World Missions and Expectations

eDevotion

Encouragement for your daily walk with God 

I am getting ready to embark on a two-week mission trip to Africa with three other like-minded saints. I can hardly wait to see what God is going to do as we work with people with a different language and culture. 

Mission trips, both long and short term, have the allure of a grand adventure; new sights, new smells, new food, new culture. Adventure may play a role in missions, but it is not the primary reason for doing so. A mission trip is not a little get-away, vacation, or retreat. The heart of any mission trip should be to share the love of Christ as a team and as individuals, and, in doing so, to aid in the work already being done by the local missionaries, pure and simple.

In his book, Serving with Eyes Wide Open (2006, Baker Books), David Livermore wrote about the “fun-filled, adventurous mindset” concerning  missions. He said, “[…that kind of mindset] is quite a contrast from the thousands of young, aspiring missionaries in China who are ready and expecting to die for the gospel during their mission sojourns. In their words, ‘The Muslim and Buddhist nations can torture us, imprison us, and starve us, but they can do no more than we have already experienced in China…We are not only ready to die for the gospel, we are expecting it.’” [p. 52]

Where we are going is not as hostile to Christianity as some countries are. Regardless, whenever you work at advancing the Kingdom of God, you will come up against opposition. Therefore, we are going, keeping three things at heart: SPIRITUAL FOCUS, TENACITY, and PASSION.

Our team appreciates and treasures your prayers on our behalf.

Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age. Matthew 28:19-20