Welcome to the first installment of Missionary Mondays! I am excited about this series and the opportunity to highlight ministries, organizations and people being the hands and feet of Jesus each day.
I WANT ideas from you! I would love for my inbox to be inundated with ministries and people who I can help shine a light on. Comment below or contact me with your ideas!
When I first told my husband about this series, he said, “Wow, every Monday? Do you know that many missionaries?”
Webster defines a missionary as: a person undertaking a mission and especially a religious mission. In other words, a person that lives on purpose with their eyes focused on something other than themselves.
This is me with my Ma-maw and Pa-paw in May 2000. I had just graduated from high school and left for college in Ohio a few months later. This man, who had always been one of my favorite people on the planet, died just a year and a half later.
My Pa-paw was one of kind. (Unfortunately, I don’t embody too many of the characteristics that made him so amazing.) He was incredibly kind and the most humble man I’ve ever met. Despite his quiet and calm nature, he was a man of strong convictions, self-driven and hard-working – a member of the famed “Greatest Generation.” He was the first in his family to graduate from high school, served in World War II and went to great lengths to secure a job with Lockheed Martin and provide for his family. His faith and depth of wisdom were firmly rooted in Jesus Christ.
I’m pretty sure James was talking about my Pa-paw when he said, “…let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath.” Pa-paw never did anything quickly. If you called the house, you knew Pa-paw was answering if it took no less than 10 seconds for him to say hello. If you asked him a question, you had better not been in a hurry, because his answer would be slow and deliberate. Two of his favorite pastimes, fishing and gardening, encapsulated the slow, methodical, patient, long-suffering man he was. Maybe it was just because I was a grandkid, but I never saw him angry or even agitated.
So why the eulogy of my Pa-paw on Missionary Monday? It’s to remind us that missionaries don’t all have prayer cards and live across an ocean. They are simply people who live their lives for something bigger than themselves.
For more than 20 years, my Ma-maw and Pa-paw selflessly cared for Ire, my Ma-maw’s mentally disabled cousin. They regularly volunteered at a food bank, helping to provide basic needs to those in their community. They ministered to widows – driving them to the store, church and doctors appointments. Every Christmas Eve as a family, we sang Christmas Carols down the halls of a nursing home and on the door steps of widows and home bound friends. Even after my Pa-paw died, my Ma-maw continued these selfless acts of generosity.
See, you don’t have to stand behind a pulpit or on a stage or fly around the world to be the hands and feet of Jesus. As believers we are all called to care for the fatherless, the widows and the oppressed. You don’t have to start a non-profit – just provide a meal or a ride. Pay for the person’s order behind you in the drive through or share a tract with your waitress. Create whitespace in your schedule to allow time and mental space to see the needs around you. Create flexibility in your budget so that when a need arises, you have the resources to contribute.
As Andy Stanley says:
You may not can change the world, but you can change the world for someone.
Who’s world could you change today?