Should Everyone Serve Overseas?

Interview with David Yu

Should Everyone Serve Overseas?

“I’ve been working all these years raising my family, and sometimes my heart is out there, but not everybody can go. At the same time, everybody can support the effort. By giving, by prayer, by having a relationship.

Supporting OMF workers isn’t a transaction. It’s really a sharing of life.

It’s a discipleship journey that we go on together following the Lord in allowing him to do his will in our lives and submitting to his process of transforming us into Christ-likeness.

There are people out there toiling, and they’re making the sacrifices. It’s not a cakewalk being a missionary.

I had a friend who told me, “I’m not the type who endures hardship. I’m not that tough.”

His point was he wasn’t one to go himself. But he was quite well off, so he said, “But I can send people.”

How Can We Be Good Stewards?

There’s a parable about the evil steward who had been cheating his master. But Jesus actually commended him.

As Christians we don’t cheat. Jesus said the steward did that so when his master sent him out, he would have friends who would welcome him because he wrote off their debts.

I think, ‘Why would Jesus commend that steward?’ But there’s a parallel, right?

We take what’s temporal, and we convert it into something of eternal value. We can take temporal currency that will be left behind when we expire and convert it into God’s eternal currency of saved souls.

We have this opportunity to take something that’s not going to last and translate it into God’s value, eternal value that will endure forever in His Kingdom. That’s a tremendous opportunity.

Why is Christ’s Call Urgent?

We’re on the clock here. Life here is not forever, and some of us have more time than others.

With COVID-19, and all the things that are happening with this pandemic, it is very sobering. We realize how fragile life is.

In Christ we live and move and have our being, and we only live because God gives us the time, the privilege and the resources that we have. None of what’s here will last forever.

We can’t take money with us. We can’t take possessions, but what we can take with us is the character that God builds in us. God takes our spirit and our soul. He saves us and he gives us eternal life in Christ, and that is our eternal destiny.

We really owe everything to the Lord because there’s a mandate in the Great Commission to spread the gospel. If we really love our fellow human beings, then we owe it to them to tell them about the gospel because their eternal destiny is at stake.  There is a heaven and hell, and as we are all sinners and fall short of the glory of God, there is no salvation outside of Christ and receiving His free gift of forgiveness and eternal life. First of all, how will they hear about it if nobody tells them? And how will they hear this message of salvation unless somebody goes? And how will they go unless God sends them? We have an opportunity to be God’s instruments in sending!

 We can’t always go ourselves, but we can send people and support that call.

Find your role in Global Missions:

David continues to partner with missionaries by walking alongside them in prayer, finances, and encouragement. Visit the Workers & Projects tab on our PartnerHub page to start partnering with one of our OMF missionaries in prayer or finances.

Check out these two recent articles to learn how you can help support a missionary you know:

Six Practical ways to Support Your Missionary

Practical Tips to Provide Care for the Mental, Physical and Spiritual Health of Missionaries