A Life in Exile

I lived in hard places during my years of overseas service, and I even lived in countries that were otherwise closed to Americans, but when I look around the world today, I’m wondering how much time is left. What do I mean by that? Just that—how much time is left for God’s people to get the good news out to a dying world?

What makes me ask such a question? Because I’m seeing countries that used to be wide open shut their doors to foreigners, especially Americans or Westerners. Places that were already hard to reach are becoming impossible, due to visa restrictions, tighter government controls, and persecution. For those who can get in, the paperwork and constant traveling out for “visa runs” makes settling and stability hard on teams and families with kids. I’m not even opening the door to talk about those countries who have been in decades-long conflicts or recent wars.

The command hasn’t changed.

Even as I reflect on this bleak picture of global struggles for Christians, I am aware that it’s nothing new in the history of mankind. Remember, it was two thousand years now since Jesus said this to his disciples:

You are going to hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not alarmed, because these things must take place, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise up against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these events are the beginning of labor pains. (Matthew 24:6-8 CSB)

This rocky unsettledness of our world has been around from the days of Cain and Abel. The Church was established while people were suffering under Roman occupation. Jesus didn’t want us to expect things to get better in this world, because they would not. Sin would continue to rage but that should not stop the spread of the gospel.

Because lawlessness will multiply, the love of many will grow cold. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. This good news of the kingdom will be proclaimed in all the world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come. (Matthew 24:12-14)

The Great Commission of Christ (Matthew 28:18-20) must be taken up with this backdrop in mind. The Roman occupation and oppression had not changed at the time of Christ’s ascension, and his words on the end days confirmed it would only get worse. Still, the call to go and make disciples stood firm.

Trusting God to go.

When God calls a person to leave the known for the unknown, he equips, empowers, and excites them for the task. I remember being excited about traveling to the countries where I would serve, though I felt ill-equipped at the time. Still, God gave me what I needed and met my every need. As children came along, while we were serving in Lebanon, he equipped us as parents with wisdom and guidance. I learned to trust him one day at a time, not just with my life but with the lives of my sons.

As we moved from country to country in those years, I also learned that God would use the Body of Christ in the form of teammates, supervisors, and organizational experts to help us navigate changes and any needs we faced as parents, especially in understanding schooling choices. I learned to trust God to provide the help we needed when seeking the best solutions for our children in tough places.

When we accept his call to go to the nations, not only does he go before us and guide us along the way, but he also provides members of the Body of Christ to join us in the journey, and that brings great comfort, confirmation, and courage to press on in the task.  He does not leave us alone.

Trusting God to send.

Just as individuals answering God’s call to go must trust God with the details and provision for the task, even to hard places, Christians who send—members of local churches—must also trust God. What do we trust God with? That he who calls is faithful to watch over and protect, to equip and empower. We also need to trust that God knows what he’s doing in leading a certain individual or family to move from the known to the unknown for the sake of the gospel. And finally, the church must trust that God’s desire for us to make disciples of ALL nations includes even the hard places.

I cannot tell you how hard it is to hear well-meaning Christians question a person’s choice to serve God in another country or among a certain people group. Nor is it easy to hear them question a couple’s choice to take their children away from grandparents in order to serve God in another place. Do they really see the Christian life as one of comfort, surrounded by family and friends? Oh, how our churches need to be supporting missionaries with words of encouragement and prayers of support instead of doubt and questions.

It’s much like a word I heard from a child the other day. After I’d shared about how to become a missionary, a young boy, with a smile on his face, said, “I want to be a missionary!” I smiled back and encouraged him. Unfortunately, another child, a girl next to him, said, “You’re just a goody-two-shoes,” causing his smile to fade and his heart to sink. My heart sank too, because I’d heard the same words as a child, having surrendered to God’s call to missions at the young age of ten.

Will our words to those desiring to go on missions show our trust in God or doubt that he would ever send one of our own out into the world for the cause of Christ? I pray we will reflect just as much trust in sending others out on mission as those who go on mission are trusting God for the going.

The task is not getting easier, but God makes a way where we can see no way—all we have to do is trust him and go or send.

Grace and Peace

If you missed the last Mission Monday post, click HERE, or check out these other posts on trusting God: Trust in the Beloved, He Sees What We Don’t, Did God Really Say?, Coming Through a Trial, and Who Do You Trust?