What’s it really like to be a missionary?

The answer depends on which one of us you ask. We are all so different and our experiences so varied. There are missionaries who are excited about their work as well as those who are steadfast, even if it’s not the life that they would have chosen for themselves. As with any job, you even have some missionaries who shouldn’t be on the field. We also have some things in common, and whenever I teach a class on missions or am trying to convey what it’s really like, I hone in on those commonalities that all missionaries share.

One way of doing this is through an exercise designed to help people understand missionary life. An exercise that is simple yet profound. On a piece of paper, write down the names of the five most important people in your life besides your spouse or children. In another column write down 5 of your favorite and most valued possessions. Finally, in the last column, write down 5 values that are most important to you such as honesty, sense of humor, faithfulness, integrity . . .

 

People	Possessions	Values

All done? Good job! Now cross out three of your answers in each of the columns. Go on! You choose. Get rid of three of your most beloved family members, cherished possessions and esteemed values.

Hard to decide? I’m sure you know where we are going with this. Missionaries sacrifice a lot, and it’s more than just giving up family members and culture, but values as well. Not that the missionary loses his or her values, but common values that were previously shared culturally may be absent in the new culture.

What compounds these losses is not that they are voluntarily given up, which is painful enough, but that they are not totally given up. The missionary reconnects during each furlough and then repeats the process of separation and loss each time furlough ends. I remember the time we said goodbye to my parents knowing that it would be another three years before seeing them again. Their four small grandchildren who had learned their names by studying their pictures until they could see them face-to-face were now all saying goodbye. As we walked out the door, our five-year old Daniel realized that he hadn’t said goodbye to grandma. I went back in the house to find my mom bent over, hands covering her face, sobbing, and I thought to myself “what am I doing!” before going in and taking her hands in mine. As the years go by, the separation and loss does not get easier, although you do learn how to manage the pain.

In spite of the constant change and the losses that occur, there is one element that does not change. and is vital if we desire to live for God and serve Him joyfully on the mission field. It’s something that I discovered before leaving for the mission field and something that God desires for every Christian throughout the world to discover. Depending on your church background, what I am about to share may be life-changing. My change began in the middle of a heated debate in Bible College.

“Chris, if the Holy Spirit wasn’t in your life . . . would you even know it?”

“Of course I would!” I replied. “Ephesians 1:13 and 14 tell us that we have been sealed with the deposit of the Holy Spirit when we believed … .” I continued the conversation citing quickly several passages that describe the monumental effect of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer. Passages such as Romans 8:9, which states that if someone doesn’t have the indwelling, he is not a Christian; and Romans 8:26, which speaks of the Holy Spirit being a helper to the Christian, along with other proofs.

I was on a roll--and it was wonderful! There is nothing quite as satisfying than to beat a Pentecostal believer over the head with Bible verses, especially when it’s about a subject that they believe to have the upper hand in. But inside, his question kept echoing in my head and heart long after he had left my dorm room. For as much as I could tell you about what scripture affirms regarding the Holy Spirit, and as firmly as I spoke about the presence of the Spirit in the life of the believer, I was clueless about what the Holy Spirit was doing in my life.

Truth be told, I wouldn’t have noticed if the Holy Spirit wasn’t in my life, because I couldn’t tell you one single, practical way in which the Holy Spirit was actively involved in my daily living. Now, I could tell you a lot about who God is and what He was doing in my life. I could speak of Jesus as the Son, and the practical implications and applications of his sacrifice to daily living. But when it came to the Holy Spirit, he wasn’t as much a he as an it. Other than being the fulfillment of an earlier promise of Jesus, I couldn’t tell you what the Holy Spirit was doing in my life outside of illuminating the Word of God. Growing up, we had no teaching or preaching in our church regarding the Holy Spirit other than when it was used to refute the abuses of those dangerous, liberal Pentecostal believers.

When my friend had left my room, I knew that while I had scored more blows in the match, his question was a knock-out punch. I also knew that the Holy Spirit’s very purpose was to be practically experienced--and in spite of my conservative Christian learning, I knew that I was missing something and that if I was going to be intellectually honest with myself, I could no longer avoid the issue. So I started with what I knew.

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An excerpt from Hidden Treasures from an Urban Jungle by Chris Irwin. Copyright © 2006 by Chris Irwin. Reprinted by permission.