Matthew 28:19-20 NIV

What does is mean to go onto the mission field? I keep using words like missionary and mission field when I talk about moving to Nairobi. I think Africa is exactly what pops into people’s minds when we say “mission field”. However, the truth is I’m only going there because that’s where God has called us to go starting in January. That doesn’t mean I’m not on the mission field now. This morning my mission field was at the YMCA when I was working out and then later at Colonial Baptist where I attended a Bible Study on Ecclesiastes. Later today my mission field will be a school in Arkansas where I’m helping out a few days and tonight I’m not even sure where my mission field will be. It may be my own home with just my wife and I. The point is you don’t have to move half way around the world to have a “mission field”. Your mission field is wherever God has you doing what He has called you to do.

Most of my life my mission field has been Memphis. It’s where I did my ministry and sometimes it looked very different from what some people might consider traditional mission work. But it was where God had called me to work, and although for the most part it was with a church or other Christian ministry it didn’t have to be. Look around you right now, think about the places you have been today and the places you are going tomorrow. That’s your mission field. I know I keep saying the same thing over and over but I don’t think that this truth is sinking in to everyone. When Jesus told his disciples in Matthew 24:14 “And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come”, he didn’t just mean just other places far away. He meant the entire world and that might mean right here at home, in your office, in your schools, in your very home.

So yes, Bronwyn and I are moving to Africa and that is our mission field come January and it will drastically change our lives in terms of where we are living but it won’t change the mission mindset that we have had here. And we aren’t special, we aren’t. We are just listening to God’s call and responding to it the same way every Christian should. God may not be calling you to Africa but He is definitely calling you to something, it just might be right where you are.

Finally I would ask you to pray about whether God is calling you to support us. He may not be and that’s  fine, we are only asking for you to pray about it. However even if you don’t feel led to support us financially, please support us with your prayers.