8 minute read
Walking in Faithful Obedience
Seeing Each Season as a Great Commission Opportunity
Shanee, 2005 MA in Intercultural Studies
Missionary, South Asia (Last Name Withheld for Security)
Where has God placed you now? What is your season of life? Do you see this season as an asset or an obstacle for your involvement in the Great Commission?
Sixteen years ago, I moved to South Asia as a missionary, newly married and with no children. Over the years, my ministry context and season of life have changed many times. Through these transitions, God has revealed two truths to me:
1. God wants to use every believer to accomplish the Great Commission.
2. Every season of life includes unique opportunities to be used by God.
I spent my childhood years feeding bottle calves and riding horses on a farm in rural Missouri. The nearest Walmart was 30 miles away, and we considered the people who lived in that town “city slickers.” I now live in one of the most densely populated cities in the world— a crowded, in-your-face, South Asian urban center of 25 million people. Our family of five resides in a small flat on the eighth floor of a 22-story tower, in an apartment complex that houses around 10,000 residents. We are surrounded by people above us, below us, in front of us and behind us. The first time I visited this apartment complex city with the intent of moving here, I stood in the center and looked up at all the towers overflowing with people. With tears brimming from my eyes, I laughed! How did a country girl like me end up here?
I entered college as a business major, with ambitious plans to become a lawyer or CEO. If someone had asked me if I would move to a developing country as a missionary, I would have laughed in his face! But somehow I ended up on summer mission trips (at least partially for the adventure, admittedly), and God did something I never expected: For the first time I thought to myself, “Maybe the corporate ladder and the six-figure salary aren’t everything. Maybe God is calling me to take the gospel to those who have never heard it. And maybe, just maybe, obedience to that calling would bring me joy.”
That may sound cliché, but it truly reflects the miraculous work God did in my heart to change my desires. Over the next couple years in college, I began an international student outreach on campus, and God grew in my heart a desire to take the gospel to unreached peoples. Moving to South Asia as a missionary went from being laughable to becoming a dream. God provided an amazing husband with the same calling, Jesse, and the year after our wedding we relocated to South Asia and were simultaneously learning marriage, a new culture and a foreign language.
In our 16 years of church planting work, Jesse and I have made our home in three different cities and experienced significant changes in our seasons of life. We began “just the two of us” in a backwards South Asian city, cruising from village to village on a Honda dirt bike. We trained South Asian believers in church planting, and we were always together. This season of life allowed for side-by-side ministry, a life “on-the-go,” and long days and busy weeks of ministry outside of our home.
After three years in villages, we moved to a larger city, started a sizable team, and began applying the multiplication methods we taught: We added three children to our family in three years. To say that children brought changes to our daily schedule and my involvement in our work would be an understatement. I was no longer able to be involved in every training or travel with Jesse on every trip. Jesse traveled regularly, usually by overnight trains to rural areas, while I changed diapers and nursed babies. We packed the baby gear and took the whole family along for trips every few months, but I no longer knew every detail of every ministry network like before.
However, my decreased capacity for ministry outside of the home did not change my heart’s desire to get the gospel to those who needed it, and I found ways to remain involved in that work. Instead of always going to our ministry partners, we brought them to us, and hosted them in our home regularly. We held meetings and trainings in our home, often for days at a time. Our children joined a half-day preschool and began learning the local language, fostering more connections in our community. Home life was usually on the chaotic side: managing kids’ homework while serving chai to national friends, discipling new believers while our children ran in and out, and the constant snack-making and messcleaning. Babies bring immense delight and fulfillment, but also fatigue and frequent interruptions. Yet God is not perplexed by how to use new moms in his kingdom. This too is a season of life to joyfully embrace and expect God to leverage for the Great Commission.
As the years went by and our children grew, our family put down deep roots in this city. Our South Asian brothers and sisters became family. We walked through significant difficulties and saw abundant fruit alongside our team of Westerners and South Asians. After eight years in this place, the only home our children had ever known, the time came to pull up our roots and move.
Again, God did the unexpected. For various reasons, God led our family to move to the nearby city that I had years earlier said I would never move to. Our family transitioned to the urban life of cramped living spaces, elevators, and bumper-to-bumper traffic. This move brought other major changes. All three children joined elementary school, allowing more time to engage in local ministry. Our ministry target became a city instead of an entire state, resulting in less travel for my husband. Jesse and I could work together more, both in leading our city team and in local ministry. And with all our children out of diapers, I had increased energy and capacity to engage more in leadership and ministry outside of the home. Family Bible study over breakfast became more interesting as our children’s understanding grew and they asked thoughtful questions about God. Family ministry trips were more manageable, because the children could now pack their own bags, entertain themselves and even help out at times. And with time and prayer, this city also became home.
Looking back, I recognize that God placed our family in every location to advance his mission. Often, God worked most fruitfully outside of our well-laid plans. Every season of life came with different challenges and opportunities. Our first three years on the field were a treasured time of togetherness and full immersion in language, culture and ministry. Even in the chaotic years of newborns and toddlers, God kept my heart in the work and provided ample opportunities to pray, reach out to our lost community and encourage our ministry partners (not to mention the privilege of staying home to care for our children). Our most recent season with children in elementary school has brought much joy in local ministry together as a family.
Looking ahead, it seems God is again directing us to some unexpected changes. We are transitioning into a new season of middle schoolers and homeschooling. Challenges and unknowns are certainly ahead! However, though new to me, homeschooling children and discipling preteens are not challenging for God. Certainly, God wants to use me in this new season too, for his purposes, and I can look ahead with great expectation.
My teammates also exemplify the reality that God leverages all seasons of life for his mission. We serve on a diverse team of Western and South Asian workers, married and single, empty nesters and millennials, all co-laboring in the gospel. One single sister on our team has invested years into sharing Christ’s love with the women of the Red-Light districts and slums of our city. One empty nester couple is targeting upper class businesspeople through Cross Fit coaching. Another couple new to the field is persevering in language and culture learning while raising four children. A dear South Asian coworker is a pastor’s wife, mom of teens and tirelessly teaches children’s Sunday School. I rejoice in the diverse and powerful ways God works through our teammates in their various seasons of life and ministry contexts.
And this is the biblical model, isn’t it? Paul’s coworkers included Lydia, a successful businesswoman, the first known believer in Philippi (Acts 16:11-15, 40). Priscilla and Aquila, a working couple committed to gospel expansion, traveled with Paul and planted churches in more than one city (Acts 18:1-4, 18-19; 1 Cor. 16:19; Rom. 16:3-5). Mary, the mother of John Mark, hosted church in a time of dangerous persecution (Acts 12:5, 12-17). Erastus, the city treasurer of Corinth, assisted the Apostle Paul in mission work (Acts 19:22, Rom. 16:23). Eunice and Lois, as mother and grandmother, taught Timothy God’s Word from a young age (2 Tim. 1:5; 3:15).
Where do you live? God put you there to share his love with your community. What is your season of life? God wants to capitalize on it for his glory. Whether in local churches or on mission teams, we should see great potential in every believer and actively seek to equip men and women of all seasons of life to accomplish the Great Commission.
Shanee is a disciple of Christ, wife, mom of three and missionary. She graduated from Southeastern with an MA in Intercultural Studies in 2005 and immediately moved to South Asia, where she and her husband have been serving ever since. She enjoys tea, friends, books, exercise, guacamole and talking about God’s Word.
