I have just returned from a Missionary trip in Panama City, Panama. It was a reminder for me of what being a Missionary is all about. You enter a foreign land with a different culture and way of living, not knowing anyone and sometimes not even the language! You leave all that is familiar behind, along with family, friends and your possessions (car, pets, furniture etc).
There was a short period of time when Art and I lived in the United Kingdom. There was a need in our Fellowship and Art and I responded and made the move. I didn’t know how to drive on the opposite side of the road and when I was in the car I had to sit in the back seat with my small children Alex and Valecia who were babies! Talk about an adjustment, I truly felt like a foreigner! I also had to adjust to using different currency and way of living.
But there was a loving Congregation who needed a Pastor and an Embassy who would not give us clearance to stay! People were praying and we were submitting letters from the Congregation but it was not enough. It was the hardest struggle not knowing where we belonged! We had left the Church we loved behind and were trying to transition forward, this was not easy and our hearts were torn! Then on Thanksgiving Day (in U.S.) the phone call came that Art’s father had passed away! With still no clearance from the Embassy we decided to return home.
What compels a couple to go to a foreign land and leave everything behind? It is their love for God and People!
1 Corinthians 6:20 MEV
You were bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.
When we receive Jesus as our Savior we no longer belong to ourselves, we surrender our lives to the will and service of the Father. And we do so because we are thankful for the life change!
Romans 12:1 NKJV
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.
This trip to Panama was a refresher for me! The hunger and openness of people wanting to be prayed for, wanting help, wanting change was amazing! It was also a reminder that there is still much work to do! There is still a whole world out there who has not had the opportunity to know Jesus as their Personal Savior!
Mark 16:15 NLT
And then he told them, “Go into all the world and preach the Good News to everyone.
So, whether you have the opportunity to go on a Missions trip or you are in your own city, there is still a world that needs to know Jesus! We cannot get comfortable and forget about others! My prayer is that we will all be more diligent to realize it is going to take each one of us to reach out and tell someone the Good News!