Mission musings- Sherie Hui

As someone who has spent a good chunk of their life in the church, global missions is not a term that is unfamiliar to me. Every now and again, there would be someone going on missions and I would hear stories of how they were called to go on the trip. They would tell of the amazing things that God did through them and all the lives that were changed to follow Christ. At that time, I thought, “Wow, going on missions would be so cool!” I wanted to be the person to tell the amazing stories, I wanted the great call to go and do His work, just so I can say that I went on missions. I clearly did not understand the severity of going on missions, and I knew that it was more attending to my sense of pride rather than genuinely serving Him and His people.

For that reason, missions was always on the back burner for me. As I understood more and more the implications of what it means to be on mission, the urgency and the longing to go became less and less appealing. Ironic huh? I was not ready to sacrifice and I was not willing to go out of my comfort zone. It was too risky to be so vulnerable and exposed to people who may not even want to receive what I have to offer. It wasn’t until my later years of undergrad where I was seriously challenged to go to China and evangelize to students there. I was told, as Christians, we are called to sacrifice. It was time to leave my comfort zone and it would be worth it to be vulnerable. How could I argue with those reasons? And I considered it. Yet, like many others I have talked to, I gave excuses. “I’m not ready” “there are already people going” “there are others more ‘qualified’ to go”. The list can go on.

Often times our prayer and attitude towards mission looks like this, “God, if you want me to go, I will go.” I know, because that was my attitude for a period of time. But what if we change our prayers to, “Here I am Lord, send me.” Honestly, I am a little scared of how God will respond.

Recently, I’ve had a chance to do a bit of traveling. I was reminded through my travels that His presence is everywhere and God works in ways we do not understand. If we go, God promises He will be with us (Matthew 28:19-20) and He will empower us to do His work. Am I ready to go on a global mission? That is a question that still requires some prayer and discernment, but I will patiently wait on what He has in store for me, knowing that God will never bring me to something that I cannot overcome.