Building a mindset for missions

What comes to mind when someone tells you they want to be a missionary?  A specific type of person comes to my mind.  This person grew up with maps posted on her walls with hearts circling the countries she dreams of visiting one day.  She read countless biographies about missionaries with a romantic hope of one day having their own life captured in the pages of a book.  Her personality is bubbly, full of energy and a natural extrovert.  When her friends take her out to eat she spends the whole time talking to the server about Jesus.  In her free time she enjoys backpacking in wild and eating off the land.

I fall quite short in every area of this “missionary girl image”.  I never dreamed of being a missionary.  I was never really interested in any culture except my own.  I have only read one missionary biography.  I am just as nervous to share my faith as the next person.  And I don’t enjoy backpacking, it is scary and I don’t like getting dirty.  Because I fall so short of the missionary image I created for myself, you can understand why I am afraid that others might ask me what I think about becoming a missionary.  (You can read more about my excitement to move to the Philippines here.)

My church has a ministry called Mindset for Missions.  Once a week a group of ladies get together to hear updates and reports from missionaries.  Throughout the year these ladies pray for and encourage the missionaries from our church.  Since my husband and I are planning, praying and working towards becoming missionaries ourselves I realized it would be a good idea for me to attend.  Ironic as it may be, I need a mindset for missions.  Right now my mindset about missions is that romantic missionary girl image. A couple months ago my schedule worked out where I can now attend regularly.  I timidly sneak in and secretly hope no one will find out that I am a “missionary in training”, fearing that if they do then they will ask me which maps I had posted on my wall as a child.  Ha ha….  But of course this group is none of the above and God has graciously been using it in my life

Today at mindset for missions a missionary to France presented.  He gave a short presentation about the misconceived idea most people have of life in France.  He got us to think and see things from the shoes of an Islamic African immigrant now living in France.  He didn’t say anything profound or life altering.  But something did impact me from his presentation and it was this, “he loves French people.”  I have no idea how close he matches my romantic missionary image, but I do know that he loves French people.  He has a good understanding of what life is like from their perspective and he longs for them to know the hope of the gospel and for them to experience the forgiveness of Christ.

So today my mindset about missions has been influenced and altered.  I am beginning to see that being a missionary has little to do with my silly perceived image.  Instead it has everything to do with the love of Christ for the lost.