I’ve gotten some great questions lately about what the next year of my life will look like and so I wanted to post a couple of the most frequently asked questions about the next year. Don’t worry there’s more to come.
Also if you have another question you’d like answered feel free to click
Contact Me
and I’ll respond ASAP.
ENJOY!
1.) What good can you really do in a month in one location? What will be left of the “ministry” when all 40 of you move on to your next location? Won’t the short term work do more harm then good?
This is a valid concern I’ve often seen short term organizations go into an area start a great ministry or plant a church and then leave a month later with no follow up and the church flounders just as quickly as it was started. The great thing about Adventures in Missions (the organization I’m going with) is that in each location we are partnering with full-time long-term missionaries that live there. We are simply serving and aiding their ministry, so when we leave they are still there to follow up and make sure our work and service is effective. Adventures in Missions also has a program called First Year Missionary (FYM) and these are people who spend a year in one location and really become experts in that culture. The idea is that they are interning for that year in order to spend a lifetime there. In many of our locations there will be teams of FYMs who will be there for the whole year that we will work alongside. Another great feature of the World Race is that it is designed to see where the Lord might pull your heart toward. Many people on the World Race will fall in love with a particular people group or country and spend many years there after the race.
Last summer I spend 5 weeks in East Asia doing campus ministry with local college students, and although it was a short trip we saw 34 people begin a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. The awesome part is that while we were not able to follow up with them the year-long team that came after us was. I’ve learned that God always follows up with His sheep. He does not leave them unattended.
This is also how Paul did a lot of his ministry. He had a lot of nations and a lot of churches to oversee so he couldn’t be with each one of them all the time. He had to trust that God would protect them. He wrote them letters and sent other mature believers in his absence. What a great example!
2.) How safe will you be sleeping on the ground, living in tents, and carrying everything on your back?
This again is a great question. The issue of safety is important to us as Americans. It’s important to remember though that God never promised physical safety to His followers and disciples. In fact He warned of the opposite. He took time to tell all of His disciples of the cost and consequences of following Him. Again Paul is a great example of this. He was in physical harm much of the time, especially while imprisoned!
That said, the Adventures in Missions staff does a great job of instructing us in how to conduct ourselves safely while on the race. There are whole sections of our handbook that address the issue of safety. This is also my third time doing missions abroad so I’m starting to realize what the necessary safety precautions are.
I can assure you too I am taking the time to train and practice carrying the weight on my back. The good news about that as well is that I will only be carrying all the weight once or twice a month as we travel to airports. Once we are at our ministry locations we get to unpack and create a home for ourselves.
