Missionary Profile

"I don't feel very 'Missionary-ish'," I recently confided to a friend. "We just don't fit the profile."
"And what was the profile SIM gave you at your missionary orientation?" she asked.
I had to laugh. She made a good point. God doesn't make profiles..that's a human characteristic.

My original profile of what a missionary is looks something like this:

* Very devout -- never misses church, Bible study, small group meetings, etc.
* Reads the Bible daily and knows more about it than the average pastor
* Never watches TV, unless it's a documentary on a foreign country
* Leads a totally self-sacrificing life
* Happily lives in and among abject poverty, in bug and reptile infested locations
* Can address any questions raised with regard to the Christian faith
* Always remembers to send thank you notes

Do you have a similar view? Well, if you do then you can relate.

To be perfectly honest, we don't fit this profile. Not even close. We typically don't miss church mainly because I teach Sunday school, but small group meetings and Bible studies frequently take a back seat to the demands of work. We try to read the Bible every day. Jeff's better at this than I am, but I'm more apt to not read for a week, then spend a big chunk of time reading and researching a passage (note the "lamb of God" blog...). TV..hmmm...I'm not even going to go there. It would shock you too much to know the amount of time we spend in front of the idiot box. Self-sacrificing? Not hardly. We all hate spiders and snakes. (We're pretty vocal about it, too!) I'm very attached to air-conditioning and food without meal worms. Apologetics? I get defensive. After all, how DARE someone question the truth????? I've never been very good at debate and can usually think of the perfect thing to say about a day or two after the actual conversation, when I've had time to rethink the exchange 450 times.

So, why did God call us to become missionaries? Why did he call Gideon, a young farmer, to lead an army to deliver Isreal? Judges 6:15 shows Gideon had this same question.

And he said to him, "Pray, Lord, how can I deliver Israel? Behold, my clan is the weakest in Manas'seh, and I am the least in my family."

Gideon questioned God, "Why me?" But once God calmed his fears that this call wasn't in his head, and actually came from the Almighty, Gideon simply did as he was asked. He trusted that God knew what He was doing when He whittled the army down to 300 people, even though that flew in the face of logic. God wanted to make sure that everyone knew it was by His power that Isreal was delivered.

God often uses the least likely people to accomplish great things. That way, there's no doubt that God is behind it. So, even though we may not be the cream of the crop being sent into the world, like Paul and Barnabas were, we are willing to go and do whatever He's got for us to do. Make no mistake that whatever good comes from our adventure in Africa, it's all God's doing.

We think maybe God is using us to show others that they don't have to fit a profile of the "perfect Christian" to be used in mighty ways. He's just looking for imperfect people to say "Yes, God. Use me."

Look Deeper

I love the Bible because the more you read, and the more you learn about the history and customs of the time in which it was written, the more meaning it has and the more amazing it becomes. Take the birth of Jesus for example. John the Baptist introduced Jesus as "The Lamb of God". Revelation extensively refers to Jesus as the "Lamb". Why a lamb?
Well, lambs were significant because they were offered as a daily sacrafice in the temple, back in and before Jesus' time. Jewish doctors say that the morning daily sacrifice made atonement for the iniquities done in the night; and the evening sacrifice made atonement for the iniquities that were by day. There were many animals used in sacrifice. Leviticus tells us that the lamb was used for "common" people.
Then, there's the lamb sacrificed in the days of Moses. The Egyptian Pharoah wouldn't let the Isrealite slaves go, so God sent a "series of unfortunate events" to convince him. He was stubborn and really didn't want to lose his million plus labor force, so the events got increasingly bad until the final event culminated in an Angel of Death killing off the first born sons in all the homes in Egypt -- unless -- the blood of a lamb was spread on the door posts of the home.
So, we know that lambs were sacrificed. The title "Lamb of God" tells us that this was a sacrifice from God. But let's go deeper, or maybe more superficial but something easily overlooked. Lambs had to be perfect to be offered in sacrifice. No bug bites, no bruises, no cuts or birth defects could be allowed. Have you ever been on a ranch and seen lambs or calves running around? Perfect animals are hard to come by. Nothing's changed since the time of Christ in that respect. Perfect animals had to be "cultivated". If you had one born without defect, you had to take very good care to keep it from being defected by everyday living! This was big business for some.
Pregnant ewe's were watched closely. When the time came for them to deliver, they were brought into the stable if possible to keep them out of the elements. The shepherd was the first to be there when the lamb was born. He'd check it for birth defects, blemishes, etc. When a lamb was born without defect, it was wrapped in cloths kept in the stable, known as "swaddling cloths" to keep it from injuring itself.
Luke 2:7 says, "And she gave birth to her first-born son; and she wrapped Him in swaddling cloths". Those cloths Jesus was wrapped in were the same ones used to wrap perfect lambs destined to become a sacrifice in the temple.
Where was Jesus born? The rest of Luke 2:7 says
Mary "laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn."
Jesus was born in a stable. Hmmm - bad luck in not finding a motel or God's plan to underline his point?
Who was the first to hear of Jesus' birth? You got it -- the shepherds.
Luke 2:8 "And in the same region there were some shepherds staying out in the fields, and keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord suddenly stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them; and they were terribly frightened. And the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy which shall be for all the people; for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord."
Shepherds were the first to find out about a promised and longed-for King, because that King was destined to be God's sacrificial lamb.
If there's any doubt that Jesus' purpose in coming to earth was to be the ultimate sacrifice for common people, the picture and references to Jesus as the Lamb of God certainly dispells that doubt. Make no mistake, however, that Jesus had a choice in His ultimate destiny, unlike that of a lamb. Jesus chose to carry out His Father's will, even knowing what that was. God protected him, too. Jesus was the one person who could totally destroy Satan and his plans for this world. You can bet Jesus was the biggest target of Satan's attacks of anyone in the world at any time in our history.
We, too, have a choice. God's got a plan for us, just as he did for Jesus. Our choice is whether or not to walk in faith, trusting God to keep us safe, to give us strength when we need it and to fulfill His plan for us, no matter what that may be. Christmas offers us a time to look deeper at the birth of the Christ. It's not just a birthday celebration, but a celebration to commemorate God's extended hand to bring us home.

Better make good!

Since I'm going around saying I'm going to start a blog, I figured I'd better make good! ...like there's not enough to do around Christmas, right? :) Sigh...that's usually how things work for me. If there's not a mountain to do, nothing gets done.

We are really excited about this new adventure we're headed on and so glad you are coming along with us (did you forget to buy your tickets????) ;) ...virtually, anyway. As we make progress toward our immediate goal of getting to Kenya by June 2008, we'll keep you posted along the way. This is a pretty aggressive goal, considering we haven't even started raising support yet. But God can do anything, and us dragging our feet on this part of the project will just make it totally evident that it's all God and only God getting us there.

OK, in case you just found this and don't have a clue what I'm talking about you can view our video on Google at http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7098226834838332043. In a nutshell, God called us to serve Him in Kenya about 3 years ago. After the initial shock, we visited Kenya and fell in love with the people and the country. Not knowing what we were supposed to be doing there, we looked for opportunities that jived with our background. SIM (Serving in Mission) had a few computer-type spots, so we started following that trail. God knew just what He was doing (no big surprise there, eh?) and hooked us up with an agency that really knows how to train and groom newbies like us. Since it didn't make sense to sell my business and all our stuff and move to Africa for under two years, we chose the "long term" route. We didn't really realize that "long term" training meant "You'll make it to Kenya sometime before you turn 80!" :) So here we are -- 3 years later -- finally official "appointees"! Yea! We might actually make it there before Jeff turns 50! Woohoo!

Our life has pretty much been turned upside down a few times in those 3 years -- that would be known as "God-training". But how better to know that the lessons we've gone through were specifically designed to prepare us for the second half of our lives! I'll spare you the gory details of those lessons in an effort to keep you from either falling sound asleep or screaming from fright and we'll just start moving forward from here.

After six months of looking hard for a company to take over the care and feeding of my most precious clients, who are honestly more like family to me than business associates, I've settled on a local company and that transition will be effective January 1. We'll work on gradually easing me out and them in over the next six months.

Jeff's still working for UPS. It will give us medical benefits until we leave for Africa and keep Jeff busy. Qualifying as a driver has been hard, since it's been during the Christmas season, but he really loves talking to everyone. Can you imagine that???

Ashley's big job for the next six months (besides emptying the dishwasher) is to finish 3rd grade without math nightmares. Little does she know we won't have a dishwasher to empty in Kenya -- she'll get to do it all! :) (I'm not telling her that until we get there -- so keep that little ditty to yourself if you see her, OK? ) ;)

The house will go up for sale after Christmas. Keep us in your prayers that it sells in God's perfect time.

Well, that pretty much brings you up to date. I'll get some pictures up here pretty soon so you can see what Kenya looks like.

Have a very Merry Christmas!