Where Is Your Mission Field?

Last year Mr. Clean and I traveled to the Czech Republic and Poland on a short term missions trip. I have traveled before and even to other countries, but none of those trips struck me like this one.

I am in love with Poland and the Czech Republic and the people within. I can remember the smells, sights, sounds, the way I felt, all of it. I also remember being quite unashamed as a group of us sat in the airport in Frankfurt, Germany with our Bibles out praying. I would go in a heartbeat if Mr. Clean suddenly got a calling to be a full time missionary in Eastern Europe. Well, as long as the dogs could go of course... :-)

I grew up in a family with a strong history of missionaries. David Livingstone and George Whitefield share my family lineage. My grandmother lived in Africa as a little girl with her missionary parents. My great grandfather William Whitefield was a traveling evangelist from Scotland. I always imagined myself sharing God's Word in some remote foreign country. Mission work runs through my bloodstream.

When the Lord moved us from Maryland to Pennsylvania almost 4 years ago, I did not want to come. I had no desire to move to Pennsylvania. After all, why leave the life I loved and knew well? Mr. Clean felt a strong calling to take the job he was offered here and move his family. I told him from the start I would follow him to the moon, so I guess that meant PA as well.

I met my neighbors who were very nice and soon found a church and family of believers to envelop myself in. At least I found a lot of people just like us to fellowship with if I had to uproot and live in a new place, right? Where was the mission spirit? Don't unbelievers need the gospel in Pennsylvania too? It actually took almost four years for that epiphany to occur in my brain.

I am here! I may not be in Scotland or the Czech Republic or Sierra Leone but I am here. Because this is the exact spot the Lord planned for me to be in at this precise moment in time. I may never live up to the great Whitefield legacy, but my legacy is bound to be different, aye?

The majority of you reading this are in North America. Have you seen what a large area of the earth North America covers? There are people right in our communities that need missionaries. Should we import them from other countries or fill that void ourselves? The Indian Nation that begat my father is in my own country. My in-laws have gone on missions trips to the reservation; I have never set foot on it with the intention of sharing the gospel (just to visit) and they are my own people and many of them are lost.

I am in no way whatsoever saying that we should not send missionaries to the far corners of the earth. We absolutely should and are mandated biblically to do so. I would jump at the chance myself if the Lord deemed it so. I am just reminding you that although we have not been sent out to the far corners, we have a job right here to do.

My mission field begins the minute I leave my bedroom. I have three little ones to serve in His name. Where is your mission field?