More Is Caught Than Taught

“What exactly will you be learning during Intake?” 

My family was asked this question numerous times by multiple friends/family/mission partners before we left Missouri. And, to be honest, I didn’t exactly know.

Maybe I answered with the go-to FMC answer when anyone has a question about the plan or dire circumstances that we’ve come up against: “We don’t know, but it’s going to be great!”

But I was grateful to take a break from being in charge, and to receive whatever the Lord had for me and my children. And He did not disappoint.

I remember being struck early on in training when we were told, “God brought you into foreign missions for your own sanctity. You’re not just here because He needs you to help the poor.” 

Wow. I know that, whatever path we’re on, we’re all called to holiness. But I can see how surrendering my possessions, and then (again and again), my will, along with all of the other ups and downs of mission life, might just put me on the fast track. All it will cost you is everything.

And it is this sanctification, this disciple-forming, that is the “bait and tackle” of Intake. 

It is living into the life-changing, radical culture of lives poured out in love and service to the Lord that we were sold on the first time we stepped onto the Big Woods mission base six years ago for a Come and See. 

It is witnessing that it is possible to praise and thank God in all circumstances, and to do it with joy. It is transparency and vulnerability, sharing our testimonies, ministering to each other with respect, honor, and love.

It is praying numerous times throughout the day—alone, as a family, with our single friends, with our Intake team, with our whole community, with those we asked (and didn’t ask) the Holy Spirit to send our way!

It is truly the book of Acts being lived out. 

Are you at a place in your life where you desire to take a swim in a sea of infectious joy? 

Do you want to learn to step out a little deeper into the water to boldly proclaim Christ at all times—in word and action? 

Then, I encourage you to go on a mission trip or attend a discernment week with FMC. Because, no matter how hard I try to put it into words, more is caught than taught! 

“I sense that the moment has come to commit all of the church’s energies to a new evangelization…No believer in Christ, no institution of the Church can avoid this supreme duty:  to proclaim Christ to all peoples.” (Pope St. John Paul II, Redemptoris Missio Encyclical 1990)