WHERE DO YOU SERVE?

I have had the privilege and blessing of attending Mission Conferences at various churches for years.   They are always an encouragement in multiple ways.  I have the opportunity to get to know the local church people, visit with other missionaries, and be built up by speakers that challenge and encourage us in our work and walk with God personally.  I was out visiting churches in Wisconsin this year in October and attended several conferences that I hadn’t attended since before Covid.  It was such a blessing to catch up with old friends and make new ones.

Part of the routine of the conferences is to invite the missionaries up onto the platform and introduce them to the church.  The way it works is the missionaries are asked to introduce themselves, tell where they serve, and give a need that they are believing God to help them meet in the area where they work or for personal support for their ministry.      

People get more familiar with the missionaries and recognize them after several nights.  On the last night of one of the conferences, when asked the same question, “Where do you serve?”, one missionary responded not with a country outside the United States but replied, “Wherever I am.”  I loved that answer!  It really got me thinking. 

When we lived in the Philippines and Vietnam as a missionary, I was so quick to answer with the name of those countries.  But now I live back in the United States.  Where do I serve?  As I considered this question, I thought about how easy it is to categorize where we serve and check off a box.  “I serve at my church in the nursery.” “I serve in the prayer ministry.”  I serve with the youth.” “I take a mission trip to Mexico every few years and serve there.”  “I volunteer at my child’s school.”   These are all wonderful examples of serving. But I realized that I tend to put serving in a box based on location at a given time. 

I need to change my perspective so that I think of serving every day, wherever I am, whenever opportunities arise.  Probably a lot of you reading this are great at serving wherever you see a need, but I confess that I am dull in this area and don’t think to jump right in.  I did better when I lived overseas because I knew clearly that I was there to serve and that was my whole purpose.  But back here “at home” I tend to sit back and let opportunities slip past me.  Am I looking for opportunities daily “to serve”?

So, this was a wakeup call for me.  “Where do I serve?”  May God help me to be more aware of opportunities and be ready to serve wherever I am at the moment and make me more sensitive to opportunities around me.   

“Every believer has received grace gifts, so use them to serve one another as faithful stewards of the many-colored tapestry of God’s grace.  For example, if you have a speaking gift, speak as though God were speaking His words through you.  If you have the gift of serving, do it passionately with the strength God gives you, so that in everything God alone will be glorified through Jesus Christ.  For to Him belong the power and the glory forever throughout all ages! Amen.”  1 Peter 4:10-11