You don’t become a missionary by raising money and flying to a foreign country. You do it by being obedient to God. Tell people about Jesus where you live. Get out of your comfort zone. Sell something precious and apply it to your debts. Make a sacrifice. Develop better friendships. There is an old saying: “Dress for the job you want, not the job you have.” While this is not to be taken literally in this sense, (please, don’t start wearing the national garb of the country you want to go to just yet). However, somewhere in the process, we have to make a conscious decision that there is no going back.
Dan and Joy West have had a rich missionary career, yet at a time in their career when they might be tempted to stay in their comfort zone, Dan and Joy are starting over.
More than 30 years ago, the last evangelical church in the municipality of Bergen, Netherlands, closed its doors, leaving no evangelical witness for two generations. But a small yet passionate group of Christians believed God for a miracle in their community.
For most of his life, one of missionary Rich McLane’s passions has been hunting. His wife Lori enjoys playing the trumpet. When they became missionary church planters in Poland years ago, who would have guessed these passions would converge to reach more than 120,000 hunters throughout the country?
While on the field, missionaries find themselves in unique situations and sometimes, a quick text or a brief phone call is all that is afforded in any given moment. I was reminded recently of an incident that may have just been a bit of a “communication breakdown.” Perhaps my experience can help you in your relationships and in your communication skills.
Almost everyone who has attended church has had a card handed to them by a missionary at some point. You know, the picture card with the missionary family smiling on the front and details of how to contact and support the missionary in their country of calling. We affectionately call them “prayer cards” because as missionaries, our heart’s desire is that you’ll pray for us every time you see one. We keep all of ours that we have collected on our refrigerator. This has created a large, colorful piece of art- a collage of some of our best friends on the planet.
From the start of 2017, one of our churches in the northernmost German province of Schleswig-Holstein had been averaging about 160 attendees for their Sunday morning services. The pastor and the church leadership team were not satisfied with the status quo, so they decided to take part in our CBI church transformation training which started in their region the end of January 2017.
