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Missions is something dear to my heart. That the nations would come into a relationship with God through Christ Jesus is a prayer of mine, daily.
Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous deeds among all peoples.
1 Chronicles 16:24
I may share about the past trips I have been blessed to have been a part of later.
When you are preparing to go into a mission field, what do you do?
-Prepare Your Heart.
Get In The Word
Dive deep into the Word, I recently wrote a series on Bible study and it’s importance that you can check out in the post Are You Feeding Your Soul?
We cannot teach or giveaway what we ourselves do not have.
Pray
Pray for a filling of God’s love and Spirit, so that it just overflows onto those around us, as a natural flow.
-Check Your Focus and Attitude.
Are you looking as yourself as going to bless people or to be a humble servant? I have heard it said that “Your skills and training are less important on the mission field than your willingness to avail yourself God’s will.”
-Know Your Audience
Many times we forget we have to go back to the beginning. Some people will have a simple concept of the Gospel and sin, some have been raised in church and “know” it, but increasingly we find this is not so anymore. With some people, we need to get back to basics. Who is God? What is sin? Who is Jesus?
-Be Flexible and Be Willing to Use What You Are Given.
You have your plan. You have prayed over it and feel peace about it. Satan is always trying to get us off track. What better way to shift focus than for him to throw a wrench into your plans? Pray that God would open your eyes to opportunities to minister, planned or not.
-Give Grace in All Situations
We must choose to see people and conduct ourselves as Jesus does and did. We must try to choose to see the best in them.
This grace does not come easily, nor naturally. It is something I pray for every morning. That the Lord would give me His eyes for those around me, that He would pour out His love on me so that it just overflows onto those around me. That He would give me patience for them as He is patient with me.
-Be Intentional
Pray that God would open your eyes to opportunities His give you during the day, and for word to say to make the most of those opportunities.
What if we take all of that, and apply that to your mission field: your children and family.
If you have young children, you might not be going on a missions trip (though if you do, more power to you! It is awesome God has opened that door!). Your greatest mission ever, is to shepherd those precious little ones to Jesus.
Yes, we need to look for ways to reach the nations, but what if the best way to reach the nations is by starting with the small part of it under your roof?
Have you been on a missions trip? Have you ever thought of your home as your mission field?
Very interesting and informative set of tips – thanks so much for this!
Really great tips! Thank you for posting!
http://www.thedivinepresence.wordpress.com
As a stateside missionary I would say all of these things you mention about going into other nations we can do everyday in our own states, cities, neighborhoods and work places. 🙂 A statistic that is startling is that other nations are sending twice the missionaries to the US than we send out in total. I think there might be something to us seeing our homes as our most needed mission field. Humanitarian aid and the Gospel being sent all over is awesome and needed in many places, but we must not fool ourselves about our desperate need of the Gospel here too.
http://unveiledandrevealed.com
Love these tips, and that they all apply to all of our mission fields – daily. No matter what that looks like. 😉
Thanks for posting. Preparing your heart and being intentional really stood out to me. As you said, you can only teach what you have so preparation through studying God’s Word and praying is key.
Flexibility and intentionality are really big in anything we want to accomplish. I think everyone should prepare to be missionaries–at home and/or abroad! We are all missionaries of some sort.
Both my daughters went on mission trips — The Momma needs some of these tips, not only to prepare our children going, but to prepare our own hearts to allow them to serve. It was a major impact on my girls. Now my oldest is a missionary momma. And she’s preparing her children to go serve, too.
Love this Robbi! I work at a Christian university, and we are preparing for our mission trips to begin in about 3 weeks. This is wonderful information for our students. I’d also love you to share your words on my new Fresh Market Friday Link-Up:)
I will try to remember to check that out, thanks.
Amen! Our first mission field is our family! 🙂