Somewhere between saintliness and foolishness, we find a curious creature called a missionary. Missionaries come in assorted sizes, weights, and colors, but all are sent by the one Lord Who commanded this people to evangelize.
Missionaries are found everywhere: going to, lifting up, launching out, coming from, staying with, bringing around, bearing with, and standing for. Christians love them, governments tolerate them, parents pity them, pagans ignore them, and Christ protects them. A missionary is truth with a broken jeep axle in its hand, beauty with a sick child in its arms, wisdom with a Bible in its pocket, and hope with Christ in its heart.
A missionary has the patience of a fisherman, the audacity of a tight-rope walker, the carefulness of a bookkeeper, the vision of a dreamer, the strength of a builder, the intelligence of a teacher, the wit of a humorist, the irresponsibility of a child, and when he attempts something, he is all prayer.
He likes letters from home, children, preaching, mission recruits, returning from furloughs, faith promise rallies, tracts, printing presses, radio stations, translators, mission boxes, airplanes, villages, Bible studies, cities, correspondence courses, and bookstores. He is not much for high-pressure promotions, red tape, devaluation of the dollar, lukewarm faith, hypocrisy, or discrimination.
Nobody else is so quick to care and so slow to give up. Nobody else gets so much fun out of crocodiles, boiled rice, elephants, sunsets, mimeograph machines, passports, electrical failures, pet cobras, earthquakes, visas, monsoons, droughts, and conversations. Nobody else can crowd into a jeep two native preachers, seven singing young people, a cow being taken to the vet, three chickens on the way to market, 35 hymnbooks, 40 Bibles, a pump organ, one slide projector, one electric generator, two tents, and two ox yokes, (one with an ox!).
A missionary is an unusual creature. You can send him to a far off country, but you had better not forget him. You can get him out of your hair, but you can’t get him out of your heart. He is your servant, your right hand, your dependent. He is a Bible preaching, God fearing, God serving, self-sharing bundle of love. When you come to church with that smug feeling that you are a pretty super Christian, he can shatter it with the simple words, “Come and help us.”
– author unknown