When you want to do world missions, local people tend to get upset.
“Why go other places when we have so much need right here?” they ask, and not often in a friendly manner either.
My simple answer: Because God said so. Don’t believe me? Check it out in Mark 16:15. But seriously, I’m sure most people have heard this scripture before, even if they didn’t give it much thought; yet, words with no action often go ignored.
Honestly though, it’s also because we can do both local and world missions, but some are called more for one than the other. Needy and hurting people exist worldwide and to all different degrees. Needs and hurts must be addressed EVERYWHERE. But if you think about it, not everyone is cut out to go to obscure and dangerous villages in remote locations of Africa or Central or South America, risking gruesome deaths by primitive weapons or debilitating diseases. Not everyone can endure the frigid climate of the Arctic in order to bring God and hope to those natives who can only be reached by special snow vessels (or ice flow, if you have the time). Even going to safer regions still often involves risk, adjustment, and facing the unknown.
For those people, there are local missions. This could be getting involved by building a home with Habitat for Humanity, hosting a clothing or food drive for a local food pantry, or just stopping in next door to visit an elderly widow who lives alone. Basically, whenever you take a step out of your comfort zone and sacrifice some of your personal time, expecting nothing in return but the satisfaction of knowing you were able to put a smile on someone’s face, you are showing God’s much needed love, and you CAN change the world, just one person at a time. We all have to start somewhere.
“Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot,
Nothing is going to get better. It’s not.”Dr. Seuss, The Lorax
caverns of my mind 