What is the end game of a missionary? What is the point? I was asked this not too long ago. I tried to boil it down to the most basic answer I could think of; to share the love that I encountered.

The End Game

To Share With

  When people think of missionaries they have a picture in their head:

• a guy cutting his way through a rain forest so he can bring the good news of Jesus Christ to some secluded tribe, or

• a woman sitting with a group of women who are a different ethnicity, everyone laughing and smiling with bibles on their laps.

Both of these images could be accurate because missionaries go to all sorts of places. Small African villages, large Canadian metropolitan areas, dusty little cities in Mexico, seaside towns in Italy.

  Missionaries go wherever people are.

That Love

  Missionaries share the love of Christ or the good news as some say. Then I think, what is the good news? Is that too much Christianese? What does ‘good news’ even mean?

Here’s the good news, plain and simple: Jesus died for you so you could spend eternity with God.

  How do they share this good news? There are so many different ways to share. Some missionaries visit prisons, hospitals, nursing homes. Other missionaries set up after school programs for children, teach job interview skills, or offer a food bank. Sometimes things as simple as not participating in gossip, being a friend to someone who needs a listening ear, pushing a car to a gas station (my failure), or saying yes when everyone else says no.

The Encounter

  There is an old saying, you should share the good news and if needed use words. Actions speak louder than words but there always comes a time to use words. Sharing the good news through actions and words.

  Sharing the simple truth of God’s love is powerful. This knowledge changed my life. And it keeps changing my life. Studying Jesus and how he lived, I find myself wanting to be more like him. He loved everyone he came across. And like finding a great hamburger joint or a mechanic who took really good care of you, my instinct is to share with others this great thing I have found. Wanting others to experience that life change I experienced.

  So my end game is to share the love that I encountered with everyone I come across. When I am anywhere there are people, I am hoping to live a life that points people to Jesus Christ, that good news I encountered, that drastically altered my life.