My family had the awesome privilege to host a missionary family in our home. This family is serving in Cusco, Peru through an organization called Mission To The World. Along with close to 20 guests, we heard about the challenges and victories inherent in the work of a missionary. We also learned that the only difference between us and them is location.
A Missionary Family Story
Let me first explain what they are doing so you can see the parallels.
My friends, husband and wife, are in the medical field. Mark is a certified physical therapist and Rachel, his wife, is a nurse. They have 5 children ranging in age from 4 to 14 years old. They began by selling all they owned and moving to Costa Rica for roughly a year. There they attended a language school to learn Spanish.
Cusco, Peru
From there, they moved to Cusco, Peru where they will live for somewhere between 5 and 10 years. They, along with several other American missionary families (including Mark’s twin brother David and his wife Brooke!), are operating a medical clinic in Cusco. In this clinic, they are providing for the physical needs of people that normally would not get quality healthcare. They are also attempting to meet the spiritual needs of the patients by praying and sharing Jesus with them.
In addition to the clinic, they are involved in getting to know students at the local medical university in Cusco. By doing life with these students, their hope is to teach them about the gospel and point them toward God. For those that come to know Jesus, the idea is to disciple them. This means showing them how to minister to the spiritual needs of their future patients while also meeting their physical needs.
End Goal
The end goal is to have a self-sustaining clinic ministry, run by native Peruvian medical professionals that are also mature disciples of Jesus. If God accomplishes this goal through my friends, they will feel free to leave this ongoing ministry in the hands of the people they have evangelized and discipled over their years in Peru. They then plan to go on to do the same thing somewhere else!
Steps To The Process
Now that you have a picture of their lives and purpose at this point, let me highlight the steps they described in their process:
- Establish a life among the people
- Build relationships with them
- Do life with them
- Sprinkle conversation with the gospel
- Be prepared to share the gospel
- Disciple them to do the same
- Go somewhere else and repeat the process!
Simple Process…For Us!
I am not sure why, but I pictured being a missionary to be something much more complicated and sophisticated. I also imagined it would be more formal for some reason. Instead, it really is a simple process. In fact,…
It is also an exact outline for you and me! Again, the only difference between their picture and ours is the location.
Folks, the call from God that is on the lives of my missionary friends is the exact same call that is on your life and mine. There is NO difference.
The Bible they read is the same one you and I read. The Great Commission and the Greatest Commandments are the same for us as they are for them. In case these have slipped your memory, here they are again!
The Great Commission
Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.
Matthew 28:19-20
The Greatest Commandment(s)
And one of them, an expert in the law, asked a question to test Him: “Teacher, which command in the law is the greatest?” He said to him, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and most important command. The second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets depend on these two commands.”
Matthew 22:35-40
A Missionary Wherever You Are!
Again, the only difference for us is that we may not be called to leave the country, state, or even our neighborhood. We may be called to stay exactly where we are. But even if this is true, we are still called to do the same thing they are doing. We are called to be a missionary wherever we are!
In my next post, we will break this process down and apply it to our lives. I hope you will pray in the meantime for God to open your heart to seeing your calling from a new perspective!
Is this idea new to you or something you have already recognized?
Where is your mission field?
If this is new to you, what do you need to do next?
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