Missions Trends to Help You Work Smarter: Part 1

Reading Time: 4 minutes

missions trends

Do you remember your first exposure to global work? At the risk of dating myself, mine involved slideshows, prayer cards for your fridge, and talk about jungles, huts, canoes, and a Peace Child. In third grade, I told Mom I wanted to go to Japan as a missionary.

The great news? Along with our speed-of-light world, missions has changed, too. Missions trends reflect that as a Church, we’re learning from our mistakes (like missions that whiffs of colonialism or cultural appropriation; check out Does Christianity destroy culture?). read more

How to Build Community as a Missionary Overseas

Reading Time: 7 minutes

build community

Editor’s note: Tucked away in my family room sits a box made of exotic African wood, lugged back using precious luggage weight when my family returned from Uganda. It is one of our most beautiful possessions–not physically, but in its emotional cargo. It was fashioned by hand in the workshop of our organization as one-of-a-kind. Tucked within are loads of letters and laminated photographs of lives we loved and shared in our efforts to build community overseas. 

You likely share the goal of my family: to dig in deeply enough to love well, intimately enough to change each other. To work toward the brand of enduring, life-on-life love that models God’s Body. read more

What Racial Discrimination Reminds Us about Overseas Missions

Reading Time: 6 minutes

racial discrimination

Perhaps, like me, your gut sinks like a stone over the events of the last few weeks–precipitated by issues centuries old, accentuated by the deaths of people named Ahmaud. Breonna. George. In lieu of online services, my husband and I have led “home church” with our kids about racial discrimination. I’ve talked with beleagured police families, with brown friends.

As a person looking overseas, how have you personally responded to a nation exploding in anger and riots? (Here’s a helpful perspective from The Gospel Coalition: “Oh, God, Make Us Angry.”) read more

#BestoftheBestFridays: Animated videos for Muslims; Gospel movies in 23 languages

Reading Time: 2 minutes

bestofthebestfriday

Perhaps you’ve read the recent headlines of a young woman who moved to Uganda at 19–but is now under investigation regarding a number of children who lost their lives in her clinic, considering she was not a medical professional.

A Live Overseas wrestles with a handful of the questions we’re all wondering in their excellent post, How Equipped is Equipped Enough? read more

My Story: Lord, could I go where laundry is easy?

Reading Time: 3 minutes

laundry

During the month of August, Go. Serve. Love is stoked to share stories from All Nations, a global training and sending agency.

All Nation’s vision is to see Jesus worshiped by all the peoples of the earth.  Their mission? To make disciples and train leaders to ignite church planting movements among the neglected peoples of the earth. read more

Why to Learn Their Heart-Language, Even if They Speak Yours: 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

My Story: Will I Bend or Break Overseas?

Reading Time: 3 minutes

flexibility bend break

During the month of August, Go. Serve. Love is stoked to share stories from All Nations, a global training and sending agency.

All Nation’s vision is to see Jesus worshiped by all the peoples of the earth.  Their mission? To make disciples and train leaders to ignite church planting movements among the neglected peoples of the earth. read more