Vol. 2 - July 2021
WHAT DO MISSIONARIES DO?
When asked recently, I recognized that people often don’t know what we do. Perhaps they have a preconceived idea or image based on Hollywood’s version. I haven’t seen a realistic version on the big screen in a very long time.
The first part of the answer refers to “calling”. God impresses us to set apart a season or lifetime to be His voice and feet and hands to serve a group of people who need Him. Not everyone grows up in a Bible-believing country like the USA where hearing the Good News of Jesus’ forgiveness and love is common in churches or over the airwaves.
How can they call on Jesus to save them unless they believe in Him? And how can they believe in Him if they have never heard about Him? And how can they hear about Him unless someone tells them? And how will anyone go and tell them without being sent? That is why the Scriptures say, “How beautiful are the feet of messengers who bring good news!” Romans 10:14-15
After a person has embraced God’s call to leave their common life and go to a people that need Him, the method of telling them is as variable and creative as the stars in heaven.
NOT WELCOME
We of course take core principles from the Bible. Many modern missionaries that I know go to countries where the mention of Jesus Christ or giving a Bible could get them in BIG TROUBLE. We want to be wise so we can stay in the country and most effectively reach people. God gives us creative ways to serve them while at the same time loving them in ways they’ve never experienced. If we just popped up on every street corner shouting an evangelistic message, our passports might soon be stamped ‘persona non grata’ and we’d be deported.
With talents, skills, abilities and God’s grace, missionaries around the world do some of the following to help people:
Teach language in schools and universities or privately
Work or operate businesses
Provide medical services
Provide humanitarian aid (food, clothing, medical supplies & equipment, etc…)
Build structures (shelters, homes, clinics, rehab centers, children’s camps, and churches)
Teach new and innovative agricultural principles
Rescue victims of human trafficking
Save babies from abortion
Help orphans and those who care for them
Rescue children who live in slums and dump grounds
No matter what method we use to serve, God creates opportunities to personally share about Him. Through these and other creative methods, individuals ask, “Why are you doing this for me?” That opens a door to freely speak without incurring a hostile response. The Holy Spirit Himself uses that open door and the voice of the missionary to minister to the individual.
Our ultimate goal is to lead the person to repent of his sins and invite Jesus into his life. As that individual and his family experience the goodness of God helping them, they change and become good examples. They begin to share with others around them. The missionary guides them and others to repeat the same or other acts of service within their communities. God blesses these noble acts of kindness, service and love and multiplies the growth of something good in that community. Through time and with God’s grace and strategy, many people know God as a result of the missionary’s presence.
We teach them the Bible, we pray for them, we lead them to see and experience miracles, and we plant churches. Sometimes those churches meet under a tree or in a person's home.
Then the missionary may receive God’s instruction to leave that place and go to another.
If you know a missionary, I encourage you to pray for him or her and reach out with a message of love. If you don’t, contact me and I’ll introduce you. Consider supporting a missionary and their work and maybe visit their mission field.
Love and blessings, Becky
click here to donate towards becky’s mission
Please visit our International Networx website. There’s much to see. Share our site with others. And consider partnering with us in God’s Great Commission. (Mt 28:18-20)