I am a Missionary

By Chrysta Barfield

I consider myself an unlikely missionary. I did not grow up hearing about the missionaries that other kids had heard about. I was saved when I was 19. And God can even use someone like me. My 18-yearold self entering college would not have recognized 23-year-old me living on the mission field.

I have learned many things during my years serving as a missionary. I think the biggest lesson has been that “And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work.” 2 Corinthians 9:8. This is my favorite verse, and it has been proven true over and over during my adventure.

My husband Matt and I have been serving the Lord together as missionaries for the past 20 years. We have lived overseas and now serve with the US as our base. We have learned another language and adapted to a foreign culture. We took our first baby boy with us to the Middle East and returned home with two additional little boys who were born on the

44 Sit still my daughter | Winter 2022 field. We have endured sicknesses, heartaches, separations and even expulsion from a field. We have had our plans change unexpectedly and been blessed beyond anything we could have chosen ourselves. We have learned to trust the Lord when the future is uncertain, and we have learned to trust each other when the mission field is a lonely, foreign place. We have learned the joy of giving beyond what we thought able and running at a faster pace than we ever dreamed possible. Calling my life an adventure is not an overstatement.

Matt and I were married right after we graduated from college in 2001. While we were open to whatever the Lord had for us, our plan was for Matt to attend law school while I stayed at home with the family we prayed would come. During Matt’s second semester in law school, we attended a preaching conference during spring break. At that conference, Matt clearly felt God call him into missions. When he asked me if I also felt called to be a missionary, I That may sound strange. You might be thinking, wait, YOU weren’t actually called? How did you know it was God’s will? How could you be certain? You can’t serve without a call!

You are right. I am not taking lightly the idea of a call to missions. Not every lady’s story will look like mine. I have several dear friends who serve the Lord without a husband. God called them to be like Amy Carmichael and Mary Slessor. That is a tremendous calling, and God gives each soul what it needs to accomplish His will. You can trust Him. He is not a God of frustration or uncertainty. He is the God of 2 Timothy 1:7. He will make His will clear and enable you to do what He has planned. All grace, All sufficiency–He promises it.

My calling is to be Matt Barfield’s wife. Our

lives are intertwined. When I married Matt, I vowed to follow him. And even before that, I knew that I could trust him. With my very life. He was my best friend. I wanted to be where he was, doing what he was doing. Marriage to Matt was my calling. I was willing to submit to what God had planned for our life together, so our missionary adventure began.

While Matt knew it was God’s will for us to be missionaries, we did not have a specific country of calling. We started praying and researching. Our home church was connected with a mission board called International Partnership Ministries (IPM). The primary focus of IPM is partnering with foreign missionaries around the world. We met with them and a survey trip to Lebanon was planned.

left: our wedding day. far top: our trip to Lebanon in 2002. above: With missionary friends during our trip to Lebanon in 2002

We had such an amazing trip. We met the missionary family and fell in love with the church and people. The culture fascinated us, and the food was amazing. There were clear opportunities for us to jump in and serve, and we were confident that this was where God wanted us to be. After a super-fast, blessed deputation, we, now with a baby in tow, flew to Lebanon. We were refused entry into the country. Without explanation. Heartbroken, we flew home.

Had we misunderstood God’s calling? What would we do next? Our hearts ached for a home we had not been allowed to know. We cried and prayed together, and we sought godly counsel for our next, unforeseen step. In retrospect, even in this, God was showing us that He had a plan and that His Grace was more than enough.

It was recommended that, while we waited for an answer, Matt make a survey trip with our pastor and a potential co-laborer from Lebanon. They would visit a language school in Jordan with the idea of us studying Arabic there while we waited.

I will never forget Matt’s phone call from Jordan. It was a Thursday. He said, “The timing is tight, but God is in this. I am flying home on Sunday, and we are flying back to Jordan the next day.” I had four days. Matt flew home, we quickly regrouped, and flew to Jordan. We landed on a Tuesday night, and we were in language classes the next morning.

Why so fast? Well, the language school had just started its spring semester. Drop/Add ended the following Wednesday. If we waited until the Fall semester, we had a problem. Our second son, John, was due in August. We would have to sit on our hands and wait an entire year for the following Spring semester. Matt was confident that it was God’s will, and I was confident that I could trust and follow Matt. We arrived on the day Drop/Add ended. We literally squeaked in on the only timing that would make language school possible. Our Jordanian adventure began.

We fell in love with our new home. In addition to language school, we partnered with a local pastor in ministering in his church, and Matt helped him to start a Bible Institute. John and then Leo joined our family. Jordan is where I learned to cook.

far left: pictures of our time serving in Jordan from 2004 to 2006. We were at the Red Sea. left: our Jordanian Church family. below: Shortly after our return to the US while Matt was sick, Spring 2007.

I remember looking at a whole raw chicken and asking God to show me what to do with it. Our church became our overseas family, just as God promises in Matthew 19:29. “And every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name’s sake, shall receive an hundredfold…” I loved our time living in the desert.

And then Matt got sick. He was diagnosed with parasites, and after almost a year of him not getting better, it was decided that we had to come back to the US. This was a very hard time. Jordan was our home. How could it be God’s plan for missionaries who love serving Him to get sick and have to leave the field? I remember asking Matt in tears if the goodbyes ever got easier. He gently reassured me that they do not get easier. But it makes our hearts bigger. So, we came back to the US. For an additional six months, we prayed and fasted. When it looked like no hope was to be found, Matt’s health was restored.

We praised God for healing Matt, and we prayed about our next step. Again, God showed us that His grace could make us abound, even when our plans, once again, had been changed. Our ministry shifted, and, instead of living overseas, God made the US our base. Matt is now the Vice President of Field Ministries with IPM, and he oversees our missionaries around the world. He has visited over thirty countries. Pre-COVID, Matt could be gone as much as six months out of the year. We are still missionaries, but now we have the entire world as our focus. missionary? I have struggled with this from time to time. Matt gets to go overseas and do exciting missionary work. I change diapers and do laundry. I dry tears and help with homework. I had to realize that missionary work is not a cookie cutter picture.

God has blessed us with eight children, all of whom are eager to serve alongside us in the ministry. After 20 years of no answers as to why we could not enter Lebanon, we are now allowed to enter the country. Our son, John, is currently ministering and learning there. He is serving alongside the very missionary family with whom we had planned to serve. Our missionary work

has grown bigger than either Matt or I dreamed. I teach my kids how to find Daddy on a globe. Seriously. My littlest ones can find Myanmar and Ghana on a globe. I let the kids help with the international ministries at our home church. I teach them that serving the Lord is the best thing in the world.

I sing in Swahili with the Central Africans in our local church. I teach ESL to refugees trying to figure out how they fit into this very foreign land. I help in the Filipino Sunday school class and attend our Russian speaker’s prayer meetings. I hold babies and hug ladies and pray with people from other cultures. I even got to go with Matt on one of his trips overseas. I realized that I am still a missionary, and that my life is very much still an adventure. Most importantly, I have learned that He is still able to make me abound to every good work.

farthest left: teaching English and serving on our trip to Myanmar in 2018. far left: Matt and Jordan in Lebanon Summer 2022. lower left: our current international group. left: my husband and I. below: our children in 2021, a rare opportunity to have them all together!

Your Mind...

Thy word have I hid in mine heart... Psalm 119:11

What we choose to memorize is ours forever, no one can ever take it away. To hide God's Word in our hearts ensures that we have access to His truth whenever we need it. Over the course of the next three months try to memorize the verses below. We will only be able to defeat our enemy by holding fast to the truths found in the Word of God about our God. In moments of temptation, the Holy Spirit will bring the verses we need to mind that will aid us in being victorious.

Proverbs 3:13-18

Happy is the man that findeth wisdom, and the man that getteth understanding.

For the merchandise of it is better than the merchandise of silver, and the gain thereof than fine gold.

She is more precious than rubies: and all the things thou canst desire are not to be compared unto her.

Length of days is in her right hand; and in her left hand riches and honour.

Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace.

She is a tree of life to them that lay hold upon her: and happy is every one that retaineth her.

& Your Soul

Be still, and know that I am God... Psalm 46:10

Our body is the temple of the Lord and entrusted into our care. Self-care is not selfish when it is done to rest the body and renew the spirit so we are ready to serve God with our best. Taking a moment to care for yourself does not need to be a huge thing but can be a few simple things.

But let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price. 1 Peter 3:4

• A lady does not telephone someone at a terribly early or extremely late hour unless it is an emergency. She is also careful to try to avoid making calls to a person during what may be a dinner hour. • When a lady makes her way down a row in a crowded theater, she faces the people who are already in their seats. A lady never forces others to stare at her backside. • A lady always says something nice about someone or just doesn't speak of him or her at all. A lady lets people form their own opinions of others.

taken from the book: How to Be a Lady by Candace Simpson-Giles