What a blessing & a privilege to be a missionary in Minnesota & Wisconsin!! Wait, you say, you aren’t living in a foreign country….no, my friend I’m not. And I don’t face the difficulties that the great US missionaries in international countries face. OR the cultural difficulties that missionaries from other countries face as they minister in America!!
But I am a North American missionary endorsed by the SBC, as a Chaplain with Marketplace Chaplains in Minnesota & Wisconsin. And what a blessing & God-given honor to be here leading some of the greatest Chaplains serving in the Marketplace!!
I don’t write a lot about myself or Marketplace, because I don’t want the attention to be on me for the former. And as for the latter, most of my FB friends don’t know that Marketplace even exists. But for the 207K employees, 577K family members with 859 companies in 1,393 cities in 6 countries, we are very real & present!! And God is using our Chaplains to bring people into His Kingdom, help heal the hurts & pain and work through so many emotional & spiritual scars.
The last 10 months haven’t been easy at all. Most life adjustments, career adjustments & family adjustments aren’t. But compared to missionaries all over the globe, my life adjustments are pretty small! I’ve got running water 24/7, I’m not pulling a bike or motorcycle through flooded waters to visit my Chaplains & companies, I’m not getting threatened to be killed or shot at, I’m eating familiar food & I could get in my Jeep & drive to see my awesome young adult children. (Praying for you Hannah & Josh as you serve for a month in the mountains of your beloved Peru!!)
It’s all in attitude & perspective. Somebody always has it worse. What me & most Americans face is pretty minuscule compared to what several Billion people face on a daily basis. My friends in India, Pakistan, all over the Middle East, Asia, Africa, South & Central America, etc. face more difficulties in one week than we usually face in one year! Or maybe in a lifetime.
Sometimes we just need to take a deep breath. Breathe in the fresh air that we are blessed to breathe, given by a loving God. And remember it isn’t so bad. It could be much, much worse for most of us. God has blessed us with another day. Given so much to so many. Now, we need to see what HE will do through us as we focus more on Him, on others & less on ourselves.
Words from a JESUS Fan 