Sometimes when I see people posting GoFundMe pages for their YWAM expeditions and others stressing about getting all their necessary shots for their youth group trip to Nicaragua, I feel like a horrible Christian. Sometimes I sit in my apartment and listen to all of my roommates talk about their applications for the mission trips they want to go on and feel shame for not being able to contribute to the conversation. Sometimes when people ask me, "Hanna, why aren't you going on a mission?", I feel embarrassed. I feel like I'm not living up to the expectation everyone else has of millennial Christians. Shouldn't everyone be going across the world to share the good news of Jesus in a remote village?? If I really loved Jesus and was passionate about telling others about His grace, then shouldn't I be jumping at the opportunity to send out fundraising letters for a mission trip to Africa?
Sometimes I let these lies take root deep down. But when these thoughts make me feel inadequate, God reminds me of who and how He has uniquely made me. You see, He hasn't given me a passion for oversea missions like I see others around me bubbling over with. He hasn't given me an overwhelming joy to serve the people of third world countries.
And that's okay.
Because, instead, God has intentionally crafted me with a passion for missions here...in the very place I live. I don't believe that it's an accident I live with the people I do, go to school where I do, am involved with the activities I am. I believe God has placed me in this exact longitude and latitude for a purpose, just like He has with all of us.
My mission field doesn't look like a red, dusty road that requires a native guide to lead me to a row of exotic village huts. Instead, it looks like a smooth, paved road leading me to the extravagant houses of families who, though they look like they have it all together on the outside, are severely broken.
My mission field doesn't look like a platter of questionable food that can only be eaten with my hands on the floor of a house in a different culture. Instead, it looks like the cafeteria of the middle school my small group girls go to. It looks like bringing them ice cream and sitting with them at their lunch table, meeting their friends and seeing their life.
My mission field doesn't look like a handful of evangelism tracts being passed out to people whose language I don't speak. Instead, it looks like a handful of handwritten notes in the mail to friends who need encouragement.
It looks like talking to people at work about why I go to church on Sunday mornings instead of sleeping in.
It looks like inviting friends to join me for Bible study.
It looks like unashamedly opening up my Bible at coffee shops and trusting in God ordained opportunities to talk about what I'm reading.
It's okay that I'm not going to England on a mission trip because that's not what God has made me for. He has called us all to go and make disciples of all nations, and my "nation" is here. Right where I am - the suburbs of America where people need Jesus just as desperately as they do in Uganda. I can approach the mission field where God has placed me in with the same zeal, boldness, and enthusiasm that many go on mission trips with. We are constantly on mission, and I don't need to hop on an overnight plane to tell others about my Savior. I just need to be open to everyone I come in contact with, making disciples in this nation of people blinded to the truth of grace.