The World – Our Mission Field

There are so many reasons why I am excited for our mission trip to the Dominican! We just came back from a meeting and it’s awesome to see 13 other people’s hearts unite for one purpose – to serve God in the Dominican. We leave in less than 3 weeks, which is crazy to think, but I have already tried to prepare my heart. As I look around our house, I see all the things that I am blessed with and the houses we will be seeing will look drastically different than ours. Though, does that mean that I am “more” blessed? Most certainly not. I was reading a book about serving called “Serving With Eyes Wide Open” (very interesting read) and it talked about that very subject. Just because we Americans go down and serve a 3rd world country, doesn’t mean that they (the nationals) aren’t happy. Just because we may have more “stuff” than them doesn’t mean we are happier. They are used to the culture that they live in and they don’t know any different. I don’t want to make generalizations because each person and each culture is different. I sometimes feel the more we have, the more we want to consume. Agree? God doesn’t show favoritism. That is why in the Bible it says, those who have been given much, much will be expected. As the time draws nearer for us leaving, I take that very seriously. I know I will come back with some sort of “culture shock” because I am very easily moved by other cultures. And I am sensitive to that about myself. But I don’t want to “expect” anything. Expectations close the door to God working and that is the last thing I want to do!

Dan and I are excited about being able to help fix and teach the kids how to fix their bikes! The last time we were there, one of the kid’s bike was broken. Dan, having been a bike mechanic in the past, helped the kid fix it, and soon more bikes were lined up. The missionaries encouraged us to take bike-fixing tools, supplies, etc., to continue that “mission.” Though I don’t know much about fixing a bike, I am excited to see how God will use us in this.

Yeah we are going to the Dominican, but as much as we are excited about that, we also are reminded that everyday God’s world around us, our neighborhood, community, is a mission field. We are representations of Christ to the world. What a challenge! So, with that said, we will continue to try to equip ourselves for that mission field everyday.