Be a missionary!

On the mission field we had some great experiences.  We traveled, saw many countries, ministered as a family, and learned how to be best friends with each other.

There really were no peers really because Japanese kids went to cram school in the evenings and had public school on Saturdays.  Our kids didn’t notice that they were being deprived of peers because they had each other to play with!

There were plenty of wrong influences in Japan, but since it wasn’t our home culture, the kids were oblivious to most of them.

If you want your children to have a heart for missions, what better way than to model it to them?  Our kids consider it quite normal to become a missionary because that was their life for ten years.

They don’t think we were or are heroes because we’re not — They would probably think that statement is quite laughable!  They just think it is normal to be a missionary.

Before I went on the mission field, I thought it must be the most exciting life there is!  After all, you get paid to travel to exciting places and tell people about Christ.  But I felt there were two big barriers keeping me from going:

• Missionaries probably have to be perfect.
• Probably everyone wants to be one, and all the spaces are filled.

If you have ever been on even a short-term trip, you know neither fallacy is true!  :O)  On the field I met very imperfect Christians like me.  They were just willing to go.

As for all the spaces being filled, well, all the mission houses we lived in now sit empty of believers.  No one is telling the Good News from those spots anymore.

If my children serve the Lord overseas, they will have a more realistic view of what to expect than I did.  I did not forsee any problems or loneliness or realize that sometimes we would open our doors, invite all, and no one would come.  But I am so glad we lived that reality in front of our kids, all the while having the privilege of drinking in an entirely new culture.

I saw things I had never seen before:  entire mountains simultaneously splashed with every bright Fall color, monkeys trying to get our French fries from my car window, all my children in silk kimonos, women who can sit motionless on the floor forever with a  perfectly folded position, cherry blossoms snowing down like a continual wedding, ice sculptures 3 stories high, Mount Fuji in all its glory.

My kids know that the United States is not the only place in the world.  They appreciate their home country even more for it.  When they study Geography, there is already a place in their brains for Thailand because we had a meeting there.  There are sins they shun because they have seen entire cultures broken because of their distain for God.

Our oldest two kiddos speak Japanese, and one got 16 hours of college credit for it.  Having learned a language at a young age, now their brains are more able to learn other languages later.

Our mission board, The International Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention, takes great care of their missionaries.  We always lived in nice houses and were provided with a nice van.  They provided an adequate salary, the best language training, counseling support, materials for homeschooling, good medical and retirement benefits, incredible strategy training, and shipping of many belongings.  We are so grateful to them.

Every missions experience is different, and if you send your children to institutional schools on the mission field, I can’t guarantee anything.  But I am so glad we gave our young, energetic years to the Lord overseas.

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