“Things We Said Today” is a song by the Beatles written by Paul McCartney and credited to Lennon–McCartney. It was composed for the film A Hard Day’s Night.
THE EFFECTS
The major influences expressed by my brother and ‘The Things He Said That Day’, as noted in my last blog compounded over the years, causing me to say repeatedly how opposed to ‘short term’ missions I am, as well as downplaying true female missionaries. I was just a ‘short-term service trip volunteer’, and any female missionaries I supported financially were really in place to help other missionaries do the real ‘mission’ work. I also didn’t dare ask people to partner with me for any ‘projects’ I was a part of, at the risk of each day being critiqued and analyzed for how much further the Kingdom actually grew from it… and the strings attached with how I must measure and report it back to all ‘investors’.
Other reasons or misaligned thought patterns?
Fear that my faith would really be shaken if God ‘didn’t provide’ like how I ‘expected’,
so it was easier just not to ‘test God’.
I felt like I dragged Kim into doing the WR instead of our 6 month “MicKim Adventure Quest 2014”, knowing it was longer (without an income) and more financially involved than she was anticipating, thus felt like she should be first to receive any financial support our mutual friends could offer.
I’m probably too prideful in my independence and professional achievements.
I get irritated by capable people (esp. 18+) who ‘mooch,’ even it was off their parents.
I didn’t want to say the wrong thing and be interpreted
as a ‘jobless bum’, trying to ‘work for food’ for a year.
THE REGRETS
I’m way behind in what I should have raised (As of today… I’m at 17%). I wasn’t obedient to the things God could have shown me from having been faithful from the start. I was selfish and didn’t invite anyone to be a part of what I’m doing, and instead, saving all the ‘significant moments’ of the trip, for myself. Little secret bonds between God and I.
I devoted the last 3.5 years at a firm full of incredibly wealthy people, jaguars parked outside, while I stroll up in my 2001, having seen 165,000 miles of toting around a girl, her coupons and thrift shop finds… or other’s whom she’s lent that car to, and their bear friend who needed a lift 😉 I could have humbled myself back in December and asked all the amazing people around me join in, some of which I imagine will NEVER FULLY understand the magnitude of the monetary wealth they ACTUALLY have compared to EVERYONE else in THE WORLD, yet would have probably donated something, anything, and maybe subscribed to my blog to understand the gravity of what they can be thankful for.
My fears of bringing ‘Christianity’ into a Jewish Accounting firm, where you don’t talk about religion or politics, were high on the radar, yet I had the opportunity to share and invite them to read my blogs etc and didn’t. All the bureaucratic red tape possibly surrounding it now, makes me feel like it’s going to be ‘too hard’ to try sharing with everyone there so late in the game. (Since writing this, I was able to invite a few co-workers to partner with me, and within minutes someone donated $120 and wrote an very encouraging email! Oh, the “Things We Said Today“)
Even in my church I was afraid to share, because I was a ‘new member’ and felt it was such a heathen activity that ‘real Christians,’ like my brother, would probably find ‘unacceptable’. If it weren’t for a side conversation in a small group that Jen Becker overheard, which then turned into a whirlwind of encouraging and supportive New Hope-ers asking for me to share, I wouldn’t have even done my talk at the church in December (as if I was fine just sneaking off for a year).
You’d think I would have gotten the “Holy Spirit *shoulder shake*” then…
I’m pretty stubborn though. I guess I need a lot of reverse reinforcement.
THE TRUTH
Someone I had never met, Ivanna, (rapidly introduced in my last blog), WANTED to get behind me in what I was doing. Despite my timid attempts to skirt through this year quietly, doing the WR bare minimum in regards to sharing and inviting other in, plus her own need to support raise (she’s leaving soon with her husband Ruben on another mission with Mercy Ships. More info HERE), she VISITED my blog, she NOTICED the changes in my funded status, she EMAILED me, and she WANTED to PARTNER with this FEMALE, SHORT-TERM, MISSIONARY.
Pew Pew Pew ….. *MIND BLOWN*
It took several years and God placing MANY people on the other end of the scale, to finally make me question what I really believe with regards to my ‘calling’ to be on The World Race. I guess I still don’t fully know where I stand on the nitty gritty with my theology on it yet, now that my understanding is shifting. As noted, my brother is smarter than I in various facets, and this could still be one of them; However…
What I do know? 1st – None of my trips have ever really been ‘vacations’. HA. A fellow WR (Brittany Nicole Dietzman) who recently finished her route, shared a quote that sums up my experience well.
“To the people that scoff at missionaries and humanitarian aid workers
for support raising to go to the far away places to reach the people that others
don’t dare go to and then have the audacity to say it’s a vacation…
I’d like to drop you off in a banana jungle infested with malaria mosquitoes
and typhoid water and see if you like being on “vacation” then.”
2nd – After years of serving and seeing positive impacts (yes, of course in myself too), and now having spent 6+ straight months of actually living this out, as well as realizing the countless number of respectable Christians around me from my Church, ministries I supported, and Squad mates who have unknowingly been speaking truth over the negative influences I had, I can say with certainty, “my time as a female, ‘short term’ missionary has had a far greater purpose than what I WAS doing with my life.” TRUTH-FACT.
I now plan to share, through this blog and with people I meet,
more intentionally about what’s gone on in my life in the world
and how God can use any of us, whether He ‘needs’ to or not,
so you can agree with this ‘Truth-fact’ too
If you’d like to help me tackle this fear of fund raising and skewed belief system, please prayerfully consider pledging one or more squares from my fun[d] board on my home page
THANK YOU!!
What about you?
What’s YOUR view on female missionaries?
Global missions? Support raising?
Short or Long-term Missions?
Please feel free to comment
