missions

“Every Christian is either a missionary or an imposter.”

The Church and the military have a lot in common. Both involve large groups of people. Both have missions. Both exist for the benefit of others. Both require personal sacrifice.

But they also have one very remarkable difference.

Just before Christmas in 2000, a 7-year-old boy named Tyrel Wolfe stuffed a humble shoebox with simple gifts, along with a picture of himself dressed like a cowboy, and mailed it overseas in the hopes it would bless a child in need.

Though he didn’t know it, the boy would one day receive a much greater blessing from the recipient.

In late 2001, most Americans were still reeling from the coordinated terrorist attacks that shook the entire world. However, a very select few – members of the CIA’s highly trained Team Echo – found themselves in Afghanistan leading Operation Jawbreaker, America’s first retaliation against Al Qaeda and the Taliban.

Unfortunately, some of them would learn that friendly fire is just as deadly as the enemy’s.

Missionary’s kids are a special breed. They’ve traipsed around the globe with their parents sharing the Gospel as a family. But sometimes, they stand out just as much when they get back home as they did when they were on the mission field.

Here are a few ways you can pick them out in a crowd.

Dr. Martha Myers touched the lives of thousands of people as a medical missionary in the country of Yemen. The native of Alabama worked long hours at the Jibla Baptist Hospital throughout the week, and then delivered treatment and medical supplies on weekends.

And even though she was shot and killed in 2002, she’s still impacting Yemenis because of a decision she made years earlier.

When Moung Nau died in Burma in the 19th Century, he did so as a Christian. The Buddhist had been reached with the Gospel of Jesus Christ in his native land by the efforts of an American missionary who labored and suffered like no other.

But would that missionary’s success be worth the horrible anguish he faced?

At a pastor’s conference in Scotland in 1865, Hudson Taylor, the mighty missionary to China, was given the opportunity to address 2,000 pastors about his work. Sadly, many churches in Europe couldn’t have been less concerned about the millions of Chinese people dying apart from Christ on a monthly basis.

But then, Hudson Taylor opened his sermon with this story….

England’s Hudson Taylor, the missionary God used to transform China, was consumed with leading the lost into God’s Kingdom. In spite of the unfathomable challenges he would face – a lack of money, support, translators, and supplies – he never once asked anyone for money. Instead, he simply prayed.

Why not? That strategy paid off time and time again….

“He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose.”