Missions & the TCK
I’ve recently been considering my role in world missions as an MK - where God may be leading me, etc. One insight the Lord has given me relates to the whole question of location. Missions is NOT just about location, i.e. living overseas. It’s about a perspective you have wherever you are–the perspective of the Great Commission. Your whole life is oriented around the furtherance of the name of Christ. That’s what being a missionary is, regardless of if you live in your home country or not.
So. That said, what DOES justify an MK returning to overseas mission work?
I wrestle with this question because as a TCK, I feel most at home when I’m living in a place where the color of my skin makes me stand out–corresponds with my inner feelings of being a foreigner. I like not knowing the culture, the language, not sharing any history or commonality with the people around me. Being a foreigner feels the most at home for me.
Missions is not just about going overseas–but I never want to return to living overseas just because its where I feel most at home and comfortable. So I struggle with the desire to return “home” to “overseas living” at odds with the typical justification for a call to missions. For instance, my American friend feels called to missions because she’s always had an interest in other cultures, and feels a burden for the unreached.
I feel a burden for the unreached–and I share her interest in cultures and the world. But. My interest in the world comes from a different place than hers. Mine comes from “that feels familiar” vs. some God-given, unique, almost out-of-the-norm interest like my American friend.
So what justifies me returning to the field? What would it look like for God to say, “Go. I’m sending you.”
I want God to send me. I’m ready for it. But I think sometimes I’m only ready because I miss that lifestyle. Versus being ready because I’m truly burdened for a specific people group or country.
Can anyone help me out here?
August 9th, 2008 at 4:26 pm
Hmmm, that’s interesting to hear that you felt the same way, Ingrid.
I’d like to remark, also, that as I was preparing to go overseas along with other missionaries, I was feeling progressively more guarded and detached, while they seemed to be getting more excited and engaged. That wasn’t something I was really expecting to feel. Haha, the actual “move” felt really anticlimactic.
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