In the city

I keep thinking about what it will look like. Missions, I mean. My role in it. Will it involve practical helps? Yes, I think so, but not just service alone. Will it involve outright gospel teaching? I hope so. Will it be urban or rural? Probably urban, given that city and suburban life is all I’ve known. I can’t know these things for certain, but I can make guesses when I look at the ministry examples of Jesus and Paul.

I never knew there was such a thing as urban missions until a few years ago. Missionaries only went where hungry children with bloated tummies sat with flies crawling on them. Or where tongue-clicking tribal folk would hunt people, then become "civilized" after receiving clothes and schooling. Someone in my Perspectives class three years ago advertised a one-day missions conference sponsored by OMF International. The couple I sat near planned to attend. At least I’d know someone, I reasoned. I didn’t know what to expect.

One man shared about North Koreans and their sincere exaltation of Kim Jong Il. Plans were already in motion for him and his family to go there, and he hoped some of us would join his team. And then we heard about an outreach ministry to shopworkers in Taiwan, women who work 7 days a week in retail stores. These workers don’t have time for much outside work, so ministry workers go to the shops to get to know these women, build relationships, and hopefully share the gospel. It was a picture of “missionary work” that was much different than anything I had ever imagined. Missionary work…in a city. That was all new to me. It seemed so creative and out of the box. And it seemed accessible, like something even a city dweller like myself could do. The idea of “missions” was becoming less distant, less mysterious.


Where will I end up? There are countries that make more sense, based on my ethnicity (Chinese-American) or my language abilities (some Cantonese, some Spanish). But then again, those things might not mean anything: one of my Korean-American friends has been learning Mandarin because she has a heart for China, and recently I met a Vietnamese woman who was first a Bible translator in Africa for ten years, then a counselor in Siberia, learning Russian. I don’t think I have a “heart” for a particular people group yet. I want to be open and see where the Lord leads. I'm not in a hurry right now. He knows, and I guess I’ll find out soon enough.


Photo ©OutIntoLeafyNowhere (from the top of the Empire State Building)