Frustration

I’m frustrated. How hard would it be for a local to do my job? How much effort would it take them to go on the street and win souls in their neighborhood, rather than me? Do I have to fly to the other side of the planet to do their job for them?

There’s one of two reactions people will make to this: either that I’m tired of being a missionary and am only looking for an out, or that it’s time to come up; it’s time for the church to do her job. For the sake of argument, I’m going to ask you to assume the latter.

Now, If I were a betting man, I’d say there’s not one place I’ve traveled where there wasn’t a plethora of churches already established. That’s okay; you have to learn missions somewhere. But the real meat of my job hasn’t been realized. I’ve not yet preached to people who have had no light available to them.

I don’t want this anymore. I can’t bring myself to take my supporters’ offerings and go to a village where there are already Christians who should be doing what I came there to do. Is there still a place for missionaries there? Yes, of course. I’m just talking about me, here. There are folks overseas in towns that are more thoroughly churched than my hometown in America and that are in the perfect will of God for their life. I’m not saying we should all pack up and move to the 10/40 window.

But what I am saying is that’s what I’m supposed to do. Sometimes frustration comes right before your time is up in a certain environment. My frustration, however, isn’t concerning my physical locale; for me, it’s a clear change in the direction of my entire ministry.

That’s not to say I’ll never go back to Thailand or Brazil or any other thoroughly-churched country, either. I don’t know when this is going to happen; I don’t think it will be tomorrow. God usually leads me way out ahead of when the time is right for me to make the jump. But He does that for a reason. It’s the same reason the frustration is there: I’m not ready for it. I’m frustrated because I know there’s a change coming up, and I haven’t done nearly enough praying for it.

~Jonathan

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May 29th, 2007 · Back to Top · Tagged: Articles, Missions

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