My daughter, Lydia, has been a full time missionary for two years. This morning she left for a two-month trip to Asia. By the end of this year she will have spent five of the last twenty-four months in Asia. For this trip, she is going into parts of Asia that I cannot mention on a public post like this, because it could put her at risk to be blacklisted by the country not mentioned. Don’t get the idea this will ever look like a vacation for this team of young missionaries she is leading.
There are no beaches where they are going. There won’t be any weekends with sand between their toes. In fact, there are a lot of things that won’t be there. There won’t be warm water. There won’t be American/European toilets. There won’t be warm showers. There won’t be beds.
What will there be? There will be bucket bathing. There will be sleeping bags and mosquito nets. There will be five-hour buss rides. There will be hand-washing clothing. There will be orphanages with starving children who witnessed the death of their parents. There will be hiking into remote parts of foreign countries.
Missions work is changing. We have a lot of missionaries coming through our church who are venturing into parts of this world nobody in America has even heard of. They are risking their lives to take the message of Christ to people who have never heard of it, and may become angry when they do. They spend their days trying to get young women out of the sex trade industry. They are separated from family and friends for years. They miss birthdays, anniversaries and holidays. They do this day after day and year after year.
Nothing they do resembles an American’s idea of fun. Simply put, it’s the hardest work possible. It’s taking the great commission seriously, and being willing to take it places that have never heard of it. It’s believing that everyone deserves something that every soul longs for. It’s believing that everyone in the world needs hope. Not hope of financial prosperity. That’s American. Not the hope of happiness. That’s something that depends on surroundings.
It’s about the hope of salvation. It’s about having real joy. Joy that is found on the inside when we begin a relationship with the creator of the universe. A Creator who withheld nothing from a wold He created and loves. A Creator who removed every obstacle from being reconciled with Him.
Lydia is a part of a necessary movement. It’s a movement that says, “We will not let anything or anyone get in the way of taking this important message into all the world. We want to make Him known in all the world. We don’t care how hard it will be. We just want to know how to get there.”
If you want to support Lydia, please click HERE!