Almost time

In less than 2 weeks, I’ll be in Albania :) This time just for 2 weeks, but I’m ready to go for good. But, all things in their time:

There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under the heavens:
a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,
a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,
a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,
a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,
a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,
a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,
a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace.
Ecclesiastes 3:1

This is particularly poignant for me right now. I’m feeling somewhat in transition, as I prepare to wrap up my life of the last 5 years and move into a new season in a new country. It hit me recently that there’s only so many Porches left, only so many weekend hangouts with friends, only so many baseball games before I move. For a while I was eating Chipotle every chance I got. I’ll definitely miss mexican food.

The process of preparing to go has been amazing. The first step is support raising, building my ministry team. I’ve been astonished by how many people want to invest in this with me. I’ve had dozens of meetings, and nearly everyone has wanted to partner with me in some way or another. after 1 month of support raising, I’m 75% funded. It almost never happens that quickly. It’s confirmed for me that God is greasing the skids, preparing the way for me to go.

It also shows me that the young adult community is under-mobilized for missions. The large majority of my support is coming from my young adult friends.
I suspect there’s two reasons for this:

1. Not enough young adults are actively living out their faith. This is the main problem to be sure. I’m incredibly thankful for ministries like The Porch which are doing something about this.
2. Missionaries aren’t trained to reach out to the young adult community for support. This is the problem I want to talk about here.

When I was in Ohio for my training, I was probably the oldest trainee there. The vast majority of CRU missionaries are coming right out of college, and are being trained in ministry partner development by older missionaries. They’re being trained to develop a network among church bible-study and small groups of mostly older, established couples. For decades this has been the most effective model and has served them well, but they’re missing the opportunity to mobilize young adults.

Can we do something about this? A lot of the people at The Porch have been to haiti, ethiopia, brazil or elsewhere multiple times. It would be great if we could somehow put in place structures to identify these people and prod them about the possibility of long term missions. And it would be awesome to get more of the young adult community engaged in supporting, through prayer and financially, the fulfillment of the Great Commission.

Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
Matthew 28:18-20

I’m excited to make this mission my life’s work. Whether it becomes my “career” or not. But for now, I’ll look forward to what’s right around the corner: