Reflections on mission work....

Ever since I was very small, I have felt that God wanted me to be a missionary. But, recently I have really been thinking a lot more on it...

Why am I attracted to mission work? At times it is easy to be attracted to the thought of glamorous adventures, or perhaps to receiving fame as a missionary. Is that why I want to be a missionary, or do I really feel a burden for souls? Am I driven by the love of Christ for those which are lost? If my true passion is for the salvation of lost souls, then what action am I taking? If I feel a burden for lost souls over seas, then how can I ignore the lost souls around me? Everyday I meet people in the store or on the street who have not heard. Do I not care that they are destined to eternal punishment? God cares about these people too. Jonathan Goforth was a missionary to China in the late 1700s to early 1800s. He grew up in Canada and when about twenty years old he sensed God’s call to the mission field and he surrendered himself to the Lord. It was said of him that, “from that minute on, he was a missionary.” He did not wait to arrive in China to begin evangelizing and sharing the gospel. He was completely taken up in this work. All of his spare time, all of his efforts, and any spare money was put into distributing tracts, evangelizing in the slums, and praying for lost souls. William Borden once said, “Any day in which work is not done for Christ is wasted.” If I want to be a missionary, then am I a missionary now where I am?

Missionary life requires character. It means suffering, humility, denial of self. This life involves a life of prayer, complete surrender of rights to the Lord, uprooting of all pride, a spirit of service even when unnoticed. Sacrifice and an emptying of self are a daily exercise. I must learn to love the unloved, and those who seem hard to love. Am I preparing myself now for that kind of a life? Is that what I am expecting? Am I willing to pay that price? Am I practicing that life now? The life of a missionary really is just laying down your life for the lives of others. But this is never too much, it’s only what Jesus did. He is the ultimate missionary’s example. He never demanded his own way, he loved the unloved, and he sacrificed willing for a people who did not love in return. Jim Elliot said, “One does not surrender a life in an instant. That which is lifelong can only be surrendered in a lifetime.”
Jonathan Goforth’s wife, Rosalind, told about how much she had to adjust to Jonathan’s complete commitment and focus on the gospel. Her first lesson was as early as their engagement. She was from a rich family and he was from a poor family. She had been dreaming of the beautiful engagement ring she was soon to receive, but Jonathan told her simply. He had enough money to purchase it, but every spare penny he could get a hold of was used in the purchase of tracts, and other gospel literature, and would she wish him to waste money on a valuable ring when there were so many lost souls who must hear the gospel? It was a sacrifice, but only the first of a life of sacrifice. A missionary is not there by his own wishes or to satisfy his own desires. He is there to lay down his life for those he came to serve.
To be a representative of the kingdom of God means to live as Jesus would, and to empty myself of my own desires and wishes and take on the humility of a servant.

Missionary life is hard. Besides the character that a missionary must have, I must be fit and ready to take physical suffering as well. Weariness, hunger, illness, may be reoccurring struggles. I may have to face an angry mob, take beatings, or imprisonment. Would I be able to face the loss of a loved one, or even to surrender my own life? These are solemn thoughts indeed, but a missionary is not out to satisfy his own wishes and goals, but those of the Lord.
Adoniram Judson, a missionary to Burma in the early 1800s, demonstrated a right understanding of the hardships and sufferings of a missionary. The following is a letter which he wrote to the father of his beloved to ask for her hand in marriage:
“I have now to ask, whether you can consent to part with your daughter early next spring, to see her no more in this world; whether you can consent to her departure, and her subjection to the hardships and sufferings of a missionary life; whether you can consent to her exposure to the dangers of the ocean, to the fatal influence of the southern climate of India, to every kind of want and distress; to degradation, insult, persecution , and perhaps a violent death. Can you consent to all this for her and for you; for the sake of perishing, immortal souls; for the sake of Zion, and the glory of God? Can you consent to all this, in hope of soon meeting your daughter in the world of glory, with the crown of righteousness, brightened with the acclamations of praise which shall redound to her Saviour from heathens saved, through her means, from eternal woe and despair?”
Though now times are different, and I may not face all the dangers that may have been faced in the early 1800s, I must be aware that a life over seas is one not without suffering and pain.

Isobel Kuhn— “I believe that in each generation God has ‘called’ enough men and women to evangelize all the yet unreached tribes of the earth….Everywhere I go, I constantly meet with men and women who say to me, ‘When I was young I wanted to be a missionary, but I got married instead.’ Or… some such thing. No, it is not God who does not call. It is man who will not respond!”