Missions Or Not?

As you may recall, in my last post I somewhat complained about people assuming that my trip to Korea is missions oriented. I don't know why this "bothers" me, but it does a little.

I've been praying to God, telling Him about my concerns and thoughts. I've told Him that should He want me to do some kind of missions work while I'm there, then I would - even if I'm not overly keen on it. Does that make me a bad Christian? Jesus tells us to go into the world and make disciples of all men, yet I don't want to do that. I'm 100% certain that is because of a little 4-letter word that starts with "f" -- fear.

Now, keep in mind that Christianity is very popular over in Korea, and I think the top two religions are Christianity and Buddhism. It's not like the Korean people have never heard of Jesus, but still there are those who need to know Jesus and see His love in action, and receive His love. It's just the same in North America. Missions is not limited to the jungles of Africa or other third-world countries. Missions can be done in our own backyards!

So, to get to my point, this past Sunday the pastor was preaching about doing missions because a group of youth and young adults is going to Toronto for a week on a missions trip. It was a very good sermon, and at the end he said that if we felt the Lord nudging us about doing mission work (he strongly believes that all Christians should go on at least one mission trip in their lifetime), to stand so he could pray for us. Well, guess who felt the nudge. Yeah, me.

I have no clue what kind of mission work I'd even do over in Korea, but I suppose any little bit is fine. I will, as I have mentioned before, do my knitting over there to donate to charities or underprivledged kids who might need a hat or socks or mittens or something, and I'll likely help out at the church I end up attending in Korea - providing they have areas of ministry that are done in English so communication would be easy. Whatever it is, I'm praying that the Lord will direct my steps and let me know what it is He wants me to do.

But first, I need to get myself into His Word more often and pray better than I've been doing. I need to be able to hear Him when He speaks to me and tells me in what direction I need to go. I will be honest and say that I've fallen behind in these areas (though the praying is getting better) and definately need improvement. I need the power of God to keep Satan from preventing me from doing the Lord's work, because I can't stop him (Satan) with my own power.

So, it just may be that one reason the door has been opened for me to go to Korea is to do some missionary work. To me that is scary. It shouldn't be, but in all honesty it is. It's something I'll have to work out with God.