Missionary Moment

Missionary Moment

      

           We like to close our eyes sometimes to people hurting, don’t we?  Because it just hurts us too much to see their pain.  It hurts us so therefore we try not to think about their hurt.  We don’t like to frame it in that light, but that’s basically how it is, isn’t it?  It sounds kind of… un-Jesus-like that way.

           

           Last year as Thanksgiving approached, my oldest sister received in the mail a catalogue from World Vision.  For those of you that are not familiar with World Vision, it’s a company through which you can support a child, make donations to help people in third-world countries, and even buy livestock or necessary supplies like medicine, clothing, schoolbooks, etc. for the people.  Many reputable people have endorsed them; a great testimony if you’re like me and skeptically wonder if a company is actually legit and “on the up-and-up.”

            If you know me very well, you know I have a missionary’s heart.  If you only know me as the author of Heart-chords and The Avid Author but have read my post from June 2012 title Compassion, you still might’ve guessed as much.  I have long had a burden for people in need both in my own nation and in other countries.  Unfortunately, I’ve always assumed I never had the means to make much of a difference.  I’m just a kid without even a paying job.  I’m not a millionaire who can donate a ton of money to missionaries and organizations, I always thought to myself.

            And then the World Vision catalogue came in last year.  My sister and I looked through it together as we sat at the kitchen counter, and I was amazed at how inexpensive many of the items were.  For instance, for only $18, you could buy three ducks for a family.  Three ducks would not only provide the family with a healthier diet by incorporating into their meals fresh eggs, but the baby ducklings reproduced could be sold to help the family make a living for themselves.  For only $18.  I began to wonder if maybe “just a kid” like me could actually improve an impoverished family’s life after all.

            That thought stayed with me throughout the entire year.  Time after time it would find its way into my thoughts.  I just couldn’t forget about it.  And then today, the World Vision catalogue came in the mail again.  As I flipped through the catalogue, page by page, my heart broke for the people in need.  It was torn from my chest as I studied the pictures of families who had been helped through World Vision… not torn for the people who had been helped but for the hundreds of people just like them who I knew were still in need.  My conscience was pricked again just as it had been last year as I reflected on how blessed I was.  I had just received forty dollars in birthday money.  For me, forty dollars was just money that was going to be saved for a rainy day shopping spree.  For unprivileged people around the world, forty dollars is money that can be used to buy chickens, ducks, rabbits, fruit trees, vegetable seeds, a family fishing kit, mosquito bed nets, $420 worth of medicine, $420 worth of new clothing, $125 worth of emergency food for people who are starving, and $600 worth of supplies for a school.  It could help save a girl just like me from a life of prostitution.  It could help send a girl to school, help give the people a well as a clean water source, give children a soccer ball to enjoy childhood games with.  It could place Bibles in the hands of children who are eager for the Word of God in their native language.  How very much we take for granted, friends.

And then at the back of the catalogue, I saw a page that I hadn’t remembered seeing last year.  It listed opportunities for you to donate and give amounts worth of necessities to families, buy school supplies, and feed a family of five for either a week or for a day.  But these were not families in other countries.  These were people in the United States.  These were my fellow Americans.  It was the last straw.  My heart split right down the middle and cracked open.  How is it that we can be so blind to need in our countries?  So blind and oblivious to the needs around us every day. 

I was reminded of a time several weeks ago when my mom and I had been in the city of Madison, antique shopping.  Some of you will remember me mentioning Madison before.  We were walking along the main street busy and bustling with other shoppers when we saw a man who was walking along the brick sidewalk as well stop and rummage through a garbage can.  What was he doing? we wondered.  His clothes weren’t tattered and worn; surely he wasn’t homeless.  Maybe he was just looking for something he had thrown away by accident?  Next we watched as he pulled out a McDonald’s cup and container that had no doubt held the remains of someone else’s meal.  The man took a seat on the nearby park bench and finished off the leftovers, and then later as we were eating ice cream, we watched from across the street as he traveled from garbage can to garbage can, looking for something more to fill his stomach.  We finished our ice cream in somewhat solemn silence, and as we threw away our trash, compassion drove me to carefully set my container of leftover ice cream upright in the garbage can for the homeless man to hopefully find and enjoy as an uncommon treat.  I still can’t lose the feeling of grief that sight caused me.  The compassion it arose in me was so deep, and I felt such love for that man…  I had no idea that God could release such love within me for humanity and that I could feel such a burden for a person. 

By the time I reached the end of the catalogue, I couldn’t sit by any longer.  I knew what God was calling me to do.  I began looking to see what about $30 could buy.  Quite a lot actually.  But then, I thought of my best friend and cousin who several months ago began working part-time.  We know each other so well, I just knew she wouldn’t want to miss out on an opportunity like that to help people in need.  And if we pooled our money together, we could buy so much more!

            So I promptly texted her with my proposition.  She replied, and little did I know, her family has been sponsoring a little girl for years now through World Vision, and in fact, her parents had already purchased an animal for a family this year.  Don’t you just love people who are like-minded with you?  I love the incredible way the Lord has of orchestrating things.  He never seizes to amaze me with surprises in my path.  My best friend was already familiar with the opportunities available through World Vision; what better preparation for my idea could I have asked for?  I knew then that my idea had to be a God-thing.  We discussed it, and she enthusiastically agreed to the proposition.  Plans were made for us to talk through the details on the phone tomorrow or this weekend and decide what we’ll buy.  

            This Christmas season, my best friend and I are going to embrace a missionary moment.  We invite you to join us.  Every Christian is called to be a missionary.  “How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in?  And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard?  And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?” (Ro 10:14)  “He said to them, ‘Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation.’” (Mk 16:15)  It’s our responsibility, and one that we as individuals have neglected for far too long.  “If a man shuts his ears to the cry of the poor, he too will cry out and not be answered.” (Pr 21:13)  Whether you feel a calling to the mission field in a foreign country or not, you are called to be a missionary in the very place where God has placed you right now.  I don’t consider it a coincidence that the three songs I’ve recently discovered and bought have all had to do with being sensitive to others’ needs: Give Me Your Eyes by Brandon Heath, Love Like You Loved by Jonny Diaz, and Break My Heart by Jonny Diaz.  You’ve got to look that last one up, friends, if you’ve never heard it.  It’s such a powerful song and will cut to your core if you’re anything like me.  I encourage and challenge you this holiday season to open your eyes to the needs around you in the lives of the people you encounter every day.  No longer turn your face away from acknowledging the hurt of the world across the seas and even in your backyard.  Face your fear of feeling hurt and help alleviate their pain and hardships.  One person can make a difference.  Allow the Lord to lead you to minister to those people and make a difference in their lives for His glory.  Allow Him to fill your heart with such an abundance of love and compassion like you’ve never experienced before.  It will “wow” you how He can use you and a simple act of obedience.  Let’s make a difference in our world… together.  For more information about how you can participate in the mission of World Vision, see donate.worldvision.org.

 

“The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’” Matthew 25:40

 

“If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him?  Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.” 1 John 3:17&18

 

Photo courtesy: www.123rf.com

 

~We’ve all heard of the phrase “pulling on her/ his heartstrings,” but heart-chords?  I was struggling to decide what to name my blog.  I wanted it to be a name that was both creative and meaningful.  As I pondered, my gaze fell upon my acoustic guitar where it stands in my bedroom, and the Lord reminded me that our hearts- our lives- are instruments.  They are constantly in song, but what melody our heart plays is each of our own decisions.  They can play a melody for praise or for entertainment.  A musician selects his songs according to his audience.  So do we.  Whether our audience is the world or the Lord, our song will be different.  This blog is designed to first, increase my awareness in finding God and His guidance in my every day and second, to share the music lessons He teaches me in tuning my heart to learn the chords of praise He longs to play on my heart-instrument.  Music is a powerful tool.  Use it for His glory.  “He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God.  Many will see and fear and put their trust in the Lord.” Psalm 40:3