By Troy Roberts in Thailand
The young daughter of a friend sent me this message tonight:
“Dear mr Troy, I want to ask you a question ok you ready to start where do you work and what do you do as a missionary what dose it mean to be a missionary why did you want to be a missionary ps please wright bake today”
Her questions led to my best devotional time with the Lord in quite a while. My response:
My wife, Cora, and I are missionaries with SEND International, but I work as a volunteer teacher at Chiang Rai International Christian School in Chiang Rai, Thailand. Our school helps families that share Jesus with groups of people who have never heard about him. There has been no one to tell them until now. Our school also teaches students from families that don’t know about or don’t understand Jesus. We teach them to read, write, do math, play sports, and to understand the importance of Jesus and what he did for us by dying on the cross and coming back from the dead.
“What does it mean to be a missionary?” Wow. I guess it means that I have a mission. It means that someone follows the example of Jesus who left heaven to bring his hope to a world that was dying without him. That’s my mission too. I want to take the hope of Jesus to every person who I can before my short life is over. I will go to meet God forgiven and glad when I die, but billions of beautiful people today, will not. They will be judged, found guilty, and go to Hell forever. They will suffer away from the God who made them. I don’t want that for them, and God deserves their joyful, happy worship for saving us.
Sometimes being a missionary means moving to a new place. Sometimes it means making new friends. Sometimes it means bringing a neighbor food. Sometimes being a missionary means shoveling an elderly person’s driveway. Sometimes being a missionary means praying for someone every day. Sometimes it means reading your Bible and memorizing really “good” parts.
But all of these, a missionary does because he or she wants to a chance to tell the person across the street, and across the oceans, that death is NOT the end. There is a God, and he made every person as his artwork to know him and enjoy him, to see how great he is and be amazed, completely blown away, that he is so powerful, but he still loves a tired teacher named Troy and a curious girl named ******.
Sadly though, we have rejected him, and the only way to come home to our God is to turn away from our old life and follow Jesus. “I am free because of Jesus and I want others to be free!” I think a missionary is someone who feels that way toward others.
“Why am I a missionary?” Because I don’t know a better way to tell Jesus, “Thank you.”
I really enjoyed writing this. I might have even needed to write this tonight. Thank you. Maybe you should message more missionaries. They probably all could use a reminder now and again. God bless you ***** to know him and enjoy him more than anything else in this world. I pray that you will become a “missionary” for Jesus wherever God leads you.
• • •
It’s refreshing to be reminded of the simplicity of why we Christians give it all away. There’s so much more to gain, for ourselves and everyone whom we are called to serve.
To read more from Troy and Cora Roberts, visit their blog.
