Birthing a New Mission

No matter how many times we’ve been back and forth to our mission post, entry and re-entry is always hard. We never know what trials await us. It reminds me of the verses from Sirach 2:

“My child, when you come to serve the Lord, prepare yourself for trials. Be sincere of heart and steadfast, and do not be impetuous in time of adversity. Cling to him, do not leave him…Accept whatever happens to you; in periods of humiliation be patient. For in fire gold is tested.” (2:1-5)

My husband and I recently served on the formation team for our newest group of missionaries. As they entered their mission post at the beginning of this year, I had the chance to speak with a few of them. Their sufferings and trials are real. No matter how much we hope to prepare their spirits for the mission field, we couldn’t prepare them for bat-infested homes, stomach bugs that took down the whole family, or dirty houses without water.

I was on the phone with one missionary who got a parasite within the first few days of arriving. As she was recounting her last week, she shared that her teammate was with her all through the night, as she found herself laying in a dirty house, with a bucket next to her, since the only toilet was located outside in the dark.

“That’s beautiful!” I remarked as she told me the story. Although nothing was beautiful about the thought of my friend being so sick she couldn’t make it to the toilet.

The beauty that I saw was the companionship of her teammate. The beauty I saw was her praising God with what little strength she had left. The beauty I saw was her willingness to stay behind from a ministry so that she could collect the water when it was turned on in their village at an unknown hour throughout the day, with hope they wouldn’t go another day without clean water. The beauty was the suffering and the sacrifice offered and extended to another. The beauty was love.

The beauty wasn’t the picture-perfect type you’d find on Instagram. This beauty reminded me more of the beauty God allows in childbirth: raw, naked, messy, but full of life and potential.

In the second chapter from Sirach we hear, “Cling to him…Accept whatever happens to you…For in fire, gold is tested” (Sirach 2: 3,4,5).

The gold of my friend’s faith shined through! It was being tested in the fire of sickness and humiliation. And I believe that in these sacrifices, new life is being born. The missionary is coming to life.

These hidden sufferings are the things that till the soil of the mission post, that soften our hearts to the sufferings of the poor. Each suffering, endured with patience, offered up for the salvation of the souls around us, are the seeds that will spring forth into flowers and trees. These sufferings, though small and seemingly purposeless when they come upon us, will be as the mustard seed Jesus described in the parables—small at first, but in due time, the largest of trees where birds “dwell in its shade” (see Mark 4:31).

So too, God has planted these small seeds of suffering in our paths. As we enter in the mission field, and as we praise Him through these sufferings, He tills the soil of our hearts, growing them into hearts of compassion and love for the poor. Through our sufferings, we come to know their sufferings. This beauty and new life from trials is the kind only God can create.