Missions Motivations

I was thinking recently of how our family has been increasingly surrounded by missions and misisons minded people. It seems to me that this is but providence granting familiarity and greasing the tracks that we may likely be led along a similar path. Here is some of what we have been surrounded by:

As a teen I was very moved by the story of Jim & Elizabeth Elliot. Jim's famous & prophetic quote has been one of my favorites ever since; "He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose."

My parents felt a call to missions and for several years were involved in a very humble, self-sacrificing, and precious ministry to kids in our own town through a teen center. Many kids heard the gospel there and many experienced the love of God.

When my family and I moved back to Michigan in 2004 our neighbors across the street were the Tompkins, a Dr. and his wife who is a nurse practitioner. As this couple had moved in not too long before we did, we began looking for a church together.  We got to know and love the Tompkins who, all the while were planning to become involved in missions. Only a few years later they moved overseas to an impoverished part of the world for medical missions.

During the last few years since my introduction to the ministry of John Piper and Desiring God I have been dramatically impacted by Pipers teaching on missions. I've been especially moved and impressed by his biographical messages on the lives of missionaries like John Paton, Adoniram Judson, David Brainerd as well as the other biographies.

For years I had been hearing my mom reporting stories of and seeing the photos from her many mission trips with Vision Outreach International to places like Honduras and Borneo.

In early 2006 I had the opportunity to go with Vision Outreach International on a medical mission to Honduras. I learned not to underestimate the ministry that happens to those who go on mission trips as I was deeply ministered to during this trip.

Later in 2006 I had the privilege of going with a few men from our church on a mission trip to a small Bible College in Barberton, South Africa. Words simply cannot do justice to what happened to me there. I consider this trip to have been very instrumental in my appreciation for missions.

I have encountered friends from our current church who are very mission focused. One couple in particular have been planning for years to become missionaries in a Muslim country. They fully intend on being in the country within the next several years. It is a hope and a possibility that a few other families may join them.

We have met several dear people from our church who were children of missionaries and who grew up in foreign countries.

An extended family member of some friends at our church came and spoke about his family and friends who will, likely this year, be moving into a Muslim country for missions. This too was a powerful experience.

Last but definitely not least are a few passages of Scripture which have been opened up to me more recently than ever:

Rom 15:20 and thus I make it my ambition to preach the gospel, not where Christ has already been named, lest I build on someone else's foundation, Rom 15:21 but as it is written, "Those who have never been told of him will see, and those who have never heard will understand."

Php 3:8 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ Php 3:9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith-- Php 3:10 that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, Php 3:11 that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.