Where Do I Go From Here?

Over the past several years, I have had many people ask my opinion on how they should proceed, now that they are sensing a call to missions or ministry.  So I have condensed & compiled lots of email responses into this blog to hopefully bless someone who is asking that same question of where to go from here. There are many different suggestions, depending on a person's context & a lot of other details, but here are the basic 10 things I would tell to anyone.

1.  Press deeper into your walk with the Lord & intimacy with Jesus.  

It sounds cliche, but a lot of times we only give lip service to this and don't actually carve out time to make it a priority.  No matter what culture you serve in, what role you play in ministry, how many lives you touch, your number 1 job in life is to know God & seek Him first.  As you begin to walk down the road in discernment towards ministry & missions, satan is going to try to distract you, lie to you, frustrate you, and the only source to overcome that and stay in step with the Spirit is to pursue the Lord.  Don't wait until you are in ministry or on the mission field to start these habits - make them a priority now! 

"Spiritual disciplines are not obligations, they are delightful responses to the grace of God."  

(Loritts)

2.  Pray 

Yes, this is different than number 1.  Be intentional about praying individually & corporately for people who don't know Jesus yet in your city & around the world.  There are many prayer guides for praying for your city & the nations, so find one and commit to praying for people intentionally & regularly.  This also is a muscle that needs conditioning as many times I have felt on the mission field that my main job is to pray.  Sometimes outloud, sometimes over someone, sometimes as I am hearing someone teach, sometimes as I enter a homestead, sometimes in the middle of the night. The battle in ministry & missions begins with our prayer life - establish patterns for praying for your community, your ministry, your team before you actually are in the full time setting.  Find people in your life that you can pray with, you can pray for (right there with them while they are there), and that can pray for you. 

3.  Serve

Again, don't wait until you get to the mission field or in a ministry position to start serving.  If you see a need, meet it!  This grows our humility & dependence on the Lord while reminding us that there is no task too menial for us.  Read Philippians 2 and get out there & serve.  As you serve within various ministries, learn from your leader & ask questions because many times there are a ton of things you can learn and then apply once you are in a different context or leading yourself.  Evaluate your motives for serving.  One of the ways that God prepared me for moving to the mission field was by having me be a church janitor while saving up extra money to move to Swaziland.  My pride was broken as I realized that I would be willing to clean a toilet for free in Swaziland, but I felt like I was too good to work cleaning a toilet for my job in Colorado. 

4.  Read

Some of the best training I received for being in full time ministry & missions came not from seminary lectures, but from books & biographies that I read.  Here are a few books to start with: Humility by CJ Mahaney; Serving With Eyes Wide Open by David Livermore; God's Smuggler by Brother Andrew; Heavenly Man; The Insanity of God; The Insanity of Obedience;  anything about Hudson Taylor, David Brainerd, George Mueller, John Patton, Amy Carmichael and other missionaries; anything by Helen Roseveare; The Missionary Call; Reaching and Teaching; anything by Duane Elmer; What Is The Mission Of The Church; When Helping Hurts; anything by Sherwood Lingenfelter; You Lift Me Up; Your First Two Years In Youth Ministry.

5.  Build up a prayer team

 Start to build a prayer team that you can email or text prayer requests to once you are serving full time.  It's difficult to describe, but as you enter into different parts of Christian ministry & missions, the spiritual battle intensifies.  It's important to build this team before you enter into full time ministry or missions because you don't want to wait until a crisis or big battle to summon prayer.  For me, this has helped me to process things, verbalize needs, confess struggles, and recognize what is spiritual battle verses what is burnout, etc.  Don't make this team your overall support team, but keep this a small enough and close enough team of people that you can trust them to ask you difficult questions for accountability and so you aren't hesitant to ask for prayers even when struggling with mundane or seemingly crazy stuff.  Let them know what to expect from you and help them to understand what you expect from them.

6. Practice sacrifice & submission

In any setting that you step into to serve, you will spend tons of time learning - from the culture, from your co-workers, from other leaders.  Cultivate a heart that is ready to submit and follow.  Many mistakes in ministry & missions are made because people come in too quickly and make too many changes without taking time to learn from people and understand the context.  Also seek to cultivate a sacrificial heart, to recognize any idols, and to be ready to give up anything the Lord asks of you.  Maybe it's through fasting from meals, buying things or different habits.  From Africa to Asia to the US, I have seen people in ministry indulge in their lifestyles because they feel like they have already made a hard enough decision to serve God's people & sacrificed enough.  My concern is for their heart though.  If we expect people in our churches & ministries to be living a sacrificial lifestyle (financially, with time, etc), then we must also be ready & willing to have the Lord call us to sacrifice anything we have or desire.  2 Timothy 2:10 must become the prayer of our heart..."Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory."

7. Interact with people of other cultures

No matter if we live in the US or another country, God has called us to have a heart for all nations.  It's obviously different to live around people from a different culture, but you can start getting used to it a little while you are in the US.  Go to different restaurants to try different types of food, go to cultural festivals, pay attention to people around you and get to know where different people are from.  Find a ministry that reaches out to immigrants, refugees or other populations and get to know people there.  Get used to understanding people with different accents & habits.  Go as a learner so that you can begin to see some of the key characteristics of your own culture as well.  Remember that every culture is a bit different and all generalizations are just that, generalizations.  Walk humbly & gently as you cross cultural boundaries! 

8.  Deal with your junk

Many times we have issues in our hearts that the Lord has prompted us to deal with that we just keep pushing to the side.  Sometimes we think it will go away on its own and other times we plan on dealing with it later.  You can't run away from yourself, so it's best to take time to examine your heart & let the Lord search your heart (Psalm 51) while you are still in the midst of a church family, close friends, prayer partners, accountability partners and people who know you.  As we walk through sanctification, there will always be issues we need to deal with in our lives, but it only gets harder as you are in ministry and living in a different country to find time & places where you can take time to deal with these heart things.  

9.  Work hard

If you are getting ready to move to another country or culture to serve, make sure you do take time to spend intentionally with friends and family, but guard yourself against becoming lazy.  I have known people who have been saying they are raising support, only to find that they are only actively working on that a few hours a week.  Make sure that you are working just as hard as you expect your supporters to work for you.  Ministry is not a 9-5 job or a job that you ease into - usually you hit the ground running and can't plan some of your schedule, so keep up your work ethic now to prepare yourself to give ministry your all.  And remember that no matter where you are or what you are doing, you are working for the Lord (Colossians 3:23).

10.  Prepare (Spiritually, financially, physically)

This should go without saying, but don't enter into ministry or missions lightly.  Remember that it takes doctors many years of school to best care for peoples' bodies, so how much more diligent should we be in our preparation to care for peoples' souls?  Don't focus your preparation solely on one area, but try to think through & make time for all areas.  Have a measurable plan in place to see if you are making progress in your preparations and take advantage of those who have gone before you.  (Check out sites like askamissionary.com or missionarycare.com)

Learning About Ministry From Ebola

Remember the old illustration that many pastors have used when talking about evangelism?  They asked people to imagine that there is a disease and that you know about the cure for it, emphasizing the importance of getting out there & sharing the cure to the sick & dying in the world.  I have been thinking about that a lot as the world reacts to the Ebola outbreak in West Africa.  There are many things that fall apart in that illustration, and many ways that the physical disease doesn’t relate to the spiritual war & pandemic that we are dealing with spiritually. 

But as I reflected more on it, I have realized that there are many things that we in ministry, in missions, in the church, can learn from how the world is responding to & reacting to this health crisis.  I am just reflecting & not assuming to know anything medically about the disease.  But after serving in ministry and missions for the last 15 years, I have seen that there are a lot of ways that I can grow in serving God’s people from reflecting on this and so that’s why I am sharing these 10 things here:

1.  Admit there is a disease, a problem, and a solution.
    There are many critics of the Ebola outbreak who are asking why the global community didn’t do anything to help with the disease until it was too late.  Even though it started in 2013, it didn’t make global news until more than half way through 2014.  Many people are questioning how we could have avoided it spreading so far, and the clear answer is that it should have been dealt with early on in it’s progression.
    In the Christian church today, we are slow to define the disease affecting humanity, the problem and the solution.  In attempting to be tolerant, Christians don’t want to call sin sin, we don’t want to point to Jesus as the only way for salvation, and in seeking to not offend anyone, we have lost our mission.  We are avoiding naming the disease and moving towards making sure everyone has a chance to about the solution - salvation through the grace of Jesus.  If someone in any country had a cure for Ebola and was withholding it, everyone in the world would say that they are doing an injustice to the world and causing many people to suffer because of their inaction.  Yet, look at how sedentary Christians have become - we know that Jesus is the only way to eternal life (only cure for the disease of sin & its eternal consequences), yet we still choose comfort & popularity over radically living so that we are constantly pointing people to Christ.  We know the cure for the disease yet we are too scared/comfortable/unsure to go out and share it with a dying world!   (See also Romans 3:23, Acts 4:12)

2.  Know the basics of what you are dealing with.
    There is a lot of talk about how exactly Ebola is spread, but no one is questioning the symptoms or the consequences.  If it’s not treated, it’s fatal; and if people aren’t quarantined, they are contagious & spreading it to those around them.
    It’s amazing to me how many people are in ministry & serving in missions without knowing the basics of the gospel.  One pastor says that every Christian should be able to explain the Gospel in one minute or less (but also be ready to expand on it).  It would be interesting to go around to different ministries around the world to ask them to explain the Gospel in one minute.  Obviously, many throughout history & still today are faithfully proclaiming the Gospel.  Yet if we aren’t willing to talk clearly about sin, hell, grace, God, forgiveness & redemption, we can’t take ministry seriously. 
    Nik Ripken says, “If you do not believe that Jesus is who He claims to be, if you do not believe that Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, if you do not believe that Jesus is the very Son of God and the only way to heaven, then please do not go out among the unreached.  Do not get someone killed for something that you are not eternally sure about” (The Insanity of Obedience, p. 58).  (See also Romans 6:23, Romans 5:8, John 3:16-17, Romans 10:9, 2 Corinthians 5:17-21)

3.  Train people before they go to the worst of the crisis.    
   It would be insane to send someone to West Africa, saying that we can train them to be a doctor or a nurse once they are there.  Don’t get me wrong, I do believe that every person serving there is learning a ton.  But it’s wrong to assume that we can train people effectively in the midst of a crisis.  We need to have a base of skills that people are familiar enough with that they can do it in a foreign setting, on very little sleep, in an isolated setting, with opposition around them, under pressure for time.  Once a person has those skills, they will be able to build on them in a context where they are using them. 
    Yet how many times do we put people in a ministry setting who have no experience doing what they need to do.   Yes, I can think of Biblical examples where God’s people were put out of their normal ministry & the Holy Spirit spoke through them, but there are many cases where people are already serving in their role before God calls them to do that same role in a different place.  If people aren’t already serving, teaching, praying, sacrificing, crossing cultural boundaries in the US, what makes us think that they will do that successfully once they are in a foreign culture? (See also 1 Timothy 4:2, 6-8, 1 Thessalonians 2:8, Titus 3:1-2) 

4.  Send qualified people.
    This sounds obvious, but it’s worth mentioning.  It would be prideful & dangerous to send someone who isn’t medically qualified to go and practice medicine in the worst of the Ebola outbreak.  Just because they are foreign, white, wealthy, or anything else doesn’t mean they are trained to practice medicine.  And by having them there, it could put a lot of people in various places in danger. 
    Unfortunately, many people in ministry & missions think that because someone has a servant’s heart, or has traveled across an ocean, it somehow qualifies them to do something they wouldn’t qualify to do back home.  Why not send our best & most qualified people to do God's work (at home & abroad) instead of settling for a warm body & a willing heart.  Just because someone is a Christian doesn’t mean they are prepared to handle & preach God’s word in a church service.  (See also James 3:1, 1 Peter 4:10-11)

5.  Make sure people know their role.    
   It’s not to say that only trained professionals should be in ministry & missions - no, not at all!  God has made it clear that everyone is gifted & needed to serve His church & build up the Body of Christ...but we must know our roles.  Just as an international engineer wouldn’t be called upon to care for people in a hospital, we must also recognize that people shouldn’t be relied on to serve in a role that isn’t there.  It’s not only dangerous & deceptive, but it’s also poor stewardship!  As short term teams come and go in ministry settings around the world, let’s make clear what their role is and isn’t.  And as pastors and missionaries serve long term, let’s make sure they know their roles & are serving where they are best gifted to make the most of their efforts for building the Kingdom. (See also 1 Corinthians 12:4-31)
 

6.  Send them to where there is need.
    Again, overstating the obvious, but it would be ridiculous to send a huge team of greatly qualified doctors and nurses to South America to fight Ebola.  If we want to help people get well, we must go to the sick. 
    Yet, statistics show that a majority of missionaries & Christian ministries are serving in largely Christian populations.  Don’t get me wrong, we need ministries in all parts of the world, just as we need medical professionals in all parts of the world.  But what if there was a higher concentration of missionaries & ministries in the darkest places instead of them being so close together in places that have more churches & ministries than they can handle or need? (See also Ephesians 4: 11-14, Mark 2:17)

7.  Make sure that people are protected, accountable, and cared for while serving.
    If the medical community isn’t taking care of their own professionals and is allowing them to serve while they are sick, it’s going to do more damage than good.  In the same way, the church must take care of it’s missionaries, pastors, and each other to make sure that people are spiritually healthy as they serve.  God can use anyone, but often times a pastor who is burned out or greatly struggling is going to do more long term damage than building up the church.  It’s important for us to remember that we are all vulnerable, and we are all still in process of putting off the old and putting on the new, but if someone is obviously struggling & spiritually sick, it’s often best for them to take a break and get healthy before coming back to serve. 
    It’s also important to make sure people have what they need to fight the battle they are entering.  Whether it’s protective suits or masks, or a prayer covering, accountability partner, or vacation time, it’s important that this is made known before the person is actually involved in serving.  (See also Ephesians 6:10-20)
 

8.  Make sure that people know the vision and are working alongside others with the same vision.
    If a lone person were to show up in West Africa to try to help with the Ebola crisis, they would be most effective by joining alongside people who are already working there & know the situation.  It’s the same in missions & ministry.  Many times, you aren’t the first person to be in an area, so it’s important to find churches & organizations that have a similar vision & see if you can work together to multiply resources and effectiveness instead of re-inventing the wheel.  No organization is going to be perfect, but it’s important to think through what specific qualities are essential and then join in. 
    “[T]he absence of a clear focus will lead to worker burnout, unrealistic administrative parameters, and, most alarmingly, unresponsiveness to a lost world” (Ripken, p.60).  (See also 1 Corinthians 12:12, 14-20)

9.  Recognize the risks & the seriousness of the situation before entering it.
    It’s obvious to everyone who reads about the Ebola virus the severity of it as we read about the death rate and the symptoms.  So it’s important for people to weigh the risks and consequences before going to serve in a situation where they must be exposed.
    Yet many people enter into ministry & the mission field without realizing the intensity of the spiritual battle they are walking into.  Many approach it with the mindset of a vacation with Christians or a job with a prayer, only to find once they are in the midst of it that it’s a full out spiritual battle.  If we don’t take seriously the seriousness of a situation, we may quickly become another victim of burnout or leave the ministry & mission field all together.  The consequences of not taking a physical disease seriously are physical death for people.  How much more seriously should we take the privilege & responsibility of spiritual care for people when it has eternal consequences?  People’s lives & eternal futures are at stake.   (See also Matthew 16:24-25)
 

10.  Take care of people when they return from serving.    
    A lot has been talked about lately as health workers are returning to the US after working with Ebola and what the proper way to care for them is.  Whether it’s monitoring or quarantining, the same truth in every situation is that these people have been exposed to intense & dangerous circumstances physically, emotionally, mentally.
    Some people leaving the mission field or ministry are expected to adjust to “normal” life so quickly that they don’t have time to care for their bodies, souls, families and process and recover from all that they have been dealing with for their past service.  Just as  physical diseases may have lingering affects, serving in ministry or missions often takes time to transition back to “normal” life in a healthy way.  And sooner or later we are going to have to address those issues, so it’s better to allow people the time to recover & process through those things sooner.  (Proverbs 4:23, 1 Timothy 3:4-5, Matthew 6:33, 2 Corinthians 5:18, Mark 12:30-31)

Define Normal

A kitchen on a homestead that was damaged by a
storm.  It's normal for the family to keep cooking in
here for a couple of months while they save up money
to be able to fix it or build a new one.

The other day, Mxolisi and I were driving after a rainstorm & as we pulled into a parking lot, he said, "That's weird."  I looked around & didn't see anything too out of the norm, so I asked him what he meant.  He pointed out that a man was fetching water from a puddle.  He was using a shovel to get the water from the 3 inch deep puddle to put it into his bucket.  It was a lot closer than the hosepipe, so it made sense.  

Unfortunately, it's all too normal for young preschool
aged kids like this friend to be out on the dirt roads by
themselves walking to/from carepoints or homesteads.

There were times when I first moved to Swaziland that I would stop for a minute and try to figure out why something caught my eye, only to realize that back in Colorado, people don’t wash their clothes in the runoff from a storm drain or in the water running at the irrigation canal at the end of a field.  Yet now some of these things barely make me take a second glance, and I’m not too sure that’s a good thing!  I was driving the other day and realized that the three semis in front of me (going the same direction I was) were all side by side.  One passing one, passing another one.  On a TWO LANE ROAD.  I slowed down to make sure I wasn’t a part of any accident that was about to happen as these semis continued side by side at a high speed, and finally saw the first semi pull back over just as a car coming the opposite way flashed his lights in warning.  

It is normal for kids & adults to wear shoes & clothes
until they are completely worn through & not even
useful for rags.

A little later, I was walking out of the grocery store, when a young baby caught my eye, and I realized that I was the only one out of the many adults around who apparently thought that it wasn’t normal for an 8-9 month old baby to be sitting on the ground of the courtyard/parking lot playing with the dirty wheel of a shopping cart while his mom chatted nearby.

And I have found myself eating things out of my refrigerator after the power has been out for more than 50 hours this weekend, not really questioning the “2 hour danger zone” my 7th grade science teacher warned me about, because I smelled the food & it didn’t smell bad.  (And, just for those of you who are wondering, I didn't get sick).

It is completely normal for older kids to be taking care
of a relatives kid while the parent is at work.  Here a
high school boy answers a question during discipleship
time while holding his niece.

As weird as some of those things sound, it also makes me question how off some of our sense of normal is...maybe it’s ok for kids to play in the dirt & get dirty, without having someone bleach everything around them before they go play there.  Or maybe it is ok to eat food past its expiration date unless it’s too far gone.  But it also makes me aware of how numb we can become to some of the circumstances around us that aren't ok.  It is dangerous the way some people drive.  It's dangerous for preschoolers to walk to & from school alone on the edge of a highway.  It's dangerous for a first grader to care for an infant.  As I pray for God to continue to help me understand the cultures around me (whether Swazi, American or anywhere else), I also pray that He would give me discernment to how things should be. 

The Thing About History...

In 2009, this guy was one of the ones that I got to know
quickly as we spent time together at the center.

 When I first moved to Swaziland, one of the things I didn’t realize I would miss from my life back home is the familiar history that I shared among people in my own culture, and people who I had lived life with for many years.  My sisters and I obviously share the most history together and many times can be found thinking the same thing in a situation just because of the ways it triggers our thoughts.

As I got settled in to life in Swaziland, I sometimes became quiet because it would be too much work to explain the context behind a word or situation, something that someone from my culture or my life back home would just know. 

There were times when I wanted people to know the context of a relationship or a hobby, but it takes time to share stories and get to know each other before that could happen.  There were times when I wanted to be able to explain how something reminded me of an old song or movie or tv show, but I knew it wouldn’t make sense, so I often just laughed to myself.  

During our first home visit to Ntombi's house in 2009...
little did I know how much she would become a part of
my prayers & life over the last 5 years. 

But as it happens anywhere, we share bits and pieces of our own histories as we begin to make history together.  This happened as I eased into life in Swaziland - I was able to tell friends here about friends & family back home.  At times they were able to meet them as they came over to visit.  And they shared bits & pieces of their family history and life history with me as we went through life.  Even today at the gas station, a Swazi friend who works there asked how my sister's kids are and if my other sister had her baby yet. 

And I found myself in the middle of a history that God was building in us together...I can look back now over the last few years and see lots of times I can remember with my Swazi friends and realize that we have a lot more in common than we thought at first.

M & I share a common history as his younger sister was
one of my favorite kids out of all of the carepoints.  Here
we were in 2009, just 4 short years before his sister
would be hit & killed by a car & he & I would see each
other at her funeral on a rainy, muddy morning. 

Yet as I prepare to step away from AIM, one of the unexpected hardest parts for me is leaving the history.  As others step in and meet some of our kids & friends, I can’t help but think back to the history of that person that God has allowed me to experience.  For one, being part of throwing him a party for his 1st birthday, and then just a couple weeks later, helping his parents get his mom’s body to the morgue and then bringing the casket home for burial.  For another, older girls from her homestead would bring her to the center with them when she was just 4 months old, and I have watched her grow up over the last 5 years!  For those coming now to serve, they meet this 6 year old and 5 year old and haven’t experienced the history that has made them who they are today.

Over the next few weeks & months, I hope to share a glimpse here into some of the ways that God has been at work here in Swaziland (now that I have a bit more time to blog).  In the midst of the busy day to day ministry, we sometimes lost sight of how God was moving, but now as I slow down and reflect over the last 5 years & the ways God has worked, I am humbled by His faithfulness and it fuels my faith in His faithfulness for the ways He will lead & work in the future.  And as I prepare to spend some time back in Colorado, I will again find myself in a place where I am having to explain history of a Swazi friend, situation, or experience, as I figure out how to make new history there.

...only God who gives the growth...

Teaching all the gogos who volunteer
at our ten carepoints.

“What then is Apollos?  What is Paul?  Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each.  I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.  So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.” 

                                           (1 Corinthians 3:5-7)

As teams have come and gone here in Nsoko, this metaphor is one that we talk about often.  It is easy when we are talking literally about gardens - the last team harvested & cleared the land, now it’s this team’s turn to plant & weed.  But it applies so much to the spiritual work we are doing here too - one month we handed a Bible to a disabled widower, and 6 months later we went back with another group of people to hear that he had surrendered his life to Christ as he read his Bible. 
 

Helping Zola (blind teenager) blow up
soccer balls for a fun day.

It’s one thing to talk about it with short term teams coming and going, but it’s another thing to live it out.  To watch some of the seeds that we have planted grow into fruit, and be willing to entrust them to another one’s care.  To have worked a long time weeding out the weeds in someone’s heart, and be willing to trust another person to continue weeding until the seed takes root.  Yet God reminds us again...”it is God who gives the growth.”
 

And so that’s why, in this season, I can continue to be excited about what God is doing around our carepoints in Nsoko, even though I won’t be the one watering, planting, weeding, and harvesting.  After 5 years of having a front row seat to see how God is growing His church here in Nsoko, He is calling me away.  Later this year, Mxolisi and I will be transitioning away from ministry with AIM in Nsoko.  But God’s work continues.  And He has answered our prayer to bring more workers to this harvestfield.  

With the gogos who cook at one of our carepoints
at the church dedication service. 

It is more than bittersweet as we transition from a chapter with so much history & depth & familiarity to taking a step of faith into the next chapter of our life together.  It’s impossible to walk through a process of saying goodbye to individuals and communities that we have walked through life and death with (even as I type this, I think of one of the women who almost gave birth in the back of our car with me while Mxolisi was driving, or another mom who had to bury her son who died too young) and yet that is our delicate task over the next weeks & months...to try to say goodbye in a God-honoring way to hundreds of people who have said way too many goodbyes in their short lives.  People have asked what we will be doing, and the short answer is...continuing to love God & love people, no matter where we find ourselves; serving faithfully to plant, water, weed and harvest no matter what garden God puts us in!

Mxolisi and I at one of the big game parks in Swaziland.

After a busy year with too little time to write, we will be updating the blog more often as we process through this transition and into the next chapter of what God is doing in our lives!
                    “Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God.”
                                                        Corrie Ten Boom