Mission

I was 6 years old when I announced to my mother that one day I wanted to be a missionary to Ethiopia.  Back then, my parents had bought a vinyl record called “Psalty’s Worship Workshop: A heart to change the world.”  It was basically an audio theatre production that not only had music about “going into the world” and being a missionary but it also had verbal scripted conversations happening between each song.  I do believe that the word “missionary” was used in there somewhere for me to desire to become a “missionary” at such a young age with no model of what that looked like around me.

Over the years, however, my view of the word “missionary” has changed.  Through taking various Missions classes and being involved in church life in New Zealand, I came to realise that being a missionary wasn’t just about long distance travel or  pioneering new churches or programmes across the ocean.  When I moved to South Auckland and started getting involved with the children’s ministry in our church, I remember my mother saying to me “this is your mission field now.”  Perhaps, I thought, that this is how far I will go in terms of leaving my homeland (the North Shore) and going into “all the world.”  South Auckland was, indeed far from the culture that I was brought up in and these children that we picked up off the street were very needy and somewhat “poor”.

A song we used to sing with the kids in Otara was a song that went “Be a missionary everyday…” and we encouraged people to reach out into their community, into their family and not think that they had to spend a lot of money to evangelize the world.  This started to be comfortable with me, especially as I read and heard about “missionaries” who had ignorantly colonized different countries including our own.  So called “missionaries” who had done more damage than good as they intruded on foreign lands with the intention of imposing their own culture on the indigenous people without thought or care to preserve the rich culture that already existed.  Yes, I was happy to drop my ambition to be a “missionary” but I was not ready to drop my desire to go to Ethiopia to help the needy.

I was left however, with no other option but to do what I wanted to do, under the guise of a “Mission Trip”.  Even though a short term stint, the fact that you come under the umbrella of a “Mission organisation” and are on a “Mission Trip” somehow, makes you a Missionary.  I wonder if one day, we will be able to rename this phenomenon that is the “Mission Trip” to something a little more Post-Modern.  I guess, yes, we are on a mission.   But we were on a mission before we left New Zealand also.  We look at the New Testament and see Paul’s missionary journeys and we compare that to today.  Yet I’ve just found another journey that is a little closer to home, and a little more reflective of what I see here happening today.  It’s found in 1 Kings 10 and it comes straight out of Ethiopia. 

Now when the queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon concerning the name of the LORD, she came to test him with hard questions.  She came to Jerusalem with a very great retinue, with camels bearing spices and very much gold and precious stones. And when she came to Solomon, she told him all that was on her mind. And Solomon answered all her questions; there was nothing hidden from the king that he could not explain to her. And when the queen of Sheba had seen all the wisdom of Solomon, the house that he had built, the food of his table, the seating of his officials, and the attendance of his servants, their clothing, his cupbearers, and his burnt offerings that he offered at the house of the LORD, there was no more breath in her. And she said to the king, "The report was true that I heard in my own land of your words and of your wisdom, but I did not believe the reports until I came and my own eyes had seen it. And behold, the half was not told me. Your wisdom and prosperity surpass the report that I heard.”

 Today, what I see is people, like us, coming here to Ethiopia because of what they have heard.  We came here, not only because there is need here, but because we found this great organization on the internet and we wanted to be a part of what they are doing.  We only knew of what we had read on their website, but it all sounded great to us and resonated with so much of what we believed to be good and wise.  It was an organization that worked with widows and orphans (something that the Bible says repeatedly that we should do.)  They worked holistically to meet the needs of the orphans while working alongside their church.  They had plans for a Children’s Centre that would function to help meet the needs of the community.  Their motto was “Excellence in Everything” and they were all about equipping people to be effective in the ministry and in life in general.  They were not under one church but partnered with five churches.  There was a great model being utilized here and they were open to more vision. 

So like Queen Sheba, we packed up all our belongings, and we see others bring many gifts and great resources to see what is happening here.  Now after being here 8 weeks and having visitors join us from overseas, we get to see others witness the great work that is happening here and then leave even more supportive than when they have come.  There is a saying that I coined when I came to Ethiopia on my first trip that says “You don’t know until you Go!”  This is what Queen Sheba experienced and articulated when she said “The report was true that I heard in my own land of your words and of your wisdom, but I did not believe the reports until I came and my own eyes had seen it. And behold, the half was not told me. Your wisdom and prosperity surpass the report that I heard.”  Even though she was leaving Ethiopia to visit Israel and even though she went to find prosperity and add to it, she experienced many of the same emotions that we see others experience here. 

This is the kind of mission I like.  The mission where there is not a discovering of lack, but a discovering of fulfilment.  Where the impact of your visit is an encouragement to those you are visiting.  That it isn’t about creating something new, but adding to what is already going well.  This is what we are experiencing now.   We came to find that Ethiopia is progressing forward, that the people here are using wisdom in finding solutions to help meet the needs of the poor.  

Hearing great things about what is going on here, we encourage people to come and see for themselves because you really don’t know until you go.  And so we press forward and say, what more can we do?  How can we give, like Queen Sheba, a gift of blessing to endorse the work that is being done here and the wisdom that is being displayed?  In the last month we have seen people come and give generously to the work here and it encourages people to keep on going forward.  This is the feeling that should be left after such a trip.  Not a feeling of lack or discontentment.  So we also remain encouraged and move forward with great anticipation of what God is going to do in the future. Amen!