Doing Missions Means Refining what Your Mission is Practically

(You can watch or read this blog)

My mission, 15 years ago, was to love people, especially children, and especially at-risk children. I’d figured that out during my teens, and it seemed pretty simple. Then I went to Brazil and it practically looked like teaching English. So my mission was to teach English. And while I love doing that, it wasn’t my core—my lifeblood: it was simply one of the ways that I do my core mission. Then I became the coordinator of Living Stones, working with at-risk children. This was in complete alignment with my core mission, and I have found so much satisfaction in doing this. I am blessed to have found this: a vocation that lines up perfectly with my core mission.

And then I got married. Part of my core shifted. Now, an integral part of my core mission was to serve and love my husband. And then I had children: another part of my core mission is now to be a mother. I am still me, but I have been stretched. It is a wonderful thing, and as any mother will tell you, it isn’t addition, it is multiplication. You aren’t piling on one more thing you have to do in life: your life and love is multiplied and expanded to include more: and somehow, miraculously, to help you become even more YOU.

In 2016, Caid and I realized that the best way we could connect with others quickly, in this day and age, was through vlogging (video blogs). I was already making a lot of baby videos for our family, and making weekly vlogs about our life and mission just made sense. Missions is changing rapidly, along with culture and technology and the times. Gone are the days of missionary slide shows (I remember them from my childhood fondly), now your supporters want to really see and understand what is going on (as they should!) An annual newsletter isn’t enough anymore.

While we are the first missionary vloggers that I know of, I think in the next 5-10 years it will become more of the normal, as supporters want more involvement, and investors want more accountability. In three years of vlogging, we now have over 300 videos, with lots of baby pictures, laughing, learning, life and culture in Brazil, and whatnot. We hope to share practically what a missionary looks like in a world where for many, it isn’t very clear.

Our family is serving God in Brazil. But if God leads us somewhere else, or to do something else, then we will follow. I get asked a lot “But are you going to live in Brazil forever?” And the honest truth is, I don’t know. I believe that part of being a missionary is always being ready to go, if God says so. It is about following Him, whatever that looks like. It means putting down deep, deep roots in Jesus, because locational roots can, and will change.