Language Learning: Why to Speak their Heart-Language, Part II

Reading Time: 3 minutes
language

photo credit IMB.org photo library

Missed Part I? Grab it here.

My husband and I sat with a friend who’d spent years in Japan as a businessman. (He helped me with Go. Serve. Love’s post, Unreached People Group Focus: Japanese.)

We spoke of the culture of conformity of the Japanese. And my friend related a proverb–loosely translated, “The nail that sticks up gets pounded down.” read more

Marketplace missions: 4.13 billion reasons to consider

Reading Time: 3 minutes

marketplace missions

Go. Serve. Love’s always pretty hyped to share marketplace-missions-related stories and thoughts from Marketplace & Development Enterprises, an organization providing business, vocational, missional, and personal services to fellow believers who want to make money and make disciples in unreached communities. So we’re pulling this important post from our archives today.

In light of the 4.13 billion unreached–and the need for the solution of an equal size-MDE is looking for Christians who want to be in the workplace, either as employees or entrepreneurs, and who truly want to be intentional about developing authentic relationships. read more

Make Local Friends Overseas: 6 Ways

Reading Time: 4 minutes

make local friends

We had been living in Cairo about a year and a half when friends visited from Uganda. We ate at the mall food court when they asked how it has been meeting and making friends with Egyptians. I told them it’s been hard: Where do you meet people you can make friends with?

I mean, you don’t just make friends in the food court. read more

Unshakable Truth as You Head Overseas (PRINTABLE)

Reading Time: 2 minutes

We get it. The journey to overseas missions can feel like you’re trying to build a plane midair. With a root beer can, scotch tape, and a plastic flower. On the hard days, it’s possible you need some unshakable truth as you head overseas.

So today we’ve cobbled together a free printable infographic with some truths to hang your hat on, even if some days it feels like an overlarge sombrero. Post this in a cupboard, on a bathroom mirror, or tucked in all those books you’re reading for your training.

And chew on God’s promises for you in this journey.

TRUTH AS YOU HEAD OVERSEAS: PRINT IT HERE.

truth as you head overseas

Lord, all this–the endless to-do’s, the appointments, the support raising, the goodbyes, the questions, the applications, the wondering–every bit of the mundane and marvelous are for you.

Let my sacrifice be sweet to you. Sink my trust of you deeper into my soul, and prepare the way for you inside of me, around me, the place I’m headed, and everywhere in between.

My eyes are on you. My hope is in you. And my future is yours.

Be glorified.

TELL US: What truths have refreshed you in your path overseas?

Share the goodies with the rest of us in the comment section!

hungry for more truth as you head overseas? You might like

 

Balaam’s Donkey, Missions, & Memos from a Workaday Missionary

Reading Time: 3 minutes

Balaam's donkey

Balaam’s donkey?!

…Yeah.

You can’t be serious! People don’t even know what Balaam’s donkey is.

That may be true. But I do.

So your favorite Bible character is…a donkey.

Well, I identify with him. And I sympathize with him. And I guess I hope with him.

 

See, like a donkey, I’m a worker. I love working. I love seeing something productive getting done.

But … I also realize, after all these years, that I am not the greatest, the best, the one with the most potential, the one who will accomplish the most. I’m not some great leader. God made me a manager; an administrator.

Which brings me to the amazing thing about Balaam’s donkey. He was just a donkey. I sympathize with that. But here’s the stunning part of it: God can speak through donkeys!

Isn’t that beyond belief?

That means there is hope for me! God can use me too.

I’ve quit trying to have the wittiest response, the most insightful answer, the commanding presence, the coolest look. Take me, or leave me, but I’m a “me”. A donkey.

And I am convinced that God can, and is, “speaking” through me.

Unimpressive. But Vital

Of course, people aren’t impressed by donkeys. But they are surprised that God can make a donkey talk. And they benefit from the piece God provides through me.

Balaam’s donkey saw things his brilliant leader couldn’t see. And he helped to “avoid” the impending disaster.

Of course, he was rewarded with a beating, but that’s sort of par for the course, too.

And my donkey friend made it into the Bible. Not bad for a day’s work. Along with the prostitute who poured perfume on Jesus feet. That shook a few folks up too.

Then he went back to trudging along with an overweight, money-hungry Balaam sitting on his back. The mundane. The common. Yes. But it needs to be done.

I wonder whether Balaam treated his donkey with a little more respect after that? Or was he nervous to be around a weird donkey?

The Lackluster Plow

Thinking of us missionaries, how many of us “oxen” have plowed fields around the world for years and rarely heard a word of appreciation? We’re often taken for granted.

But the God who created us remembers us. He even gave the oxen and friends a special shout-out in the (quite missional) Jonah 4:11:

And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle?

Job and Abraham would have been nobodies without their animals. At least in the eyes of the world.

Balaam’s Donkey, and a (Braying) Message for Missions

If you’re feeling like your gifts or job description or position mean you’re negligible in the missions world–welcome, friend. You’re in good company. Know that we’ve never known the names of some of the greatest in the Kingdom of God.

From my own perspective? Allow me to speak, if you would: It’s not bad being “just” a donkey.

Editor’s note: If you’re wondering about your “small” life, consider camping out in 1 Corinthians 12 this week. 

 

Global veteran David Armstrong has set foot in 15 countries, and confesses that Crepes and Waffles in Bogota, Colombia is one of his favorite restaurants. Catch his classic post here on 8 Ways to Help your Family Flourish Overseas.

 

Like this post? You might like

My Story: The 90% You’d Rather Not Hear About

My Story: Ordinary World-Changing

Simply Indispensable? On the Importance of Your Work (…Or Not?)