Before I left home, I had several people ask me what I would be doing while on the Race. Being that I chose the Unscripted route, this made the question even harder to answer as I knew every day would look different. Nonetheless, I would try to give some examples of what I might be doing, like the “typical” mission trip things – VBS, work projects, street evangelism, etc. But what I didn’t know was how Unscripted is different than a normal mission trip. It’s not that we don’t do any of those things, but those are not our focus.
Unscripted is about listening to the Lord and loving the person right in front of us. It’s getting to know the barista at the coffee shop or serving our Airbnb host. It’s about being Jesus to those who may never step into a church or ministry. It’s about planting Kingdom seeds wherever you go. The thing about planting seeds is that the day you plant them is not the day you harvest them. Sometimes seeds take a while to grow or even take root. This means that most of the time we won’t see the fruit of the seeds we plant. This both takes the pressure off, while at the same time is a challenge for me.
First, it’s a challenge because I’m a doer. I love doing tangible things with tangible results. Not always seeing the results of what we are doing has made me question several times if I am doing enough. It even sometimes makes it hard to share with my friends, family, and supporters back home. I want to share what the Lord is doing in and through me, but I also don’t want to be that person that does things just for the pictures. For example, the other week we went to the park and set up signs saying free prayers. In the few hours we sat there, three people stopped. We talked with them for a few minutes and then we prayed over them. In times like that, I’m not going to pull out my camera and be like “oh can I take a picture of you to show that I did something today”. Even more, I don’t want to be that person that shares Jesus just to add to a number of conversions. Do I want people to know Jesus as their Lord and Savior? Absolutely!!!! But if it becomes solely about conversions, doesn’t that make Christianity more about transactions rather than the transformation Jesus brings?
You see, this Unscripted thing I am doing is a lifestyle. It’s living every day intentionally seeking the Lord, loving those in front of me and planting Kingdom seeds. It hasn’t always been easy for me. It’s not always the most spectacular, exciting life people may imagine. In fact, most days are fairly mundane. Some days I get back to our Airbnb and ask, “what did we do today?” This has been challenging for me.
Yet, the Lord has released so much pressure because He reminds me that it’s not all on me. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 3:6-7,
“I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.”
We were told at training camp that on average it takes someone seven times to hear the Gospel before accepting it. If that’s true, are we willing to be the third? Am I willing to simply share my faith even if it means not seeing the fruit of that? God is the one doing the work. I’m simply being His hands and feet.
I say all this for two reasons. One, I want to help everyone back home understand a little better of what I am doing during these 11 months. The answer is: I’m living life abundantly, loving the person in front of me, and taking Kingdom seeds wherever the Lord takes me.
The second reason I want to share this is that I want to encourage you. Yes, YOU. You can be His hands and feet wherever you are. Growing up my parents would talk a lot about their jobs being their mission field. Yes, they went on short term mission trips out of the country (one being to Córdoba, Argentina, which is where I currently am). But in everyday life, they would talk about their co-workers or employees or the clerk at the gas station and how they shared the love of Jesus with them. In Sunday School as a child, I was told that I could be a missionary. I would hear how it doesn’t matter where you are, but you are called to share Jesus with others around you. I’d always think of my parents. I saw them being missionaries right where they were at. Wherever you are at this moment, remember that you can live life on mission. Love the person in front of you. Maybe it’s the clerk at the gas station or the nurse at the doctor’s office or it’s your 5-year-old child. Whatever you do, wherever you go, you can share the love of Jesus and plant Kingdom seeds.
I’ll finish with a quote from the book Radical by David Platt.
“Remember that Jesus didn’t travel to every place in the world while He was on earth, and He didn’t go to all the multitudes. He poured His life into a few men for the sake of the multitudes in places He would never go. Therefore, our homes, communities, and cities are the primary places and contain the primary people with whom we will impact nations for the glory of Christ.”
