Mark's Blog

Dear C,K,C,C,C,L,A,O, and N,

I can’t believe that right now three of you are in Italy on an LST mission project! And all the rest—except the very youngest ones—have already been on mission trips too!  We are so proud of all of you!  And if you are one of the young ones, don’t worry! I’m sure you will get your chance soon!

You also really have remarkable parents—all of them—because they have gone on mission trips and taken you with them!  Can you believe that some parents leave their kids at home when they go on mission trips—maybe their kids are too young or too rowdy–, but your parents wanted you to go!.  Yours want you to know how fun, how great and awesome, and how important mission trips are!  They are really good parents!!

Think of all the places you have been:  Germany, Japan, Honduras, Rwanda, Italy, Brazil, the Netherlands. Amazing!  Did you know that Grandad was 21 years-old and almost out of college before I ever went anywhere out of the United States. (No, it wasn’t that they hadn’t invented the wheel yet! I’m not that old!)

And did you know that Mimi and Grandad went to Germany as missionaries and lived there for eight years. (That’s why we always say, “Guten Appetit!” after we pray at meals.) Then, starting when Philip was 7, Ben was 5, and Emily was 3, we took them and went on mission trips every summer when school was out.

You might be wondering why mission work is so important in our family!  Good question.

First, mission work is important to our family because we are Christians, and we believe that everyone needs to know about God.  Lots of people grow up in countries where no one knows who God is. They sometimes have been told that there is no God; other kids grow up believing in many different gods.  Do you remember the 10 Commandment song that Mimi taught you when you were little.  Remember, “Don’t bow down to any yukky idols!”  That’s what Christians tell people, so they can know about the one, true God!

Second, mission work is important to our family because we believe Jesus is God’s Son, and God said that everyone needs to know this to go to heaven someday .  If we are going to be called by Jesus’ name “Christ-ians” and if we really love him, then we just naturally want to do what he says. So if God said to go and tell people, then we go and tell people.  Why wouldn’t we?

Thirdly, who is going to tell people that God loves them, if we don’t go and tell them?  And there are so many people in the world!  I think that God has some people for all of us to talk to.  What happens if one of us Christians just sleeps in or is afraid or decides to watch TV instead and some people don’t get told?  Well, don’t worry because God is very close to everyone and has promised that if people are looking for him, they will find him!  God might send somebody else to tell that person, but then wouldn’t He be a little disappointed in us for not doing what we were supposed to do!

Here are a few things I need you to know if you are going to grow up in a family that does mission work:

1. Your family is not better than families who don’t go on mission trips.  Other people’s families do other things for God.  Some families love to give food to poor people, some families love to mow yards and repair houses for people who are sick or old.  Remember that God’s family is like a body with many different body parts:  Some people are eyes and ears, some people are hands.  Your family might be the feet that like to go places—but it takes all of you to be the whole body of Jesus.
2. You have special gifts from God for doing mission work!  You’ve been on lots of airplanes and you weren’t afraid!  You’ve slept in strange beds—or maybe even on the floor without a bed. You know how to make friends with people who don’t speak English very well.  You even try a few new foods—sometimes!  These are all special gifts that make it much easier for you to do mission work.
3. Mission trips are really fun—but not all the time!  Getting to see a new country and meet new people to tell about Jesus is wonderful fun, BUT sometimes the food can make you sick, or big new bugs can bite you, or your bed is too hard, or there are no water fountains and you are thirsty, or there is no one your age to hang out with, or you just get homesick.  What I can tell you is that if you can just not gripe or complain and keep doing the good things that you went to do, a couple of weeks after you get home, you’ll hardly remember the things you didn’t like.
4. You might want to be a missionary that lives in another country someday!  Not very many people really want to do this, but as you get older, you might just listen to see if God puts this into your heart.  Now, you can’t go on your own until you are old enough and prepared to go, but don’t let that stop you from being excited about being a missionary someday.

Did you know that Jesus went on a mission trip one time?  Yep, he and his father talked it over and when it was just the right time, Jesus left his father and went on a mission trip.  When he got there, it wasn’t all that fun. At first it was a little fun because people listened to what he told them about God, but then they started saying bad things about him, things that weren’t really true.

But Jesus didn’t gripe. He stayed on his mission trip for about three years. That’s how long it took for him to do everything God wanted him to do. Then it was time to go home, so God just brought him back to Heaven.

Of course, you know where he went on his mission trip.  He came here to this world so that we could know who God is and how much he loves us. Aren’t you glad Jesus was a missionary?

And that’s why our family loves mission trips.