Missionaries are weird people.

Missions is in my blood. I’ve had aunts, uncles, cousins, great aunts and grandparents on pretty much every continent at one time or another. And if anyone is weirder than my family, I haven’t met them yet.

I remember while my grandpa was literally traveling around the world. We marked his progress with colored pins and yarn on a map on the wall. Singapore, Hong Kong, Madrid, Mexico City, Calcutta, Manilla… He came back with this big box of money from all over the world. My mom spent years in Spain as an MK when she was little. My aunt and uncle lived in Haiti for a while and adopted some kids from there (and Asia and Africa). My other grandparents were big into Young Life, which is basically missionary work to high school students. My great grandpa was a missionary to rural western America. He’d drop into some podunk town; ask if the Bible was being taught there. If the answer was no, dad-gummit he was gonna start a church there.

I also remember the missionary conferences at church when I was a kid. The men had beards, the women wore no makeup and everyone was wearing sandals. They’d tell wild stories of their fiery conversion, how they were eating bugs to survive and whatnot. Then they’d tell of their miraculous call to the fieldâ€"God had appeared to them and said, “Hezachaia Brown, you are to minister to the orphans with spina bifida and cleft palate at orphanage #2 in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. Kyrgyzstan? Hang on, I’ll get you a map.â€? Then they’d either wrap it up with a guilt trip (Look at the starving children! LOOK AT THEM!) or thank God for making them eat bugs because it prepared them for ministry somehow.

Like I said, weird. But what is a missionary? Is a missionary different than any other believer? Is there some gene that predisposes one to the mission field and saintliness?

It didn’t work that way for me (I mean the bugs and voices from on high) and I’m not totally sure what a missionary is. It still seems like a made-up word sometimes. Having done no research whatsoever and without any education on the matter, I sometimes feel particularly unqualified to comment on the matter. But, as you can see, I’ve gotten over it for the time being.

A missionary is simply one who communicates God’s truth across a culture. Ethnicities and regions all have there cultures of course, but there’re also cultures of wealth, poverty and education. For over the last 55 years each generation in America has been told it has its own culture and is distinct from all who’ve come before. This is a lie, but that’s a topic for another essay maybe. A Russian speaking Yankee fan from Brooklyn is going to relate differently to life than Paul Allen (owner of the Seattle Seahawks and Portland Trail Blazers) does in his luxury box. One point of all this is not everyone overseas for Jesus is a missionary. My other point is you might already be a missionary.

So, 500 words later and he’s finally getting to his first point. Hooray! Not quite, I want to clear up some common misconceptions of the mission field. You’d think the mission field would be a great place to find the cream of Christianity. Well… yes and no.

Some of the “missionaries� I’ve met in the field scared me. They either had an uncompromising view of limited atonement that amounted to salvation itself or they were obviously ill-suited for missions work. Some people go into missions because they have an agenda (This is often confused with a calling. I am not saying it is spiritual to be wishy-washy). They couldn’t find a platform in the US, or kept getting knocked off the platform they were on because they’re dang annoying, so they came overseas.

There’s a misconception that the mission field is full of super-Christians who are so holy they shine. It has all the problems of the church it came from, only worse because the environment overseas is usually a gazillion times more stressful (at first) than life at home. Ok, back to my ‘point’.

Others on the mission field react poorly to the cross-cultural experience. The Gospel gets entangled with all sorts of angst and culture shock. “They� need saving because… well just look at how their women dress! Look at how their men drink! Look at this poor excuse for sausage! You call this a bookshelf? Public transportation! Mud! Gah! I tried not to hang out with these people overseas, but they’re everywhere. I’m ashamed that I was like this too at first. It helped me to understand I (they) was (were) only homesick, deep down. Or maybe I (they) really am (are) a prick(s), I don’t know.

So then there are those who come overseas because they don’t know what else to do. This is a minority, but they’re there. I’ve met men with zero direction in their life and zero spiritual maturity, but because mission organizations are so desperate, they’ll take anyone who’ll sign the statement of faith. Missions is a respectable future that doesn’t prompt too many difficult questions. Of course, the organizations ask tough questions, but they are very understanding. Most folks know how to sound when they answer these questions even if they don’t know how. People in general won’t ask questions because people tend to assume the best of missionaries. People like to assume the best of missionaries because it’s a bold an obvious (stated, at least) calling and whenever someone makes a bold statement like, “I’m a missionary� it makes them feel a tiny bit guilty deep down. If people do insist on asking questions, you can just answer, “I feel called� which everyone knows is impossible to argue with.

There were also the “missionaries� who never left the American compound. They never ate the food, learned the language or made any friends. Everyone they know speaks English and has a liberal arts degree from a private university. I’m not saying their ministry to other ex-pats isn’t essential, I’m just saying they’re not missionaries. This was me at first.

Even though I was living in Tashkent (the capitol of where?), I wasn’t any more of a missionary than my mother at home. This is my second pointâ€"you don’t have to go to Wheretheheckistan to be a missionary. Communicating within a culture is simply witnessing. You do have to communicate the Gospel across a culture though. I love missions, even if I whine. We’re all called to the field and the field is literally all around us.

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