Being a Missionary Starts Where You Are!

[featured_image]I really want to help Christians understand this. I want to help them to live on mission with Jesus right where they are. You don’t have to go overseers to be a missionary. You can live as a “sent one” in your neighborhood.

You can imagine how surprised I was yesterday to hear about an 8 year old girl who really understands this! Here’s what happened…

Maribel always greets me with a smile and tells me she is so happy to see me again. She serves in the cafe at the Indian Wells Resort where we hold our annual Missionary Church Western District Conference. I think I first met her six years ago in 2006 when the conference location moved to the desert.

One of the things I appreciate about Maribel is her genuine heart to serve others. And also her love for Jesus. If you ever meet her, you will see the same thing!

Yesterday, as my friend Phil Graf and I were reconnecting in the cafe, Maribel came to say goodbye to me. I introduced her to Phil a little earlier and explained that we were both missionaries. She was curious about where Phil had lived overseas. And then she told us…

“My daughter wants to be a missionary!”

Of course Phil and I were very excited to hear that her 8 year old daughter was wanting to be a missionary somewhere overseas. As we started to speak – Maribel cut us off and said,

“No. She doesn’t want to be a missionary overseas. She wants to be a missionary in our neighborhood.”

Phil and I started to get even more excited. This eight year old bi-lingual girl recognized that she was called to be a missionary right where she lived.

As I reflected on this important understanding that she had of being a missionary where you are, I wondered why it seems so hard for Christians to grasp this reality that they’ve been sent as missionaries with the power of the gospel to those in the culture around them.