Looking Up – The World Beyond Our Doors
Dear Hope Church Family,
True confession: as a child, it felt as though people in our supporting churches treated our family like we had halos over our heads. Why? Because we were missionaries. Nobody needs that kind of pressure! Even as a kid, I sensed that often there are stereotypes that go along with being a missionary. Somehow, it’s easy to think that missionaries must be “super-Christians” who can live in hard places and do hard things everyday ordinary believers can’t. After growing up in the Philippines, I had the opportunity to serve as a short-term missionary in Uganda. One of my biggest take-aways? There’s no missions-equivalent of pixie dust that transforms a person as they cross an ocean to serve as a missionary – God works through us the same way in East Africa and Winston-Salem!
Here at Hope we value “engag[ing] the world by the power of the Spirit.” We put this into practice through coming alongside kids at Speas Elementary by packing backpacks of food for their weekends, and encouraging college students as their RUF campus pastors create community and foster discipleship. We also put this into practice as we support missionaries serving cross-culturally. Teachers. Doctors. Stay-at-home moms. College professors. Students. Business people. People who face many of the same joys and challenges we do, yet with the additional challenges of living in a foreign country, with its own culture, customs, languages, and religious traditions. That can feel exciting and exotic at first, but reality sets in and then often it feels overwhelming, and lonely, and stressful. Building relationships and establishing trust take time. And, as in Winston-Salem, a sense of community — of being seen and known, and the assurance that others have your back and are cheering you on makes all the difference!
Here’s a super-practical way for us to “engage the world” without ever getting on a plane: send a quick (even two sentences!) email to one of our missionaries. If you get their updates, let them know you read it and are praying. You might be surprised how incredibly rare it is for missionaries to receive feedback from an update and how tremendously encouraging that small touch point can be! When our kids were growing up, each night of the week we prayed for a different missionary family, which had the added benefit of helping our kids feel connected to what God was doing in countries as diverse as Indonesia and Germany. Maybe your life group will choose a specific missionary to connect with, and can FaceTime them to hear about what everyday life is like, and practical ways they’d appreciate encouragement. When they’re in town, invite them to go on a walk, meet for coffee, have a playdate with their kids, or dinner with your family or life group – it will bless them and enrich you more than you imagine! Here’s another idea: prayerfully consider joining the missions team! Because there’s a whole world beyond our church doors that needs “true hope for real life.”
Grace and peace,
Rosalyn Otto