The Heart of Missionary Work

All Children Hold a Special Place In God's Heart

We are called to care for the orphans

See the world through the eyes of children

Every child deserves to laugh and smile

Local Missionaries in our Neighborhoods
Not all missionaries work in foreign countries. If you have the desire to be a missionary but see no way of going to a foreign country don't despair. We can do the work of a local missionary right in our own country. How so you ask? It is very simple. You can actually enter a foreign land right inside the neighborhood you live in. In one neighborhood you may find dozens of different cultures and nationalities. Also many foreigners move to the USA everyday fleeing war torn countries, often leaving behind some or all family and friends with just the clothes on their back. 

The children are often orphans, the ones hurt the most needing to be nurtured and cared for because of the damage done to their little minds and heart. Love is a healing balm that can bring their little smiles back. There may be some orphans like this in need of love right in your very own neighborhood, some have single parents that are focused on making a living and lack the skills or desire to love and nurture their own children.  Even some of the adults have orphan spirits meaning they never received proper love and attention when they were growing up. All of these people live among you and I right inside our neighborhoods.

Heart of a Missionary
What is required to be a local missionary? For starters a LOVE for God and neighbor, a profound desire to reach and save the lost.  Well, there's one other thing needed to be EFFECTIVE in the missionary field whether local or long distance, "EMPATHY". The British dictionary describes empathy as the power of understanding and imaginatively entering into another person's feelings. I like this definition because it describes what the apostle Paul said about himself when going to preach and teach the gentiles. He had to immerse himself in the culture of the people he was sent to serve. 

(1Corinthians 9:19-23 NIV) 19 Though I am free and belong to no one, I have made myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. 20 To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law. 21 To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God's law but am under Christ's law), so as to win those not having the law. 22 To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some. 23 I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings.

Embracing Cultural Differences
I imagined the apostle Paul being sent by God to the gentile nations feeling uncomfortable at times yet he did what he had to do to accomplish his goal of preaching the gospel and saving souls. We meet him as Saul who was a highly educated man in the Jewish religion and culture. I can further imagine he loved his Jewish roots, and culture, the music, the arts, the food, their ways of speaking and relating to one another. Yet when the Lord met him on the road to Damascus, he was a changed man becoming the apostle Paul. 

He had to embrace and even perhaps come to like some of the different cultures he encountered as he traveled. He would have experienced different ethnic foods, music, arts and other cultural nuances that were present at that time. As long as it was not against Godly principles, I can imagine him breaking bread and sharing his life experiences and vice versa, with the people of different ethnic backgrounds. We know many different ethnic groups  were present in Jerusalem from the account at Acts 2:5-11 when the Holy Spirit was initially poured out. 

I would like to add further to this by sharing just a little of my experience of being a local missionary in my own country. Some years ago around 1988 in my location we were beginning to get an influx of spanish speaking people. I was zealous for sharing the gospel and wanted to share with the spanish speaking people I would encounter as well. So I found a spanish speaking group that was focusing on evangelizing the spanish people in our local community. I bought some books and prayed for God's help and began learning to speak the spanish language. What I want to speak about here is the experience I had within this new different culture from my own.

I totally immersed myself in their culture which was extremely difficult in the beginning. Not only was there a language barrier but I had to lay down my own personal comfort level and embrace their cultural differences. I learned to like their differences once I got past my own fears of getting too close and involved. But that's exactly what I did. I got up close and personal. They were willing to let me inside their world and opened their homes to me. I ate their foods, shared their joys and pains, listened to their music, understood their religious beliefs and backgrounds to teach them about the true God and his purpose for them. 

I enjoyed this new culture as I got to know them and guess what? They in turn embraced me and my differences of cultural background. They allowed me to share my ethnic background of food, music, language and everything that goes along with our being who we are. It was as though I had moved to a foreign land. The people in the congregation were from many different South American countries like Chile, Columbia and Ecuador, Spain, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Cuba, the Dominican Republic islands etc.   

Each country mentioned here had the Spanish language in common but they each had a different cultural experience of it's own. Learning new cultures and languages can be challenging and yet enlightening and enriching to our lives. It was hard but yet it was worth taking off my shoes of comfort.  My own ways of doing things and settling in their world, working and toiling the soil of differences to plants the seeds of God's Word in their hearts did pay off. Over the course of time there was much fruit of my own as well as theirs I got to share and eat with them. Six years later I was moving to another location, to a different state as the Lord was expanding my territory in working with Spanish speaking people. Having said all of this, only for the purpose of showing that we can make a difference right where we are at in our own communities as well as other cities and states. 

Heart Motive is Key
Am I committed to stay the course? Commitment is the other thing that is needed. Once you get involved within the community you are working in you have to be committed to the reason and purpose you are there in the first place. This will keep you on track during difficult times when I have to ask myself why am I doing what I'm doing. If I'm doing it for the right reason, to really love these people I've been sent to by God to help I will not give up when I start to feel uncomfortable. The commitment helps me to stay focused on  the Lord's will in that it is about saving souls and not about my comfort level. 

This must be the primary motive. It's about going beyond my comfort level and embracing cultural differences if there are any. But not only must I embrace their differences I must also show them that I like their cultural differences. This takes you and them to a deeper cultural level of trust and acceptance. I'm speaking of things that are not contrary to God's righteous principles that we can embrace to break down the walls that divide us. This is what I believe the apostle Paul did as he evangelized to the gentiles. Not only do we have to deal with the  enemy that is attacking us but also dealing with the issues surrounding the people we are trying to help. So it involves a lot of tilling and toiling of the soil, preparing hearts, the soil for the seeds of God's word to be planted in and firmly rooted. 

In the province of Corinth Paul had become so comfortable with them that he could tell them exactly what was on his heart. He shared the good, bad and ugly with them just as they had with him to a certain point. Compare 2Cor Chapters 1-3. In his second letter to the Corinthians we can see how profound the love was  Paul had for a people who were not as open to him. They held back their love being more reserved. This is a good lesson for those working in the ministry knowing we may have to give and give of ourselves without receiving the same measure or any measure in return. Yet the apostle Paul experienced much joy of immersing himself within the different cultures of the gentile nations  he was sent to by God. 

(2Cor 2:3-4 NIV) 3 I wrote as I did, so that when I came I would not be distressed by those who should have made me rejoice. I had confidence in all of you, that you would all share my joy. 4 For I wrote you out of great distress and anguish of heart and with many tears, not to grieve you but to let you know the depth of my love for you.

(2Cor 6:11-13 NIV) 11 We have spoken freely to you, Corinthians, and opened wide our hearts to you. 12 We are not withholding our affection from you, but you are withholding yours from us. 13 As a fair exchange--I speak as to my children--open wide your hearts also.

God may want to send you somewhere right in your own country, maybe a different city, or a different neighborhood where the people look different than you. Perhaps they are of a different ethnic background, perhaps the difference is in the language, or the skin color, or perhaps they're deaf and you are called to learn sign language. These are all local fields in need of local missionaries. 

The heart of the missionary is simply LOVE for God and neighbor, EMPATHY and COMMITMENT. Compare 2Cor 6: 3-13  When you have these three components together the Lord can use you in a most satisfying way. You don't have to necessarily go to a foreign country to be a missionary.  That's all good if that is what he has called you to do. If it is the case, he will provide all that is needed to bring that to past.  So in either case just have a willing spirit and heart.  

The heart of the missionary LOVES God and likes to embrace other cultures

Scriptural references:

(1Corinthians 9:19-23 NIV) 19 Though I am free and belong to no one, I have made myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. 20 To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law. 21 To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God's law but am under Christ's law), so as to win those not having the law. 22 To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some. 23 I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings.

(James 1:27 NIV) 27 Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

(1John 4:16, 20 NIV) 16 And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. ... 

20 Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen.

(2Cor 2:3-4 NIV) 3 I wrote as I did, so that when I came I would not be distressed by those who should have made me rejoice. I had confidence in all of you, that you would all share my joy. 4 For I wrote you out of great distress and anguish of heart and with many tears, not to grieve you but to let you know the depth of my love for you.

(2Cor 6:11-13 NIV) 11 We have spoken freely to you, Corinthians, and opened wide our hearts to you. 12 We are not withholding our affection from you, but you are withholding yours from us. 13 As a fair exchange--I speak as to my children--open wide your hearts also.

(Acts 2:5-11 NIV) 5 Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. 6 When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard their own language being spoken. 7 Utterly amazed, they asked: "Aren't all these who are speaking Galileans? 

8 Then how is it that each of us hears them in our native language? 9 Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome 11 (both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs--we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!"

(Psalm 90:16 NIV) 16 May your deeds be shown to your servants, your splendor to their children.

(Psalm 102:28 NIV) 28 The children of your servants will live in your presence; their descendants will be established before you."

(Psalm 103:13, 17 NIV) 13 As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him; ... 17 But from everlasting to everlasting the LORD's love is with those who fear him, and his righteousness with their children's children--

(Psalm 112:2 NIV) 2 Their children will be mighty in the land; the generation of the upright will be blessed.

(Psalm 115:14 NIV) 14 May the LORD cause you to flourish, both you and your children.