Mrs. Homeschool

Archive for the ‘Missions’ Category

Summer is just around the corner (wasn’t it just Christmas???) and while the gas prices are going sky high, many of us are still making plans to do *something fun* for the family.  But does it have to be to a highly commericialized area where the underlying message is “Buy More Stuff!  You NEED MORE STUFF!”?  Of course not!

I have been following one family’s blog, Give Every Day, who sold everything and is traveling around the US in an RV and finding ways to GIVE, even in small ways, every day.  I really LOVE the idea of traveling with a purpose.

In spite of all the Halloween decorations popping up in EVERY single retail outlet I’ve been to in the past 3 weeks, today I am not writing about a ghost story or anything paranormal.  In fact, this is about a story that has been haunting my mind ever since I read it weeks ago.  (NOTE:  This is NOT a “light” story by any means.  If you get overly emotional, you may just want to skip this one.)

It started innocently enough…reading through a new book my husband ordered for his men’s group.  Taste and See by John Piper

My husband had to run into an office supply store for something and I found this short story about this missionary family in Cambodia that has not been far from my consciousness ever since.

The story (Chapter 13 in the book) is about a family who knew their days were numbered.  One day, it was time.  They were rounded up by teenage rebels and put to work, digging their own graves.   The family complied.  When it was time for them to be executed, one of the boys in the family panicked and took off running into the bush. 

His father stepped in and asked his captors not to chase after his son, but to wait as he called him back.  This man of God called out to his son, asking his son to join their family in the execution, knowing they would all join their Savior in Heaven in just a few moments.   He asked his son not to spend his last hours as a fugitive, running for  his life, but to return and take his place by the graves they’d just finished digging.

This week, my husband was on the phone with one of his cousins who shared that, in his wife’s 8th month of pregnancy, he is going to go on a mission trip to Morocco to hike in the mountains there to share the Gospel message with Muslims living in those remote villages.

He told my husband that everybody he’s told this to thinks he’s crazy.  He’s going to miss his little girl’s 2nd birthday.  His wife will be “great with child” at the time.  He’s going to a part of the world he has NO familiarity with and doesn’t speak the language.

So what did MY husband say? 

If you want a book that will challenge how you view missions and charity work, I highly encourage you to check out “When Helping Hurts: How to Alleviate Poverty Without Hurting the Poor…and Yourself” by Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert.  My husband was given a copy of the book by a gentleman that visited our church a few weeks back.  It is an eye opening look at how flawed our views are of the poor and how this adversely affects them through the work we do in the name of “outreach”.