What does mission work look like?
ere betweenExtreme Home Makeover and a Jane Goodall documentary. I think it is normal for all of us to
generalize the word “mission”.
Seriously, take a couple minutes, close your eyes and think about
it. Maybe you think about a trip you or
someone close to you has taken. There
was probably some construction – a house, church, orphanage. Maybe someone was teaching English, the
Bible, etc. There are probably children
involved and they are probably not white.
It’s not bad – it’s just the way it is.
There is such a need for ministries like that. There is an evil and a hurt that unfairly
lives in the second and third world. I
think that part of why we so easily identify missions with these places and
people is that the need is so clear and so prevalent. Feed the hungry. Heal the sick. Bring Jesus to the unfound tribes and hidden
people.
Jane Goodall
But what about the first world? What does it look like to be a missionary in
a place where people have few, if any, needs?
What about the people who aren’t hungry, or sick, or who already know
about Jesus? What about people who live
in places like North America, Western Europe, Australia, New Zealand… Our pain looks much different, it is harder
to identify, harder to accept, and I am learning more and more that it requires
more than food or medicine to heal. So
what does a missionary look like in New Zealand? What if the job of a missionary is just to
pray?
I know what I thought. “Seriously? I came all the way to New Zealand to pray? I could have done that at home.” Maybe you’re thinking the same thing, “I gave
him $100 to fly to the other side of the world to pray?!” Well, it’s more than that. I know everyone wants to see pictures of African
babies – and there will be a time for that.
But I will tell you why I had to come all the way to New Zealand to pray…tomorrow.
