My recent experience at Canada Youth has really opened my eyes to mission. I recently went on a trip to Belize where I was teaching for my practicum. After that, I started to feel a pull towards doing mission work. I wanted to be able to help and to spread the word of God.
The experience on the mission track was quite enlightening. It gave those involved a chance to work in the mission field. I had never had any formal mission experience, so I was very excited and didn’t really know what to expect. I hadn’t ever thought that sorting, cataloguing, and folding 50 boxes of clothes could be considered mission work. Nor had I expected that digging holes three feet deep in in the rockiest soil imaginable (to put in fence posts) would be so much fun. At the end of the work day, most of us didn’t even want to leave; we just wanted to keep working. When we left each work site (and throughout the work day) the people that we were volunteering for expressed how appreciative they were that we were there to help. They also told us that without us it would have either taken a great deal longer to get the task done, or it wouldn’t have gotten done at all. One group saved an entire crop of corn that would have died if not for our weeding efforts. We also put in a fence for the vegetable garden at Crieff Hills Conference Centre and carried the huge cross up a winding path to the top of the hill.
After my experience on the mission track, I feel more confident than ever that this is where God is calling me. I feel called to the mission field abroad, but I now know that my mission work doesn’t have to begin there. I’ve seen now that I can also do mission work locally as well. I am looking to do local mission work until I am able to go abroad, and will continue to do local missions as well.
I also learned that I don’t have to be talking about the Bible, Jesus, and God, in order to be a missionary. I have to work alongside the community as well. By doing this I will show people Christ’s love instead of just telling them about it. Both aspects of evangelism are important. Without one of them, it would be incomplete.
Lastly, I learned that every Christian is a missionary. When we wake up in the morning we become missionaries; we are ministering to every person we interact with in the day. Our friends, spouses, coworkers, people you get along with, people you don’t get along with, and strangers you meet; you are a missionary to them all. Since we’re Christians, people look to us to see what a Christian should look like.
Even though I am still in university and have little extra time, I know how I can be a missionary now.
CY was an amazing experience, and I would recommend it to anyone.
More reflections from Canada Youth 2012
