Mission.

What do you immediately think of? Until the last few years I usually thought of ‘mission’ as overseas in a culture different to ours. I still do think of mission as overseas – as well as here in Australia and in our own city, suburb, street.

Global Mission Partners continue to participate in amazing work throughout the world and Urban Neighbours of Hope (UNOH) are working in Thailand and in Australia. My ears and heart have been opened more and more to the circumstances in which these missionaries are working – it can only be in God’s strength that these people do what they do.

Yet, do we always have to be working in poor and/or dangerous situations to be a missionary? Over the years I have come to an understanding of ‘mission’ as being any one of a number of things. How about the person who, without fail, always checks in on someone who doesn’t have family close by?

They are not related and don’t necessarily have a lot in common, but they care with a passion and are willing to take on the responsibility – and they bring some sunshine and security into someone’s life.

What about the volunteers in the hospitals, nursing homes, meals on wheels, Red Cross, GMP, UNOH – the list goes on and on. Let’s not forget those who are constantly caring for a family member. Surely, that caring must be heart-wrenching sometimes and yet day after day after day, those carers keep doing what they do. They will fight for their loved one’s care, often dealing with bureaucracy and seemingly uncaring people in power.

And what about those who support asylum seekers and refugees? They also go into battle for those who are powerless in our land. They fight for a ‘fair go’ for those who have already endured the most horrific of circumstances and then find that life can seem very unfair in their new land.

So when I think of ‘Mission’, I think of all sorts of things. We can all be missionaries. It’s not hard to be pleasant to the checkout person – you might be the only person all day who’s treated them like a human being. It doesn’t take that long to pop in next door to check on the elderly lady or man who lives by themselves or contact that young person who seems to be struggling with life issues.

Make that phone call, write that letter, send that card – you never know when your action will be the one bright spot in someone’s day or week. Be on a mission to brighten someone’s life in whatever way you can. You are a representative for Jesus or as someone once said to me ‘Jesus in skin’. Matthew 25: 31-40 is a passage that we can all afford to read again and again, just to remind us that we are all on the mission field, every day, where-ever we are.