The accidental missionary
Sometimes God puts people on the mission field without them realizing it.
As we packed our bags in Indianapolis and said our final goodbyes, I was certain that I was heading to Japan for a life of leisure. No longer able to work full-time and completely illiterate, I was looking forward to the long, leisurely days ahead of unpacking, reorganizing, and reassembling my life on Japanese soil. For an extrovert like me, being reduced to arigatō gozaimasu was both incredibly frustrating and completely liberating. Gone was the need to say anything or, for that matter, be overly concerned with the masses of people around me. I was content to just be.
Even if I wanted to tell people what I know about Jesus, I thought, I couldn’t. I was certain that my extremely limited Japanese would make me sound like a raving lunatic. I had already tried to explain to my Japanese teacher the concept of St. Patrick’s Day leprechauns to no avail, and so I was certain that talking about the Trinity was completely out of the question.
Then, on one fateful Sunday morning, Matt Murton, the famous red-headed outfielder for the Hanshin Tigers baseball team, came to the podium at Kobe Union Church and announced that he was leaving Japan after a successful six-year career. “I’ve tried to share Jesus,” he said, “and let people know that Jesus loves them. And now it’s up to you. We’re all missionaries!”
Did he say “we”? I wanted to look around to see how everyone else was taking the news. What did he mean by “we”?
My family and I had moved to Japan on a corporate assignment from Indianapolis, Indiana—a city right in the middle of America’s Bible Belt—where we attended New Horizons Church—right in the middle of the bustling city. Everyone you met either already attended church or had seriously considered it, so evangelism was just a matter of a simple invitation. I had never thought about the Great Commission, and it had never crossed my mind to go to the mission field. Yet, here was Matt Murton, on an otherwise pleasant Sunday morning, telling me that is just where I was: the mission field.
Okay, Matt. Touché.
After the sobering wake-up call from Matt, I began to pray for people all around me and support the work of ministry wherever I could. God opened a door for me to work for Chastity Stemmons Enterprises as an international fashion reporter, and I began meeting more new people than ever before. People started to ask me about my life, and the Lord gave me the opportunity, in broken Japanese and awkward English, to share my testimony with others, tell them about the power of prayer, and show them love.
I found that if I would just be obedient, willing, and available, then “the Lord God would cause righteousness and praise to sprout up before the nations” (Isaiah 61:11; NKJV), even in my glorious inadequacy to serve. I only hope that while I’m here I can be like Matt, sharing God’s love with everyone I meet and encouraging all believers to see themselves as his ambassadors. As Matt so eloquently reminded us, “If we are here and we are Christians, we are called to be his missionaries.” Indeed.