What It Actually Means To Be A Missionary

     Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be a missionary? Chances are, I bet you have. You might even feel called to missions, or you might have at least thought about being a missionary at some point in your life.

If you’ve ever been curious about what it’s like to be a missionary, Kisses from Katie, By Katie Davis is a great book to check out. This book follows the story of Katie Davis, a nineteen-year-old girl who leaves everything behind her to follow God in Uganda, where she eventually adopts many little girls.

Even though this book is a biography, just like all other books, it carries a theme. The theme of this book is carefully woven throughout every single page of the entire book. The theme is quite simple: Missionaries are difference makers that serve the Lord. You can be a difference maker in your community. The desire and fuel behind being a difference maker are rooted in love that pours out of you as you abide in Christ and fall deeply in love with your savior.

Every chapter of this book shows multiple examples of how Katie was a difference maker in her community of people in Uganda. What’s so important about this theme is that she never set out to change the world, just making one person smile was sufficient for her.

Her love for God truly did impact the way she treated others. She was able to love unconditionally from a position of rest as she remembered that her Father in heaven loved her unconditionally.

It’s so important that our love for others and desire to be a difference maker flows out of our relationship with Christ. If it doesn’t, we will never be able to love like Jesus and our desire to be a missionary for Christ will soon fade.

True love for others will pour out of us as we fix our eyes on Christ and spend time with him.

After reading this book, I felt refreshed. My love for God was so strong I could physically feel it burning inside of me.

What’s so important to note, is that Katie is just one person, making a difference for God, and she happens to be doing that in Uganda.

We are all called to be missionaries in the community that God has placed us in. Very few of us are actually called to pack our bags and move to a foreign country. We live in a country that needs the gospel. Let me say that again; America desperately needs the gospel.

We live in a nation where studies show that 1 in 3 adolescents ages 13 to 18 will have an anxiety disorder.

We live in a nation where 62% of young people ages 12-25 feel left out often or some of the time and 58% feel isolated from others often or some of the time.

We live in a nation where suicide is the second leading cause of death among young people ages 15-24. Studies show that 20% of high school students report serious thoughts of suicide and 9% have at some point made an attempt to take their lives.

Our schools desperately need the gospel.

Our neighborhoods desperately need the gospel.

Our workplaces desperately need the gospel.

Our country, America, desperately needs the gospel!

You can begin to be a difference maker in your community. Pray and ask the Lord for these opportunities and ask him to give you unconditional love for others. Remember that difference makers don’t set out to change the world, they start with making an impact in one person’s life.

Who is one person in your life that you could intentionally love today?

Maybe that person is a lost friend that you could text and ask how she/he has been doing. Maybe that person is a single mom with a lot of kids that you could babysit for, or maybe that person is an elderly lady in your neighborhood.

Whatever the case may be, Jesus can equip you to be a difference maker as you abide in Christ and spend time with him.