Our World, My Mission Field

How do you define a mission field?
What IS a mission field?
What does God mean in Matthew 28, that we are to go into all the world?

I feel those verses on the Great Commission are argued and beaten to death. Beaten to death in a way that when argued on “where the mission field is” we end up doing nothing. We forget the principle. We end up thinking that our mission field isn’t good enough, that we aren’t in the right place, that God can’t use us where we are because we aren’t flying across the ocean. By all means, I think that God sends believers across the seas – in fact, Dan and I considered that! When Dan was unemployed, we were looking at an opportunity in Kenya. We ended up meeting with the sending agency and prayed and prayed. It was while I was at the dentist, reading a random Mayo Clinic newsletter, that I learned that having a heart condition and being in high elevation, can be a risk – a risk you don’t know the severity of, until you live there for a little while. The place we were looking at going, was at 7500 ft. above sea level, and this article said over 6000 ft., it can cause more heart issues if you have an existing heart condition. That was our answer. Who would’ve thought – at a dentist office.

Then Belize. Ah, Belize – we left part of our heart there when we went there this past January. We looked into what it would take to do mission work there. Not that we were looking to move overseas – we just wanted to live with open hearts and minds, not letting distance be a showstopper. It was the week we got back, that Dan was asked to come to Minnesota for a face to face interview.

And we all know how God finished that chapter! Here we are in Minnesota!

Our hearts felt torn when Dan lost his job. We felt a call to do ministry, but what does that even mean? Does that mean you have to move? Does that mean you have to work in a church? Does that mean you have to do something specific? This took a lot of thinking and praying for us. When we went through a season of wondering if ministry was truly what God wanted us to still do and where our hearts felt led, it was through these struggles, that God opened up our minds on what a mission field is.

I believe that WHERE YOU ARE RIGHT NOW IS YOUR MISSION FIELD. In a heartbeat, God may call you or I to move to another country. But until that day (if God ever would), our mission fields are RIGHT WHERE WE ARE SITTING.

So often in the Christian life, we think that to be a true missionary, you have to move. That is just a physical act – something that is fleeting – but it’s what we do out of our hearts that has eternal value. I was once talking to a missionary and told him how wonderful I think it is, that he is living in another country, proclaiming the gospel. His response? In summary he said that he doesn’t like it when others put him on a pedestal, thinking that he is more “Christian” than others because he is living in another country. He said everyone is a missionary and God has called each of us to a specific mission – some may be in the U.S., some may be across the world. We are all just trying to live out God’s call on our lives.

That took awhile to process for me. It has taken me way too many years of life to realize that our mission field right now, is where you live and for us, that is right here in Minnesota. God has called Dan and I here for reasons we don’t even know about yet, but we can list numerous reasons as to why God called us specifically to this area. Dan’s philosophy and desire for youth and their faith, fits perfectly with where we live. We see why God called us here. We see why this is now our mission field.

Thinking about ministering to the world, can be overwhelming. It is the world we live in. Yet in our world, we EACH HAVE A MISSION FIELD.

What is YOUR mission field? Where does God have you RIGHT NOW? Think of ways why God has you in your specific “field” RIGHT NOW? God is using YOU, as an instrument, in your mission field, right now. Don’t downplay what God can do through you – if you open up your heart and don’t hold back in your faith, I think you are going to be shocked at how God will use you. That is something I am still working on – letting go of my own selfish ways, and allowing Him to infiltrate Himself into the deepest parts of me. When I do that, I free myself up for God to use me as He pleases.

Don’t forget your mission field. Don’t downplay what God can do through you. Ask God to show you your mission field today.