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Stephen: Even if you have only heard one missionary story, you probably know that missionaries are called to suffer. And if you do not know what I am talking about, pause the episode and look up the stories of Adoniram Judson or John Paton. Missionaries suffer through language learning, culture shock, loneliness, sickness, and injury, and even violence for the sake of Christ. But what does it mean that the mission field is blood, sweat, and tears 24/7?
Brooks, our question this week comes from Josh. He asks, “Can or should missionaries expect to find joy in their calling and even have fun while on the field?”
Brooks: So this question gets at the root of a lot of the missionary motivation and the reason why people go into missions, at least the reason that Nina and I—and I've got Nina with me on this episode because I thought she would be really helpful in this—the reason why we went to the field.
And I think you have to come away with, first of all, the crux that you going through hard times, your wife going through hard times, your family suffering for the sake of gospel advance does not negate joy. Joy can be found in the midst of all kinds of suffering. And everywhere we look in the Bible, from the apostles who counted it all joy when they were brought into the Sanhedrin and whipped, and Paul who rejoiced at his sufferings because he knew that they advanced the cause of the gospel and they brought him joy through seeing his Savior honored.
There is this one verse in 1 Peter 1:8 where Peter—the whole book of 1 Peter is kind of meant to encourage the saints who are spread around the known world at that time and encourage them as they are going through grinding misery—and it says this, after it goes through verses 1–7, verse 8 says this: “Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.” There is great joy to be found in trials and in sufferings.
And, Nina, when we were over there, I just remember going through some pretty rough times where, yeah, our house almost got burned down a couple times and a few other things happened, but there was some camaraderie and some joy that was just, I think like Peter says, inexpressible.
Nina: Yeah, I actually appreciate this question as well because I think so many people think that just because you are willing to sacrifice for the Lord and you are willing to do something hard for Him, that He is going to punish you in that as well. Like He just says, fine, you are going to work for Me, or you are going to do something for Me. You are going to suffer for Me too. Well, really, this life is full of suffering. We live in a fallen world. We will suffer no matter what. I think the difference is because you are living for Him, thinking eternally, the suffering is worth it when it does happen.
The other aspect of this question, the fun part, I think that God created us in his image, and I feel like so much of being lighthearted—one of the fruits of the Spirit is joy. And I think that there have been so many times that we would do things that would maybe be a little bit different than we would here in San Diego, like go down to the river or go fishing. Our son loved being raised over there. I mean, I would give him a box of matches and a machete and say, “Go out and play” (I mean, you could not really burn down the rainforest). But it was such a privilege to do that.
And there were so many joy-filled moments. I look at that stage in our lives with such fondness—the memories, the time that we shared together, and then also the fun things we got to do, but then doing things of eternal value. And there is so much peace when you are where God has you.
And you can be living the cushiest life with the most toys, all of that, and live from one event to the next, like one vacation to the next or one game to the next. But ultimately, your soul will not be satisfied in that if you are not living for Him. I am not saying that everybody who wants to live for Him has to be a missionary. That is not what I mean. But when you are a missionary and you are living for Him, you can experience so much joy.
There were so many things that we just made fun—the family time we had together, all of the holidays. We would not have a lot of malls where we were, but I would get bags of rubber bands and paper clips, and those were the best toys. And it is just funny how simple things can be.
And I think one thing that this culture—all of the Instagram and Facebook and social media—makes us feel like we have to have certain things to be happy. And I think when you have less, you can actually be more happy because you are just content with less.
So anyway, I think there are so many sweet things about having fun on the mission field. There are so many countless stories we could share about that, but ultimately I just want to leave the listeners with an encouragement that there is so much joy and fun to be had wherever you are at when you are living for Him. There is peace in that, and in the hard too. There are hard things, but there is also peace and joy and lots of fun.
Brooks: You touched on this, and I think there are two aspects to this. There is the joy of this world, and Jesus points to this in Luke 18:28, where He says, “No one who has left home or brothers or sisters or family for the sake of the kingdom of God will not fail to receive many times as much in this age.” And that is—I mean, we had great coworkers. We had coworkers that were like family. We had things that we just could not have been more grateful for that God provided for us.
But then Jesus also says in that passage, “in this age and in the age to come.” And I think that is the part that you are absolutely right about. People who stand the test of time are not just suffering for suffering’s sake. They are suffering with a long-term vision that this world is temporary and the world to come is eternal.
And that mindset of, “I can go through anything because this is temporal. This is not going to last. This is not all there is,” that is an incredible joy. You and I have talked about this: someday, if the Lord allows, and we are in some old folks’ home and we are eating applesauce together, just the joy of knowing that the best years of our life—our late 20s, our 30s, and just dipping into our 40s—we gave those years to the YembiYembi people and the YembiYembi church, and no one can ever take that away. That is a joy that you just cannot buy. And God was gracious enough to allow us to do that.
And so, yeah, I think there is great joy. There is a tremendous amount of fun. We have not even gotten into things like riding in an airplane with the doors off and crocodile hunting, and I know I liked those things more than you did. But anyways, there are a tremendous amount of fun things on the mission field, but there is a joy that is unspeakable that no one can take away.
Stephen: If you would like to learn more about Brooks and Nina’s mission to YembiYembi, visit us at missionary.com/store and order a copy of Chronicle of Yembi, a photo book documenting their 13-year mission to bring the gospel to the YembiYembi. Also included is a free download of our documentary on missionary John Paton I mentioned at the beginning of the episode.
If you have a question you would like to hear answered on Ask Missionary, drop a comment on this episode, get in touch with us on social media, or send us an email through missionary.com, and your question may be featured on this show. And don't forget to subscribe to the show to get notified when our next episode airs next week. Thanks for listening.