Becoming a Missionary

For the past couple weeks I’ve been going through orientation with a group called NMSI.  It stands for New Mission Systems International.  Their mission statement is to proclaim Christ and make disciples globally.  I’m really proud to call myself a missionary within this organization.

One of the books we’re reading is The God Ask which is a really good book on support raising but I do have one argument with it.  The author seems to make a distinction between ‘missionaries’ and other believers.  I don’t believe he does this intentionally but allow me to explain where I’m coming from.

When my friend planted a church 5 years ago and I walked alongside him in the whole process; one of the things we talked about a lot at first was creating the right DNA.  What he meant by that was what is going to be at the core of our church?  What do we want to be known for?  We landed on a few things, and one of those things was that we wanted our people to view themselves as missionaries.

It is something that has been missing in the context of Western Christianity for several decades at least.  The simple idea is that if you’re a Christian you’re a missionary.  It’s not just the people who go overseas to spread the gospel.  It’s for everyone.  If you work a ‘secular job’ you’re still a missionary.

Thankfully there has been a movement against that lately and I’ve been a minute part of that discussion.  Some of us want to see that everyone views themselves as a missionary in their own context.  This changes the discussion entirely, right?

One of the views that I came out of the 90’s with was that we as high schoolers were supposed to bring our friends to church.  While that is good, I think what we teach our high schoolers now is a much better model.  Perhaps our youth minister taught us this as well as I keep up with him on facebook and he seems to adhere to this same idea.  Our students are the youth ministers.  They need to minister to their friends and share the gospel with them.

It is our job as the adult to equip our students to be missionaries in their context.  If they’re a Christian, they’re a missionary.  I don’t believe in the idea of ‘vocational ministry’ for that matter.  Every job is a vocation when you look at it through the lens of everyone being a missionary in their own context.

It is our job as leaders to equip our flock to be effective ministers and missionaries to the people around them in their work lives and home lives.  Church is not relegated to 1 or 2 hours on a Sunday morning.  This was a belief that permeated the church in the West for a while and many people still hold on to this.

What many people have found though is the most effective and intense ministry happens outside the confines of a church building.  Discipleship happens just when you’re living lives with other people.  Even your friends who don’t believe yet, you’re discipling them even without realizing it.  Are you making disciples of Jesus or yourself?  It’s certainly something to think about.

Orientation and Good Food

Q: How do you get to know someone the best in the shortest period of time possible?

A:  Share a meal with them

The first night of orientation, maybe the second but it was early on at least; I had dinner at one of the missionaries’ homes from the Center for Global Outreach in Ft. Myers along with the other missionaries who have gone through orientation with me.  The host made Thai curry and it was absolutely delicious.  To wrap up Orientation we had dinner at Outback Steakhouse tonight.  We technically finish tomorrow but it will mainly be just debriefing things.

As many of my readers know, I love food.  I love good, quality food even more when it’s free.  Hence, between the first night of Orientation and tonight being the last, I’ve loved having some great food as I mentioned above.  For some reason, I seem to keep coming back to this topic of food on this blog.

It is a sincere belief of mine that food is sacred.  It sounds weird, but hear me out for a minute.  When you share food with someone, you are sharing something that binds all humanity together.  Christ and the Last Supper is a good reminder of this.  What did Christ do as one of His last teachings before He was crucified?  He had dinner with His friends.

There is just something special about sharing food with others, whether they are old friends or new ones.  Now, that is not to excuse gluttony which I am guilty of way too often.  Food should be enjoyed thoroughly though, just as long as it doesn’t lead to excess.  Perhaps this is a discipline I need to cultivate in my life – how to thoroughly enjoy food without going overboard.

Food has a way of bridging cultural differences.  This can be a difficult thing to accept.  If you travel much at all, you will undoubtedly have some times where you can’t believe people actually eat what is set before you and call it good.  That’s when you just have to swallow your cultural pride though and dig in.  In almost every culture it’s considered an offense if you don’t eat their food.  Even if it tastes terrible, you must learn to eat it and put a smile on your face at that.

With that being said, there are many times where you will eat a new food that will rock your world.  The first time I can remember this is when I was in Kenya and had chipati and Chai.  It was incredibly delicious.  They just kept feeding us as is their culture until we simply couldn’t fit anymore in our stuffed stomachs.  Another time was when I had ceviche in Lima, Peru.  I’ve had ceviche here in the states in  Chicago and it’s just not the same.  There’s something about eating a local dish in a hole in the wall that just has a certain ambiance to it.

Orientation has been good overall.  I really like NMSI as an organization and have enjoyed getting to know the missionaries.  As I shared with a couple people today, I think they could shorten it by several days but then I was told that part of the reason it’s 2 weeks is to build in some community time.  I’ve learned a lot about NMSI as an organization and feel really good about moving forward with them.  Now it’s just a matter of hustling and praying for God to bless me with the funding I need to head back to Myanmar as soon as possible!

Living in Limbo

For the past almost year now, I've been in a state of limbo.  In April of last year, I took a leave of absence from my day job due to health reasons.  In June I went to Myanmar for 3 months to volunteer at an entrepreneurship school.  In September I got back and had to make a decision as to whether or not I was going to go back to my regular job as a teacher.

At the time, I had planned and was sure I was going to Liberia to be with my girlfriend.  I was so sure that Samaritan’s Purse would hire me on as an intern to work there so I could be with Stef.  Well, the general internship turned into an accounting internship.  They obviously wanted someone with an accounting degree or at least something along those lines, not an elementary education degree.

Needless to say, that fell through.  My world was rocked.  What was I supposed to do now?  My girlfriend was coming home soon so I didn’t want to get a job and not be able to see her while she was here since we hadn’t seen each other in 6 months.

After much prayer and waiting upon the Lord, I decided to do a 6 month apprenticeship in Myanmar.  It was a natural fit really.  Now, I’m starting to raise support and build a team around me so I can head back over there.  Stef has started looking at possible jobs over there too so she can go over there after her contract ends.

I told Stef a while back it just seemed like I was coming to God asking the world.  She reminded me that God is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine.  I plan on marrying her on New Year’s Eve, even though I haven’t technically proposed yet. 

There is just so much up in the air right now.  I tried to sub back in the fall but my principal but a hold on my application for some reason.  As soon as I get back to Sarasota I’m going to try to meet with him to have that lifted so I can sub while I try to finish raising support.  In the meantime, I have to raise a little over $12,000 to finish out my support raising.

That’s an intimidating number to me for some reason.  I know many missionaries have to raise much more than that but that’s a pretty big number for me at this point.  I’ve done it all wrong in the past and not kept up with supporters very well.  Now I’m going with a really good organization and they’ll do a great job at keeping me accountable to staying in touch with supporters.

My parents were able to sell the house they owned in Sarasota, so as of March 21^st I’m not sure what I’m going to do for a living situation if I’m not already in Myanmar by then.  I have friends I could stay with I’m sure but I don’t really want to impose on them.

Did I mention my car was totaled and now I’m without transportation?  I’ve already spent close to $500 on a rental and don’t want to do that anymore.  I put out a thing on facebook in my church’s group page to ask if anyone had a car just lying around but unfortunately no one did.  Maybe I’ll make a status update about it on facebook for anyone in SRQ or Bradenton.

It just feels like I have a lot up in the air right now.  Like I said before, I’m ready to land.  My dad pointed that out to me a while back by the way.  I was expressing my frustration with my lack of direction and he said it just seemed like I had a difficult time finding a place to land after my round the world trip.  He’s absolutely right.

Long Distance and Loneliness

As most of you know, I’ve been in a long distance relationship for quite some time now.  We started our relationship in person and very shortly thereafter went to long distance when Stef moved back to Liberia.  Within a month I moved to Myanmar so we were really long distance in terms of communication. 

The internet isn’t the best in Myanmar so we weren’t able to Skype anymore.  I spent three months in Myanmar doing work that was more fulfilling than any I’ve ever done before.  It’s what I feel called to do with my life. 

However, during that time it was pretty tough not being able to Skype with Steffani.  We got by on emails every day.  There’s a certain nostalgia about writing love letters to your significant other.  It is certainly difficult after being able to Skype for a period of time.

I got back to the states in September and Stef was still in Liberia.  We were finally able to Skype again and we didn’t take it for granted.  In December, my beautiful girlfriend came to Sarasota and then we went jet setting to different places where our families live.  It was a wonderful time to reconnect in person and also to make sure we were on the same page with our relationship.

The only problem with that of course is when you have to get back to ‘reality’ so to speak.  Steffani had a job to get back to in Liberia and I had to figure out what I was going to do since I didn’t get the internship with Samaritan’s Purse in Liberia like we had both hoped for.  Now I’m fundraising in order to get back to Myanmar and praying she’s able to make it over there when she finishes her contract this upcoming summer.

I just want to be with her.  I know that sounds cheesy but it’s especially apparent on days like today, Valentine’s Day.  For one, I rarely have anyone to spend Valentine’s Day to begin with.  Now that I actually have a girlfriend on Valentine’s Day, we’re only able to Skype.

Yeah, it’s days like today where it’s tough in long distance relationships.  There are benefits to being long distance like not having nearly as much physical temptation (when you are together you’re surrounded by family and you know that’s not okay J ).  Overall though it’s really tough.  I would add here that our communication is probably better than the average couple because that’s all we have to get by on for now.

Sorry for the rambling.  It’s just hard on certain days to be away from the one you love, ya know?  I mean, it’s hard all the time but especially on lovey dovey days like today or other significant holidays or what have you.  The nice thing is we are less likely to take each other for granted when we do finally get to be together full time.

Pray over me

Today, as part of orientation at NMSI, the board prayed over myself and the other ones who were going through orientation.  For some reason, perhaps selfish, I've always loved being prayed over by others.  There's a power I feel when people pray over me, whether it's just one other person or a group like it was today.

In addition, yesterday I sent out a simple email to get to know how to use Mailchimp.  The subject of the email was straightforward enough, "Pray for me!!!" I think is what I put.  I got several responses last night and today of people who informed me they were praying.  Again, what a great feeling.

What I'm learning during my time here at orientation is that prayer is the most important aspect of support raising.  A friend calls it team building which I really like, but I'm going to be using the term support raising to avoid any confusion.  Team building is a great way to look at it though because you are developing a prayer team who can support you financially but some of them can only support you prayerfully, which is more important anyway.

Why in the world is prayer more important than finances?  Money makes the world go round, right?  Actually, God makes the world go round.  Hence why it's more important to get people praying for you first before you start raising support.

It was an honor and blessing to be prayed over by the board today.  Afterwards, I was seated next to a very sweet elderly woman who reminded me of my Grandma Browning.  She told me softly, "You will succeed."  Talk about a motivation speech!!!  This woman who has undoubtedly spent many, many years with the Lord prayed over me with the board and then assured me I would succeed!  Can I get some more of that please?! 

Needless to say, it was a great morning.  After lunch I had some stomach problems for some unknown reason, I went through my previous 24 hours of eating and couldn't identify anything out of the ordinary.  Although we did have lamb for lunch so maybe that caused it.  I went back home and took some pepto pills and then laid down and seem to be better now.

Well, if you're reading this blog and are a Christian, I would appreciate it if you joined my prayer support team.  If you didn't receive my first email but want to be added to that email list, send me your email in a message on facebook.

Thank you all for who you are and what you mean in my life.  I'm blessed by you all in countless ways!