With tea in hand (That magical love language of coffee, tea and cookies awaits me after every English class!), I was confronted with an interesting question after an English class last week. I was talking to a student I had spoken to often during the week, and seemingly out of nowhere he asked, “You are doing missionary work here, right?” I shook my head yes, knowing this was going somewhere farther as he was already aware that’s what my team was there for. He proceeded to ask, “Why are you in Ukraine then?” I looked at him with a puzzled expression, so he elaborated, “I thought that missionaries usually went to places like Africa where they needed, like… a lot of things. We don’t need that.” Now I understood what he was getting at; he always heard that mission trips went to rural areas with starving children and people who had no source of clean water. He was confused as to why we were doing missionary work in Ukraine. He along with the other students were able to tell me so much about how much progress Ukraine was making in the last 27 years after they gained their own independence. How they had many resources to make them wealthy if the government used them right. How the government had a lot of corruption but the people were still hopeful. They weren’t the people in need of a water well or food packs, so why were we there?
Why are we here?
I realize that this man probably isn’t the only one wondering what kind of work there is to do in Ukraine. Maybe you are wondering about all of the countries I’m going to! Well, I can give you the same answer I gave after that small English class.
Mission work isn’t about who needs clean water, although that is something that missionaries can help with. Mission work isn’t about which country has the most children in orphanages, although that’s often where you will find missionaries. Missionaries are found answering the calls of physical needs of different people and people groups, but truly that isn’t the goal. The goal is hope. The goal light. The goal is to love. The goal is to be the hands and feet of Jesus Christ himself.
This month I am a missionary in Ukraine. For my team, this looks like being English teachers. But it also looks like small coffee shops with translators and tossing juggling balls in a circle with 15 Ukrainian students.
Don’t get me wrong- we absolutely need people going to rural villages in the countries of Africa to help get those people clean water! But that poster image of mission work is not the definition of mission work.
The fact is, there isn’t a country that is off limits to missionaries.
We were called to, “go and make disciples of all nations.” That means that regardless of what country I am in, whether in the U.S. or abroad, I will choose to always live on mission. I will make it my duty, as Christ called me, to spread the light and love of Jesus everywhere I go.
That’s why I am here in Ukraine, and that is why I am here on earth. Because we live in a hurting world that needs more Jesus!
