Not much left when you tear it all apart
I wonder what it actually looks like to be a missionary. This is a very different question I believe than “what does it take to be a missionary”. Both are distinctly different in scope. Still, what is the “face” of a missionary I wonder?
I do not pretend to be an expert in any sense. However, in my few humble years I have crisscrossed the globe and met with missionaries of different shapes and sizes from Haiti to Cambodia, and from India to Ecuador. I grew up with my own parents being missionaries in northern Canada, and “hung out” with missionaries of every ilk in those growing up years. So, although I claim no “special knowledge” in this area, I have met one or two in my lifetime.
So, what does a missionary look like? As anywhere in the body of Jesus Christ, we are all different parts the same body, with Jesus himself being the head. So, in my understanding, it is as ludicrous to try to place a single definition onto “missionary” as it is to place one onto any functioning member of the body of Christ.
I have known and met missionaries who had very clean hands and a head full of translation work and meetings and
The clothes ain't clean, but the work is good
preaching. I have met missionaries who lived in nice houses behind compound walls. I have met missionaries down in the bottom of a septic tank, hand-bailing out the sludge which was clogging the outflow. I have met missionaries who were doctors and nurses. I have met missionaries who were mechanics and maintenance personnel. I have met missionaries who were office workers, housewives, cooks, dentists, international lawyers and aid administrators. In short, a missionary is as varied is the body of Christ itself. And that, I believe, is as it should be.
Like Paul said in 2 Corinthians 10:12b “When they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves, they are not wise”. As I understand this, if I insist on looking at others for the definition of my function in the body of Christ I am not wise, and indeed, very foolish.
All in little pieces
So, for me, at the present time, being a missionary means that I am covered from nearly head to toe with grease and working in the hot sun stripping down a tractor so that we can have a good working machine to develop the Bible Institute. This phase of the work will not be forever, but it sure enough occupies my time at present. When this is finished I am looking forward to “sinking my teeth” into clearing the rest of the landsite so that the development of the training center can continue.
For Theresa it looks different. She, needless to say, is not out tearing tractors apart or clearing land. She is working hard at language study and training women in our home in sewing and baking. She, quite honestly, is in her glory teaching sewing classes several days per week.
Last week she had the privilege of working directly with a woman who has just recently been released from prison, and whom I suspect has never had anyone willing to spend direct one-on-one time with her, honoring her as a person – a human being. She is still not a Christian (or a pre-Christian as some refer to it), but what better way is there to present the gospel? Isn’t that what Jesus is all about – loving others and giving of ourselves?
So, simply put, neither Theresa nor I fit the bill very well of a clean-handed and Bible toting missionary. My fingernails
Theresa with sewing class
tend to be a bit blackened of late, and there tends to be more than a little thread on the floor and sewing machines around the house. Others in the body of Jesus are actively preaching the gospel over the pulpit and visiting the sick, and doing it very well. We can leave that role to those who function better in it. I, for my part, don’t want to “measure myself by others and compare myself with them, and thereby become unwise. The outcome of this exercise can only be twofold; either one becomes overly impressed with himself and how he is so much better than others, or he becomes downright frustrated and discouraged because he feels that he does not measure up to the rest” (my own paraphrase of what Paul said in 2 Corinthians 10). On the other hand, I desire to function as I am made, and to be the part in the body of Jesus that he has made me to be.
On a wonderful note for those of you who have been praying with us for my dad’s health. He is doing much better, and it looks like he may very well be discharged from the hospital to go home sometime this week. Please do not stop praying as he is not out of the woods yet, but he is getting much closer to the edge of the forest. Thank you for your prayers.
Finished products
On a personal note concerning my dad’s recovering health – it looks like we will wait to return to Canada now until the beginning of July sometime as was originally planned. Of course, this still depends upon any negative changes in my father’s health, and/or our needing to be in Canada before this time.
Thank you for your faithfulness,
Steven and Theresa
