This is my last original post of 2009, so I just wanted to say thank you to all readers of this blog and wish you a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year wherever God has placed you.
Someone finally asked the right question this year: “Are you staying home for Christmas?”
Over the past few Christmases, many of our nationals have inquired if we were returning home for the holidays. We always responded that we were staying home for the holidays, not to be cute or trite but to honestly convey how we feel about where God has placed us.
Many national Christians in our field automatically expect us to return to the States for the holidays—because that’s what missionaries from the States have done. Sometimes being called a “missionary” carries a lot of assumptions, one of which in our field is the missionary treating this as an assignment or resume padding, someplace to exit out of or get away from time to time because you’re not from this mission field and have no interest in continuing ministry here. Even Christian friends in the States assumed we were going to return next year because (this is an actual statement) “don’t all missionaries run out of money by this point and need to come back for fundraising?”
A caveat before I go further: please understand I am not berating any missionary for visiting family at the holidays, needing to return to fundraise, leaving the field or originally having a short-term assignment. I do believe God can direct you back to your homeland for a time due to those reasons and am in no way passing judgment about that direction. I just don’t like being pigeonholed because of assumptions of any kind and would prefer people a) ask about these things without a backhanded comment and b) accept that, though I am a missionary, I may not reflect the usual personality with which they are familiar.
The reality in our situation is that we feel very at home in our field. I know the word “missional” gets bandied about a lot these days, but much of our attitude stems from the fact that Christianity is something that we live and breathe, not just perform or promote, then act differently. Because we take Philippians 3:20 very seriously, I may have been born in the States, but we really are citizens of heaven first. I recently heard a sermon that included the statement, “Home is not a place but a person,” meaning Jesus Christ. With His will being paramount, He’s given us a desire to stay in the field at this holiday season.
It seems that people can’t accept when you’re different. A very old concept, I know, yet more pointed for some reason in missionary and Christian circles. When asked (usually by Christians, oddly enough) what I would be doing if I weren’t a missionary, many don’t understand when I explain that I would be sharing Christ and volunteering in ministry even if God had me working a secular job, no matter on what part of this world He placed me. It’s difficult to see myself as a missionary because it’s not an on/off switch for me; perhaps the only way I reflect the current concept of missionary is that I continually raise and depend on charitable support to be here, and I regularly communicate about my ministry to supporters. Take those two facts away, and I’m just a missional Christian, living in a foreign country, right?
I take it as a blessing that God has given us such a comfort in our field that we feel most at home here, despite not having an obvious reason why. We have no previous exposure to the lifestyle, no heritage to trace, no technical reason to feel connected, yet the simple fact is that we do connect. An unknown author once stated, “Home is that place when you can recognise yourself in the people passing in the street.” I wouldn’t have understood this before going on mission, but it explains how I feel now.
Related posts:
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Do You Give Christmas Gifts to Your Supporters?
Question Week: Sent By a Mission Agency or By Your Home Church?
So many YWAM people I know they go home for Christmas too but it sometimes gives me the feeling that they do not consider Taiwan to be there home (despite the fact that they say it is). I don’t always like Christmas as a result since I am friends with many of them and I often felt abandoned during those time since my real family are away.
.-= Tai Fu´s last blog ..Minimum wage jobs =-.
@Tai Fu: It’s a tough call for each person to make. I’d be more motivated not to travel during the holidays and rather visit family at a different time of year with less pressure, but that’s just my take.
Your comment, “Christianity is something we live and breathe, not just something we perform and rpomote, and then act differently,” really struck a chord with me. I have been studying the tabernacle and Hebrews and contemplating what it means to live constantly in the Holy of Holies. What it means that prayer becomes so natural that it is as normal for us as breathing in or out. Regarding home…I am a 30 yr. old missionary in western europe who grew up in latin america as an mk. Home is where my wife and kids are. Home has always been where my family is at. I have not been back to the US for christmas in 4 years now. Not of utmost importance, though I do miss my family in the US. I have learned quite a bit with your blog. Learned that missionaries are supposed to take a vow of poverty. Glad I have not ever had to take that vow, though of course I would be willing if necessary. Keep thinking out loud on your blog and God bless.
Matthew, you said you “Learned that missionaries are supposed to take a vow of poverty” from C’s blog here.
Can you tell me what was written that you took that from, because I just don’t see it.
Personally, I believe all Christians are called to live a life of sacrafice, but to me that doesn’t mean the same thing as a “vow of poverty.”
Just curious how you came to that from this post. Thanks.
“Vows of poverty” sounds Catholic rather than Biblical. I think the tradition may have been taken from the fact that we are to live a life of sacrifice and oftentimes it makes you look like you are in poverty. It does depend on where you live though, if you live in places where the people you minister to are poor then as your lifestyle matches them you may seem poor when compared to say an average American middle class.
.-= Tai Fu´s last blog ..Happy new year =-.
I did not mean that we are really supposed to take a vow of poverty. In her earlier post about some guy coming to see her house and saying that she really was not a missionary because she was not poor, I figured out that a lot of people really think missionaries should be poor. Other questions thatt were posted questioned whether or not a missionary should go on a vacation and if so is skiing allowed. Really odd questions. I in no way believe that we should take vows of poverty but it seems that a “stereo type” out there is if you are not living in a mud hut in africa…you are not a missionary. Mud huts don’t work in western europe.
Thank you for the questions and clarifications. Someone needs to invent a way for sarcasm to be clearer on the Internet!
@Matthew: Yes, they are odd questions, and those odd questions are what prompts me to write this blog. There’s a prevalent misperception of what defines a missionary or missions, and I hope to dispel some of that.