Romania is where we call home this month, and our work involves getting a summer camp ready. I haven’t written a blog here yet, and my online identity survives on periodic Facebook status updates.
Yesterday, a surprise rainstorm gave us the day off from outdoor work, so I headed to the nearby café to grab some pizza and precious wifi. While on the internet, I finalized some plans for our group’s weekend journey to Vienna: gathering more city and transport info and finally booking a hostel. Then I wrote a Facebook status about how awesome the trip was going to be.
Shortly afterward, I got a message from a friend back home. They were admittedly jealous of all the fun I was having in Europe, and they offered some feedback that stuck with me: I should post more about the mission work I’m doing so my life doesn’t sound like a vacation.
——————————-
Wherever I go, I try to pursue adventure. I always focus on finding awesome things to do, but I’m still a missionary. I can’t let myself or others forget that.
Venturing back in time through my Facebook statuses, I realized a sad truth. Unfortunately, very few of them have anything to do with our work or ministry. In truth, most of them were added on off days when my mind was focused on other things, but this means stories weren’t being told.
While my friends in the Facebook world have been updated with my crazy sense of adventure, I haven’t been updating them with how my crazy sense of adventure goes to further God’s Kingdom.
Last month, I casually posted about visiting the Taj Mahal, swimming in the Indian Ocean, and my random awkward travel encounters, but these overshadowed the full story of why I spent a month in India. The Facebook world only got a glimpse of the most important things:
- Travelling to rural Indian villages to document the lives of local pastors and church planters
- Praying for countless Hindu people who desperately ask for prayer and seek religious freedom
- Rebuilding a website for a special needs orphanage and giving a voice to over a hundred inspiring children (check it out here!)
It’s awesome being a tourist, but the bigger adventure comes through ministry experiences like these.
When I “seek first the Kingdom,” all the other adventures are given to me as well. Jesus wants me to be a tourist and experience the local sights, culture, and food, but he first and foremost wants me to go to the nations and preach the gospel as his ambassador.
(Photos by: Abby Twarek)
This is the picture of my mission trip I need to be painting more often, especially on Facebook. Most of my time is spent serving outside myself, but that “outside myself” time is also spent outside the internet. My life as a missionary isn’t just about having fun, but my Facebook identity tends to reflect that when all my internet time happens during my fun time.
More importantly, I realized something else: It takes only a few seconds to post a Facebook status, but it takes a considerable amount more to publish a blog. When I don’t write blogs, Facebook becomes an easy outlet for short updates, but the full picture of my trip is not shared and the most important info gets lost.
I need to start changing this, even though I’ve gone through this idea before. Too often I forget about my blog outside of the constant reminders from my parents. (Which are sometimes too constant. But thanks, Mom and Dad! Keep em coming.)
Wherever I go I try to pursue adventure. This is because God created me to love it. My tourist role comes second to my missionary role, but they are both defined by the adventure he created me to love. They both balance out well and I will seek to start showing that online. The fun and adventurous Facebook posts won’t stop, but I will work towards an increasing ratio of ministry related posts. And as for my blog, I will work towards an increase of posts all together.
(Photo by: Alex Compton)
