Living faithful, fruitful and fulfilled on the mission field
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It is easy to get busy with life. Where do you buy cooking gas? In some countries, it can be quite a process. First, you need a special government-issued card, which you wait in line for hours to get. Then you have to find the particular shop where they sell it. That shop may be out of gas this week and send you to a different one in yet another unknown location. Google maps has no idea how to get there, nor do you! Your day is filled just meeting the basic needs of your family.
Sound familiar?
Staying focused on your mission can be challenging. Our families have needs that must be met. Children want friends, and so do we. Language learning slows us down from feeling we have much capacity for ministry.
This is hard but is not the greatest threat to fulfilling your God-given calling. What is? Let’s call it the missionary bubble. We need to recognize the bubble and break out of it.
Missiologist Donald McGavran wrote years back about the homogeneous unit principle. It’s somewhat controversial in church growth circles today for a few obvious reasons. It can seem a bit discriminatory at first glance. The principle contains some truth, however.
We humans like to be with others who are the same as us. We identify with those who share our culture and worldview. It is easier to be with these people and is more relaxed and comfortable than when interacting cross-culturally.
Because of this, missionaries tend to create “missionary bubbles.” Westerners create playgroups for their kids to get together and have fun. Koreans meet up with other Koreans to pray, share meals, and speak their own language. These are not wrong things to do. They can even be good for our emotional health and sustainability.
It becomes a danger, though, when we bond more closely with other foreigners in the country than we do with local people we want to reach. Or, when we spend the majority of our time with other missionaries rather than investing in relationships with nationals.
When we moved to India from Nepal, our children needed friends. The girls spoke decent basic Nepali already, but our son was only three. The city we moved to was multi-lingual. Hindi, Bengali, Nepali, English, and other languages were spoken. We decided to home-school our kids there.
Meeting the few other foreigners in our location, our kids were thrilled to have a chance to play with them. They didn’t have to worry about their toys being broken or stolen with these children. The language wasn’t an issue for them or me. It was fun to get together.
Looking for a church, we were a bit confused about what to do. Our kids didn’t speak Bangla or Hindi and we were still learning. Eventually, we found a church that had an English service where a handful of foreigners met. The missionary bubble at that time was small in our city, and fairly easy to avoid. There simply weren’t that many cross-cultural missionaries there. In many ways, it forced us to press into local relationships more.
Chaing Mai, where we now live, is different. There are thousands of foreigners living here! Our city has three or four English churches complete with a children’s program and youth group. This location has many international schools as well – filled with missionary kids. It is very easy to be absorbed into the missionary bubble here!
There are Bible studies to go to, kid’s events, tutorial groups, prayer meetings, playgroups…you name it. On top of that, most people also have their own mission meetings to attend. Without realizing it, our lives can grow full of events where we spend most of our time with other Christian foreigners.
We study the Thai language, and may chat with our neighbor or the taxi driver, but have few Thai relationships of depth and substance.
This is quite common here. No blame or condemnation intended. It’s the natural flow of things. Without resistance to this trend, it is just what happens. The missionary bubble is very good at sucking us in.
Your situation may be more like mine was in India, or more like mine now. Regardless, be aware of the natural tendency to drift into the missionary bubble (however small or big) and take steps to prevent its pull.
Language learning is an almost never-ending process. Like me, you may have starts and stops. Keep pressing forward. Step, by steady step. Eventually, if you don’t give up, you will learn to speak and understand. The main thing is to be consistent and keep moving forward.
Use what you do know whenever you can. Learn power phrases so you can ask questions like “How do I say _____________?”
Pause your busy life and do an assessment log for a few days. How many hours are you giving to doing what you came to do in missions? Where could you squeeze in more time for local relationships and language practice in the community?
Think synergy. Is there an event I currently do with other foreigners that I could do with local people? Could you give up a mission prayer meeting to attend one at a local church? Any other changes you’d like to try?
In my missionary life, I’ve seen that friendships are a blessed gift from God, whether foreign or national. Make them a matter of prayer. Ask God to bring people into your life through divine appointments. Be on the lookout for those people He is releasing, even those not yet believers.
Give time to local relationships. These are the people who will not move away when their term is over. They will guide you and help you adapt and navigate things in your host country.
May I give a small challenge here?
This is a hard one. As a mom and grandma, I get it. We want our kids to be happy. When they are uncomfortable, we are uncomfortable…even pained. Being uncomfortable never killed anyone. In fact, it can grow character in our lives.
In the long run, if you are planning to make missions a career in the nation you are in, your kids will do better if they push through. If they learn to adopt your host nation as their own, they will settle well. As they become comfortable in the language and cultural environment, they will thrive. If they do not, this will always be an issue for you. It could perhaps even cause you to return home prematurely.
Kids are super resilient. They can learn the language fast. Much faster than we do. Encourage them to have local friendships, help make that happen for them. Set up playdates not only with foreigners but with nationals. Go to the park and play football with the local kids and men in the evenings.
It may be uncomfortable at first, but the benefits are huge!
What will you do this next few weeks to break out of your missionary bubble?
Let me know in the comments below or drop a comment about it on the Missionary Life Facebook group.
Paul Akin, of the Gospel Coalition, writes this. “The most common reason missionaries go home isn’t due to lack of money, illness, terrorism, homesickness, or even a lack of fruit or response to the gospel. Regretfully, the number one reason is a conflict with other …
I was reading through an old journal as I worked on a book I hope to publish one day. I came across this poem. It was written when we were trying to purchase land in India for a widow’s home. Things had been tough. The …
Sometimes our greatest transformation comes out of the moments of our deepest grief. Recently, YWAM around the world was rocked by the tragic news that eight key leaders were killed in a horrible bus accident. Our hearts go out to the families and staff who served under these significant leaders. Unexpected tragedies like this can shake us deeply. I’ve felt that shaking, cried those tears, and seen God work deeply. Below is that story.
From 2001-2004, my closest colleague in YWAM Frontier Missions work was an Indian lady named Dengziki. She was from Mizoram. We had led many trainings together in our city as we were releasing new church planting teams. Her greatest passion was to see North-east Indians released into the nations, with a special focus on China.
I was her leader, but she was like my right arm. We were a team. Together we had birthed a new training program for missionaries and sent more than fifteen people from India into China. They were serving there long-term.
One day, I was working with people in the slums, where we’d started a new branch of the ministry. My husband called my cell phone. “Something has happened to Dengziki,” he said. “It’s serious. You need to go immediately to the hospital.”
I jumped on the scooter and headed for the government facility, about fifteen minutes away. When I arrived and made inquiries, they took me into a room filled with people on cots.
They led me to a bed where I saw a body lay with a sheet over it. It was my friend. She was already dead.
Unspeakable shock and grief filled me. I was stunned. Alone and trying to grasp the reality of what had happened, my leadership skills in crisis kicked in. Suppressing my emotions, I began to make calls and arrangements. We would need to contact family and find out what was necessary for her funeral.
The details of what had happened began to fill in. She had been killed in what seemed like a needless accident. An army truck hit the autorickshaw she was riding in. She lay by the side of the road with a severe head injury for an hour or so before being transported to the hospital.
There was no ambulance or emergency care in our city to respond. No 9-1-1 to call. Her niece who was with her was also injured but not as severely.
Someone finally brought her to the hospital in a private vehicle. She died shortly after arriving there.
Before we could grieve, we had to fight with hospital officials to let us preserve her body. We would need time to get it home to the state of Mizoram, where she was from. The procedures we requested were different from what was normally done. Hindus cremate, but we needed the body preserved for a few days.
We contacted her family and made arrangements for the transport of her body back to a small city in her home state. This was where she was from and would be buried.
I and several others rode in the car with her body on an arduous 36-hour trip over terrible roads. On the way, we stopped in several places to rest and for short memorial services. Finally, we buried my dear friend in her hometown. I was devastated and completely exhausted.
Returning to our home in Northern India, I felt angry and deeply saddened. I was confused by what had happened. Just days before she died, our whole staff “family” had gathered for a day of intercession and prayer. We had specifically asked God to protect us as God’s servants in this city.
“How could this happen?“ I wondered.
My work in ministry came to a complete halt. I had no interest whatsoever in sharing the Gospel with anyone…or doing anything that involved extending myself in any way.
“How are we ever going to survive without her, in the work here?” I asked. It felt as if my right arm had been cut off.
I knew I needed to rest, and give myself time to process the pain and the deep questions I had. I would take some days off, recuperate, watch some movies, and do nothing, I thought. Then I remembered her tiny face.
The face belonged to little Khushi, a baby we had found while weighing kids in the slums a week or so before Dengziki’s death.
Khushi means happy in Hindi. Her face and smile would fulfill her name and bring us much joy. At seven months old she weighed only seven pounds. This was barely a normal weight at birth!
Severely malnourished, she was like a bag of bones covered in skin. We found this precious child while going door to door. Weighing children from birth to age three was one of our ways of blessing the slum community.
Khushi’s mother and the other relatives in the compound seemed not to care if she lived or died. Another mouth to feed…another baby girl.
It had seemed incomprehensible to me when we first found her. How could they allow an infant to get into such a bad condition? Her skin was loose, her eyes sunken, and she could barely lift her head.
Yet she had these amazing eyes that connected with you when you looked at her. She was way below our lowest numbers on the growth charts we used to show malnutrition.
Before Dengziki’s death, we had helped the family by providing baby formula. We gave them a couple of bottles and tried to assist, doing what was needed to improve her condition.
But her mother seemed to show little interest, and her father was always at work. A few days after our first contact with Khushi, her mother abandoned her and the family. She left this precious girl in the care of her 14-year-old auntie, a girl named Maya.
One morning, a few days after returning home from Mizoram, despite my grief, I kept thinking about this baby.
“If I don’t go to check on her, I wonder if she will die? I wonder if her family is feeding her or not?” Questions like this wouldn’t go away.
“I’ll just go and look in on her, then come straight home,” I thought. “After that, I’m not doing anything else. I need rest after what I’ve been through.”
When I went and examined little Khushi, she had lost even more weight. She could not afford to do that!
“I have to do something to help this little one,” I told myself. I called my husband, described the situation, and asked, “Do you think I should bring her home?” He agreed to pray, and that night, when we sought the Lord, we sensed this was what God wanted us to do.
We approached Khushi’s father Ritlal. “How would you feel about us taking her into our home for a while?” we asked.
Explaining the seriousness of her condition, we told him he would be welcome to come and see her anytime.
“After she is better, she can come back and live with you again,” we said. He gratefully agreed. That led to a trip to the local courthouse with a lawyer friend. She helped us draw up the papers to gain legal custody of Khushi.
After bringing her home, Khushi became the center of our lives for a while. Everyone in our family (and extended family) pitched in to help! Our two daughters, our female staff members, even our 9-year-old son joined in caring for this starving baby. My husband Todd, an absolute natural as a Dad, was a huge help. He carried the load as much as I did.
It was a lot of work. The first week her stomach was unable to absorb anything she ate. It all came back out. She was starving though and took in bottle after bottle of milk formula.
We loved her, held her, sang to her, slept beside her, and prayed over her. “Live little one,” I gently admonished as I cradled her.
The funny thing about Khushi was she smiled all the time those first few weeks. It was how she communicated with us, I guess. She was too weak to do anything else. Her huge grin and those tiny eyebrows that went up quizzically were how she told us she was there…fighting for her life.
After a week, I took her to a local pediatrician. “Whatever you are doing, it’s starting to work,” he said. He showed me the tiny bits of fat beginning to come on her cheeks. Yes! Progress! The love and prayers were working!
After two weeks, her father came to visit her.
“She likes bananas,” we had told him. From then on, whenever he came, he visited with a big bunch of bananas in hand. He loved his little girl, he just couldn’t care for her and work twelve-hour days at the factory.
“Can I bring the rest of my family to see her?” he asked. “Sure,” we said, little realizing that in an Indian family that could mean more than 20 people would visit!
That very night they came…all the relatives. His brothers and their wives, his sisters, an auntie, and a neighbor, all filed in to see the amazing change in little Khusi. She was already like a different baby, able to hold up her head, and showing signs of recovering.
We explained to them why we loved Khushi. It was because of the love Jesus had shown to us. The SatGuru (True Teacher) Jesus, had taught us to love our neighbors as ourselves. That meant that we needed to feed the hungry, care for the weak, and help the helpless.
Our next step was to show them the Jesus film. This was followed by an evangelistic film in Hindi made by Create International.
I think they would have stayed all night! You could see the interest and hunger in their eyes as they watched and heard the message of the gospel for the first time.
A week later, Khushi’s father, Ritlal, came once again with bananas in hand, to see his little girl. He told us, “When you first came to our home and began to share with us about your Jesus, I wasn’t interested. Why should I add one more god to my life?” I was interested to hear what he would say next.
“As Hindus, we already have so many gods. But I saw these past three weeks, how much you love my little girl. You love her as if she were your own child though you have no reason to. From this, I know that the Jesus you speak of is the true God. I want to become a follower of Jesus!”
We took time to explain more of the gospel to him, to make sure he truly understood. Reviewing why Jesus had come to earth, his salvation, love, and plan, we confirmed that he knew what this meant. Then Khushi’s dad prayed and received Jesus as his Savior.
We had little idea how the simple act of obedience and love in bringing Khushi into our home would affect our lives. It not only changed us, but it also brought transformation to the community in which we had begun to work.
“Isn’t it strange,” I pondered. “I was able to help Khushi, but she helped me even more.”
Whatever tragedy you are facing now, or in the future, God can turn it into Kingdom transformation. Grief and suffering are not something we can avoid in this life, but He can use them for His glory as we place our trust in His amazing love and goodness. Today Khusi loves Jesus and has just completed her YWAM Discipleship Training School. To God be the glory!
The above is an excerpt from my memoir. Find out more about it and be notified when it is released by filling out the form below.
Is the Sabbath something we need to observe today? Didn’t Jesus ignore the Sabbath and do ministry on that day? Isn’t every day holy now? These questions about the Sabbath run through our thoughts. Why take Sabbath anyhow? Maybe when you think of Sabbath you …
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Sabbath is a day for rest and intake. I try to do things that will refresh and renew my soul. One of these for me is listening to audiobooks. Recently, I’ve been listening to a book called More of God by R.T.Kendall. Something struck me as I read yesterday. He spoke about how many of us want more from God instead of more of God. I’ve been rolling that around in my mind the last few days.
Similarly, when it comes to ministry, we need to shift from working for God to working with God.
I’ll admit it. I’m a doer. I like to work hard and get things done. It’s my personality and the way God designed me. Satisfaction comes when tasks get completed and I can tick things off my to-do list. Not everyone is like that. My husband is completely different in this regard.
It’s good to know yourself and how your unique personality works. Then you can develop your strengths and compensate for your weak areas. Those who are doers like me, need to be careful about certain things. We can become too task-oriented and not pay attention to the people around us, focusing only on getting things done. But another key thing, and what I want to focus on today is the danger of working for God instead of working with God. The first can lead to exhaustion. The second leads to fruit and life.
Much of our personality is formed by how we were raised. Other factors contribute, like our parent’s personalities and the genes we inherited. Both of my parents are doers. I grew up with lists of my childhood chores tacked onto the refrigerator. When I completed all I was supposed to do, I’d get a gold star or sticker on my list.
My mom used this to motivate and teach discipline. Nothing wrong with that. I did the same (though to a lesser degree) with my kids.
“Get your work done, then you can go outside and play,” was the mantra at our house.
As a missionary kid in Liberia, going outside to play was pretty appealing! I had an amazing treehouse, a monkey, rabbits, parrots, and even a pangolin to play with if I got my chores finished. But work came first. And work was what I was rewarded for.
The impact of this on my adult life has been positive in many ways. I know how to press through my own laziness or emotional weakness and get things done. It’s served me well.
Where I run into trouble is when I work to finish my list, pushing forward in my strength rather than checking in with the Holy Spirit. I need to know if my list is even what He has in mind for me that day! It’s easy to get busy working hard on my projects, instead of prioritizing what is most on God’s heart that day. Or month. Or even a year.
Many years ago the Lord spoke to me about asking for His assignments each day. There is nothing wrong with having a list and being productive. But we need to check in with the Holy Spirit often. His priorities need to be ours….every…single…day. What does God want you to do today?
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
Matt 11:28-30
1. When Stress Levels Rise and Refuse to Fall
Nothing angers a goal-oriented person more than an obstacle in the way of accomplishing their goal. Frustration mounts. Anger towards the person or barrier rises within. Sometimes anger turns inward. We get mad at ourselves for not being able to complete the tasks at hand. All these things lead to stress and burnout.
We are carrying the tasks wrongly. God may be in them. He may even have asked you to do those things. But when you strive and struggle to do them apart from Him, anxiety will go through the roof! The temperature gauge on your soul rises, as on a thermometer, someone left in the hot sun.
Stress is normal. If we live life, we will encounter some levels of stress. Ongoing stress that never drops to normalcy is not God’s plan for us. It’s a sign that we are carrying tasks wrongly. We are not letting God carry the load but are striving in our own strength.
2. When Identity Gets Tied to Our Accomplishments
We must remember that the work we do as missionaries is His, not ours! He gets the glory and He is in charge of the outcomes. Our job is to listen and obey. We are to be faithful, to steward the resources, talents, and guidance He gives.
Sometimes people ask me what it takes to launch a movement of disciples. It takes a sovereign move of God, I always answer. Though there are best practices, and many things we can do, it is up to Him. God must move.
When we start to claim the glory for results, or when we feel ashamed at our lack of them, we know we’re in the wrong place. Shame tells us something as does pride. Remember, it’s God’s work, not ours!
3. When We Are Unable to Change Course
Sometimes God changes direction. Are we able to follow Him when He does? This can happen with long-range things or in the course of a day. Someone shows up at your door needing help. Can you respond? Or are you already scheduled so tight you don’t have time to even ask God what He wants you to do?
Many of the most fruitful people I’ve observed are those who are extremely receptive to the leading of the Holy Spirit every moment. They have schedules, but those timetables are flexible. God is free to interrupt them any time!
4. When Joy Disappears and Drudgery Surfaces
Ever feel like you are on a treadmill and can’t get off? The pad you are walking on is moving and if you stop, you’ll fall off. So you keep going and going and going…unable to take a break. It feels like you never quite catch up. The machine of life only accelerates, no matter how weary you become.
You preach and you teach. You prepare messages, but the life is gone. It’s not much fun anymore.
Oh, believe me, I’ve been there. No condemnation from me! But it can’t stay that way. Recognize what is happening and take action. That leads to the next point.
5. When Time Off Feels Like a Waste of Time
Many Global South Christian leaders and missionaries don’t know how to stop working. Sabbath is a concept they think is only for Westerners. Don’t fall into that trap. God designed it, it’s for you!
Do you find it hard to rest, to relax? This may be a sign that you are working for God more than with Him. God took rest. He wants us to do the same. It’s His design.
If you saw any of the above signs in yourself, would you pray this prayer with me today?
Lord Jesus, thank you that your yoke is easy and your burden light. I love to work for you, God. But even more than that, I want to work with you. Lead me today. Show me what your priorities are, and how to go about the tasks before me. I want to do things in your way, in your time and with your strength and anointing. Forgive me for getting off course and striving to do things apart from you. Lead me today and restore to me the amazing joy of working with you on your Kingdom tasks. For your glory and for your praise. Amen.
A beautiful story is told in the movie Fly Away Home. It is about a young girl who raises a flock of geese. She is there when the goslings hatch. Thinking she is their mother, the growing birds follow her around everywhere she goes. This …