. Let’s get to work!

Living missionally,

Traci