In a couple of months we will relocate back to the UK and continue ministry here through visits and working remotely. We will have completed five years of overseas service. So few years compared to the years we had hoped and planned to spend living here and yet deeply significant years. It's no exaggeration to say that we're not the people we were when we came.
As I've been reflecting on our time here, I've wondered what I would have said to myself five, six, seven years ago when we were thinking and talking and dreaming and praying about serving God overseas. And what would I say to someone in a similar position now?
This is what I would say:
Come.
Come, even though it will be harder and more humbling than you could ever imagine. Come, knowing that there will be days that you feel so lonely, so worn out, so inadequate. You will cry, you will wonder how you will keep going, you will feel homesick, you will miss family and friends. You will try your hardest to fit into a culture where you'll always stand out as the foreigner and then find that you've left a piece of yourself here so that you don't fit so easily into your passport culture any more.
Come, and you will change. You'll be thrown so far out of your depth that you can do nothing but cling to Christ. You'll find that when you feel lonely and misunderstood by those around you and those back in your passport country, you can spill out your words to Jesus and he will truly understand you. You'll trust in God's sovereignty like you never have before because you see the reality of how not-in-control you are of your life. You'll find you are weaker than you ever supposed but Christ is stronger than you ever imagined.
Come, and you'll make friends with people from other cultures, eat new foods, learn a new language, explore a new country and rejoice in the diversity of God's creation. Come, and learn a little more about what it means to have citizenship in heaven and to long for our true home.
Come, one sent by and with the support of your church 'back home', because the church is the bride of Christ and God's means of advancing his kingdom on earth. And because you are going to need the support of your church family. Come, listening to the advice both of older believers who know you well and of those who've been out on the field a long time, because you know less than you think you do and there are so many things that you don't know that you don't know. Come, in partnership with the local church and believers where you'll be serving. There's nothing worse than foreigners who turn up and think that they know better than mature, respected local pastors.
Come, because although it might feel safer to stay home, you are safe with God. Come, even though you will see how deeply rooted the tendrils of pride and self-dependence are rooted in you. Come, knowing you are weak and not up to it, because God delights in using weak people and his grace is sufficient.
Come, because there are millions of people here who have never truly heard and understood the Gospel and the consequences are eternal. Come and know that results are not guaranteed because it is God who saves. But you may see lives changed and people saved and God might even use you - yes, you - as a means of accomplishing his work.
Come, even though people will disappoint you and hurt you and oppose you and you will invest so much only to see people walk away, because Jesus will look even more beautiful then.
Come, because the work is not yet done and the harvest field is ripe. Come, because God is at work and it is our privilege to be part of it. Come, because Jesus is worth it.
