God has been teaching me a lot this month about what it means to be a missionary.
Malaysia, although very different from America, is also oddly similar.
It’s westernized just enough that the church here has the same hang ups that many churches have in the States. I can’t tell you how surprised I was the first time I heard one of the Malay pastors say that “God doesn’t heal people in Malaysia, He only does that in Africa and places where they don’t have modern medicine.” It was all I could do to not cock an eyebrow and say, “Wanna bet?”
But because of the similarities to home, I’ve been able to see here how some of my own wrong thinkings have stunted my effectiveness in the past.
This month I’ve heard several young Malay people talk about how they feel called to minister to “white people” and I can’t help but think, “What do you mean you want to go to America as a missionary? I traveled to the other side of the world to minister to you – you LIVE here – just be a missionary where you are!”
And it was in those moments that I began to see the hypocrisy of my thoughts. I can be a “missionary” in my hometown just as much as any one of these teens can be one in their hometown here in Malaysia.
As Christians, we have the tendency to assume that you have to go really far away to do missions, but the reality is: wherever you are is a mission field. You just have to see it that way.
I can work in a shelter in the States just as easily as I can in Malaysia. I can pray over the streets and talk with the homeless. I can sit in a coffee shop and look for opportunities to show God’s love. The problem is that we get so wrapped up in our little worlds that we forget that the “mission field” is all around us.
In Acts, when Jesus commissioned His disciples to become the first missionaries, He told them to go first to Jerusalem (their hometown), and then to Judea, Samaria and to the ends of the earth.
When I return home after this year, even if I bring nothing else with me, my prayer is that I will walk with new eyes. Eyes that see the person sitting next to me as an opportunity – no matter where that seat happens to be.
And that's my prayer for you, too.
