My husband and I are unlikely missionaries.
What if I told you that we were going to spend the next 12.5 years in the mission field? Here is the description of this serving opportunity.
We will be spending countless hours ministering to the lost, broken, homeless, drug dealers, addicts, johns, prostitutes, abandoned children, mentally ill and many who do not know Jesus in a place that is dark, dangerous and scary at times.
We will be pulled away from our family and spend exhausted amounts of time away from them and each other and supporting others who find themselves without family or friends.
Our marriage will be challenged and tested, our children may resent us for the time we put in with other people and not them and at times emotional, spiritual and physical exhaustion will set in.
We will not get a salary for 5.5 years of being in this mission field and for the rest of our time one of us will receive the amount equivalent to less than minimum wage.
We will put our family home on the line to sign a lease with no guarantee support, we will use our savings for first and last months rent and to get utilities started.
We will be given a vehicle to drive 7 years into serving which will help us get to and from the mission field but it will come at a cost. People we are serving to always be able to get a hold of us no matter where we are because it has our mission filed address on it and people who donate their leftovers will turn our families home into an extension of the mission field because the vehicle will help them know where we live. This means we never truly leave our mission field.
We worry about taking this on fearful that we will burn out but we don't worry about it because we know that when missionaries come back from the mission field they go through a time of debriefing and time away to make sure they are cared for spiritually because of the toll the years of this work can put on a person.
This was the missionary positions we took on, excited to do what God asked us to.
My husband and I are unlikely missionaries. Our mission field wasn't across the world but in our backyard. We do not pretend to compare ourselves to the missionaries who put their lives on the line each and every day and we are grateful for a God who works everything out for good. Our experience has left us concerned for others.
We worry about other unlikely missionaries who do not receive that title but that suffer from similar physical, spiritual and emotional exhaustion and need debriefing and retreat to be spiritually healthy.
We wonder about those who day after day go into the local trenches to love in so much brokenness.
If you know a local missionary who gives so much of themselves to others but may not have the title we ask that you not only support them financially when they do the hard job of asking but that you do your part to love them well when they decide God is moving them on. Ask them how they are doing and what their needs are outside of their mission field. Bless them with time away for fun with their families who often don't see them due to long hours away. remind them that its okay to take time away and help support them to do that so they do not feel financially burdened by it. When their mission field is in their backyard it becomes even more difficult to refuel because they are still surrounded by it. They didn't leave it in another country so it is not something that simply remains in their heart it is something they still feel connected to because it is in their backyard.
Don't overlook the mission fields and those who work in them right here all around us. Offer them the same care required when they return home after serving as you would someone who served overseas. Love them well, the Kingdom needs hearts like theirs, remember the workers are few.
My husband and I are unlikely missionaries, but still missionaries in an all too often overlooked mission field. Our hearts are searching for ways to help support others ,I pray yours is too.
