Momentum For Monday, June 13th 2022

“Proclaim the message; persist in it whether convenient or not; rebuke, correct, and encourage with great patience and teaching.” ( 2 Timothy 4:2)

I don't know if I've ever written a post about missions. Maybe I have, but either way, it's happening. As I write this, I'm preparing to leave for a mission trip to Haiti (in fact, if all goes well, you'll be reading this while I'm traveling back from there). Missions has been a good part of my life since I was seventeen and the first trip I ever went on was to Mexico. Since then I've traveled to many places to serve in and out of the U.S., but Haiti and the Philippines have been the two places I've served most.

I always tell people to go on a missions trip if they ever have the opportunity. There's no better investment of your time and money. No vacation will ever be as good for your soul. Serving others and putting them first does something to you and for you that no other experience can give, especially when you are completely taken out of your culture and placed in another. And actually, missions is one of the best ways to transform your thinking. Seeing how different parts of the world live and worship will teach and challenge you in all your ways of thinking. Also, becoming continually involved in something greater than my own wants/needs has had the greatest positive impact on my mental health.

Some of us know ministry like the back of our hands. We can do it without thinking really. Events, meetings, revivals (if they still do them)…been there and done all of it. But taking ourselves out of familiarity and into uncharted territory is a good shake up that is needed.

Can it be risky? Yes. Can it be uncomfortably hot or cold? Absolutely. Can it be expensive and time consuming? Most likely. But it can also leave you changed forever. It can humble you. And it can bring you across some of the best people you've ever met. But don't take my word for it, I encourage you to find out for yourself.

“Therefore go and make disciples in all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,”

(Matthew 28:19)