Missions Mindset

Last Friday night I had an opportunity to speak at an youth event at Ashburn Presbyterian Church.  The middle and high school students were participating in an event to raise awareness and funds to fight world hunger.  I was invited to come in and share about my own missions experience over the past few years.  God was so gracious to give me this time to reflect on and share about my trips to the Dominican Republic in 2013 and 2014 and my trip to Uganda over Christmas/New Year’s 2014-15 as well as my transition to ministry right here in Loudoun County with FCA. 

I started by sharing a little about myself, how I, too, grew up in Loudoun County with the same privilege and pressures that so many of them are dealing with now.  I then gave them basic background of the three overseas mission trips I have had the opportunity to go on, but instead of focusing on the day to day activities my team did while in the DR and Uganda, I shared a lot more about what I learned from those experiences.  Things that maybe seem so obvious to some of us but at the time were eye opening to me, like God is not American.  I was so humbled by how big and powerful our God is when I had an opportunity to worship him with people of different cultures.  I became so much more globally aware.  Flip through the channels or scroll through articles online and you can find sources talking about the challenges for people living in extreme poverty, but I had no context of what that meant until I saw it firsthand.  I gained a new boldness for sharing the love of Christ – if I could evangelize to complete strangers who speak a different language than I do, then surely I can find the courage to bring Jesus into conversations with my neighbors and friends. 

I also had a chance to share an abbreviated version of how God called me into ministry right here in Loudoun County, having a missions mindset, and about FCA’s mantra of Pray, Give Go.  I recommended the books Kisses from Katie by Katie Davis Majors and When Helping Hurts by Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert as resources to learn more about long and short term mission experiences.  I talked about International Justice Mission’s and World Vision’s websites that can direct you to pray for specific missions/people/groups all over the world.  I shared how they can become a Freedom Partner through IJM for $24/month or sponsor a child living in vulnerable situations around the world through Compassion International for $38/month.  And if, understandably, that’s a lot for a high school student's part time job to manage, I encouraged them to team up with a friend or two to go in on a partnership together.  We talked briefly about some right and wrong ways to do short term mission trips, with some levity brought in thanks to John Crist.  

Finally, I challenged them to see their lives right now – their schools, their teams, their neighborhoods, as the mission field that God has called them to for such a time as this.  Micah 6:8 says, “He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love kindness and to walk humbly with your God.”  I think we can all agree that we have plenty of opportunities to apply justice, kindness, and humility in our lives every day – whether we’re interacting with kids or coworkers, or sitting in traffic.  It was such a privilege to get to share with these students and I pray that God was able to use me to open their eyes just a little wider to the world outside of Ashburn, VA!