From the Missionary Blogosphere
Posted by C. Holland on Apr 05, 2010A great description of both sides of what it’s like to be a missionary.
Six ways that churches can assist in missions besides sending short-term mission workers.
Brett Harrison gives his take on Missionary Trading Cards (yes, we had these, too!).
“…as in waffles?”: a missionary wife describes her reaction to God laying long-term mission in the country of Belgium on her husband’s heart.
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I jest. Good one!
April 7th, 2010 at 9:22 pm
Totally…as a missionary’s kid I can kinda say that.
April 9th, 2010 at 9:29 am
Speaking of Belgium, I have some friends getting ready to move there: http://zickmundsinbelgium.blogspot.com/
And wow…a comment from Stephy! Her acerbic wit keeps me going back to her stuff Christian culture likes blog. Truth is the bite of sarcasm…
Greg in Mexico´s last blog ..Thanksgiving lesson
April 10th, 2010 at 10:54 am
@Stephy: Welcome to the blog!
@Greg: Thanks for the link. Glad to see others taking Western Europe seriously. The need is great, and while the harvest is not yet plenty, the workers are still few for the seed planting. God bless their preparation for Belgium!
April 16th, 2010 at 11:25 am
Hi! I am looking forward to some new posts from you. Hope all is well on your field.
I wanted to share… my husband and I passed the oral doctrinal exam required by our organization, so we are truly on our way to becoming missionaries. I created a Facebook group, and a dear friend advertised to everyone to join and support us. Someone (whom I don’t know) commented with the following: “why Spain? It’s very nice and modern.”
I thought, “and so it begins.” My friend replied, “just because it is nice and modern doesn’t mean they have the Gospel of Jesus Christ!” I opted out of a reply, but I did think of you. I have been praying for discernment of how to answer that question when it arises directly to me. “Less than 1% Christian” is a legitimate enough reason for me, but…
God Bless!
Rose´s last blog ..A Celebration of God’s Word
April 16th, 2010 at 11:57 am
@Rose: Congrats on your exam!
If your experience as a missionary to Western Europe is anything like what we’ve experienced, get ready to hear that question a lot. I talked about it back in “Missionary Defined” http://www.missionaryconfidential.com/missionary-defined
As you progress in your ministry, you might also come across these statements in “We All Know What Happens When We Assume” http://www.missionaryconfidential.com/we-all-know-what-happens-when-we-assume
April 16th, 2010 at 9:06 pm
Hey, this site looks awesome. I found my way here because someone said they found me here even though I hadn’t heard of it… thank you Greg!
@Rose: I had someone say, “but I thought Belgium was a real country” (as opposed to all the fake impoverished ones that usually “define” missions).
April 17th, 2010 at 2:18 am
@Robyn: Welcome, both to the blog and eventually to Western Europe! That’s a new one, though I’ve heard other questions and statements that essentially imply that Western Europe is an “invalid” mission choice:
“Hey, they already had a shot at Christianity; why waste your time there?”
“But [mission field] is a vacation spot; why would they need missionaries?”
“What need could there possibly be in [mission field]? It’s such a rich country. You just want someone else to pay for your vacation!”
“So, you couldn’t handle Africa or China and chose an ‘easy’ place?”
“It’s too expensive to send missionaries to [mission field]/Western Europe. You should be a missionary to somewhere cheaper!”
“Doesn’t [mission field] already have their own religion?”
And my personal favourite:
“When you’ve got that out of your system, when are you coming back to the States to start being a ‘normal’ Christian again?”