(From Melissa, former MCN mission partner to Hungary and Ethiopia)
“I really first knew I was going to be a missionary when I was in college and returning home from my first short-term trip, and I had the thought, ‘If I don’t tell these people that they’re saved through Jesus, then who will?’ I knew the number of people who had any kind of active faith was limited, leaving a gap between the people who really needed this message and those who even had the ability to share it, and I felt so deeply that these people needed this message because it’s the message that literally makes the difference between life and death. And who else was there to tell them?
“What if I’m the closest chance this person ever has to meet Jesus? It’s when I keep that thought in mind that it makes it more clear about what I’m doing here, why and how I need to live my life. There’s a sense of urgency in that.
“As an ambassador of Christ, we represent Him, we follow His direction for us, and that means living our lives in a way that may cause questions among those around us because it’s against the cultural norms. And that’s challenging, it’s uncomfortable, it’s even painful. As a missionary abroad, I feel this all the time, knowing that I’m constantly making some sort of faux pas that I didn’t even realize was a thing, and it’s so often in these moments that I’m reminded that this place isn’t my home.
“We have to engage the world around us. Wherever it is doesn’t matter because ultimately this world is not our home. Having faith in Jesus automatically signs us up for a ‘leaving home assignment.’ God has appointed us to bring His message to the world, and if not us, who else is going to do it?”
