Missions

Hello everyone, I've been back in Cambodia for three months now. A lot has changed for the team, as well as for me personally. The Elephant English School has been temporarily closed due to lack of resources. It is our goal to have it back up and running as soon as possible, but at the moment we don't have a time frame. Currently our team is focusing on strengthening the core. In other words, we are focusing our time and energy into laying a strong Godly foundation at Heritage House as well as discipling local church leadership. My role in all of this is mostly that of an enabler. I spend most of my time, tutoring math and science (I also guest lecture in literature and social studies classes), cutting grass, running errands, teaching English at Heritage House, as well as teaching a martial arts class to some of the older christian boys in the city. I have found that the best way for me to serve orphans, and to reveal Jesus to this city, is as through humble service to the team with enthusiasm and compassion.

I have spoken to so many people who have the idea that the mission field is one gigantic church planting party, where church all-stars go to really serve Jesus. And ultimately, churches do get planted, and Jesus is glorified. However, the majority of the day to day life of a person on the mission field wont look that much different than a day to day life of a christian in the United States. In fact, I have found that I need to spend more time on the day to day life things here than I had to in the states. We have to grind beef with a butcher knife since there is no meat processor, we have to constantly chase rats out of the house. We have to dust and dust and dust from the dirty air in the dry season. And the HEAT! Oh, words cannot describe. It wears you down, and runs you ragged. By the time that all is said and done, the ministry opportunities that a person has here are the same ones you would have in the states. If I go out to eat, do I ask my waiter if he knows about Jesus? If I make a new friend in the city, do I give him a gospel track and follow up with him about it? Ultimately missions work is simply living a christian life, becoming formed into the likeness of Christ and sharing Him with all you meet.

If you are a Christian, no matter where you live, then it means that Jesus is important to you, that you are unashamed of Him, and that you recognize that without Him, each person that you meet could find themselves in hell before the sun rises again. So here is a challenge from a "missionary in the field" to the Christians at home. Love your God, and Love your neighbor. You don't have to live in a foreign country to share Jesus with someone. In fact, I have more of an excuse because I don't even speak the language!

In John Chapter 4 Jesus spoke to his disciples saying:

"I have food to eat that you do not know about."

So the disciples said to one another, "Has anyone brought him something to eat?"

Jesus said to them, "My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work. Do you not say, 'There are yet four months, then comes the harvest'? Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are white for harvest. Already the one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. For here the saying holds true, 'One sows and another reaps.' I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor."

Here we find Jesus speaking about the how important the will of the Father was to him. It was His very means of substance. It was the food that satisfied his hunger. Do you have a hunger for the will of God in your life? Our flesh so often tries to fill the hunger, but it never satisfies. What really strikes me out of this passage is that Jesus asked His followers to stop trying to reason things out and to lift up their eyes. Right then and right there! He did not say, go to such and such a place and look upon the fields, and He made a very clear point of the timing not being far off but that the time is now. Church, lift up your eyes! Look around you! Do not say that the harvest is four months away during your annual out-reach-athon. Lift up your eyes and SEE! See that the fields are white for the harvest!

One last thing, Jesus says, one sows and another reaps. There are two roles here. How often do you find yourself driving by fields of crops and see lines of workers on the sidelines, watching a few workers do it all? One sows and another reaps, there isn't one who watches. The only people watching is the world, and they are on the outside looking in. Don't think they aren't watching you. The world watches the Church closely. Let's get to work! Let's get our hands dirty! Let's serve one another, so that we too can join in the rejoicing of the harvest, as the sower and the reaper united by a glorious celebration.

We ask you, brothers, to respect those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you, and to esteem them very highly in love because of their work. Be at peace among yourselves. And we urge you, brothers, admonish the idle, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all. See that no one repays anyone evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to everyone. Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise prophecies, but test everything; hold fast what is good. Abstain from every form of evil.

Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it.

-1 Thessalonians 5:12-24