Rethinking missions: When Christians are too tired to respond.

The mission of the Gospel is clear and hasn't changed. Our mandate to "Go into all the world and preach the good news " is still actively tugging on the hearts of the Body of Christ.

Somehow our lives have been made more convenient by machines that wash our clothes, do our dishes and even brush our teeth to the latest and fun technology that allows you to verbally command computers to pull up 5 minute recipes to cook faster and if that wasn't cool enough, you can listen to your favorite music while cooking or watch the news all with just a verbal command.

Yet in all those conveniences, our time seems completely spent by the end of the day. Time savers here and there and still the world bids for every minute in between with TV shows that captivate our thoughts and send emotions and hormones racing through our brains and bodies. Exhaustion follows many long days and we lose track of our purpose to love God and be loved by Him. We lose track of that sweet time of just being in His presence.

Recently my three littlest girls and I have be on a 100 day road trip through the USA. Because we have been driving for hours at a time, we have given up on radio stations as they switch so often due to distance. We do listen to YouTube worship videos a lot but often we find ourselves in silence in deep thought, talking to God and dreaming of His goodness.

We stay at different homes along the way, some have toys, some do not and some have tv and others do not. The thing we have found so refreshing is the "space" in our day, the emptiness caused by an unknown interruption of our normal routines. For us, one thing it has done is open up our lives to some new "fillers" and some I like to think is more fulfilling. The children and I follow up on people that we are praying for via social media to find the latest updates and we literally praise God with the victories and at times we shed tears of pain with the loses. This is our REAL life and REAL people.

We have also started to follow a couple cool families on YouTube that are normal folks and so much different then watching a "NOT REAL" reality tv show. We don't watch these families to live through them, we actually just enjoy the process of what they are doing, one of them is called 1000's of roots and is about a family homesteading in Missouri. In fact they inspired us to start our YOUTUBE channel called Missionary Jill and we hope to use our channel to inspire others to chase after their dreams, share that anyone can be used by God by small steps of obedience and through our newest future project we will teach Tanzanians how to grow food on small plots and inspire them to believe in the impossible. #urbanfarming #missionaryjill

Still in the midst of our day and lives we are talking about our journey to each other and hopefully I am teaching my children to slow down a bit and enjoy real life with each other and people.

The concept of missionary is pretty easy to understand. Just as the Body of Christ supports Pastors in most cases to lead church and in pastoral duties, so the Body of Christ supports Missionaries to go into all the world and share of Gods love.

Years gone past when missionaries came to town, they would share at one of the 3 weekly church meetings or even a special meeting was set to have them share. Now in our busy live, many churches or most churches have one service and truthfully a lot of Christians are literally dragging themselves out of bed to attend. Dragging themselves not because they don't want to go but they are legitimately tired.

So in this modern day it is very challenging to raise funds for projects and missionary budgets. Not to the complete fault of Pastors who feel the pressure to make it all work and minister to the congregations before them in such a small amount of time as the congregations are filled with a current exhausted society. Something has to change or something will change to change the way things are.

So people in general are mentally tired too and when they see your Facebook post on this "new and great" opportunity to do something great in the world, they continue to scroll.

I hear it everywhere I travel and all over. This longing to "slow down" enough to enjoy each other, experience community and there is where the dreams stir and passions arise. There in the midst of life is the heart of God! There is where we are reminded of His presence, we long to be in His presence and there in the midst of fellowship and true community we are strengthened for life's battles, and a fresh joy arises and strength to move to a new season.

I believe we taste bits of this on Sunday morning and this is why we actually drag ourselves out of bed, because we were created for Him and we were created to enjoy fellowship.

I wonder how in such a high tech, fast paced life can we just slow things down enough to enjoy life. Then when I say "Hey I want to help people grow their own food and give them hope", maybe you wouldn't find that annoying but rather be like "How can I help!" because I am with out doubt that people sincerely do want to help other and see others thrive in blessings and with the Hope of Christ.

Comment below on what you think of this article, let me know what you think is needed to make the shift, how can missionaries like myself who are just normal folks reach the nationals while still holding hands to the Body of Christ and shining Jesus's love to the world?#missionaryjill

You may follow us on our YOUTUBE channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTviIZrJX284nwhIYdB2Cog

Today I launch my "sponsor a flower pot" fundraiser and hope to reach my first step goal of 400 to be able to Fly back to Tanzania and start our project. We will continue our fundraising efforts as we start to build the project and continue our work in Tanzania. Thank you if you would like to be apart.

Please mark your gifts "garden project" at this link https://fire-international.org/missionaries/omari-jill-lewison/