Jesus Says: GO
By Genea Horner
“I heard God speak to me for the first time in my life!”
“I witnessed someone’s physical healing! Someone that I prayed for!”
“I led someone to the Lord for the first time!”
These are all things I’ve heard countless times from people visiting one of our bases on a missions trip.
Last year, The Mission hosted over 1,500 people in Mexico and Romania. We have been hosting teams from around the world for over 30 years. It is an honor to partner with the families, friends and churches that join us in our pursuit of an orphan-less world. It is a joy and privilege to watch each of them encounter the Lord in a new and fresh way as they step out of their comfort zones to love and serve His children well. Our hope is that each of those encounters would transform their communities and cities, as they take what they learned back home with them. I believe that’s how we’ll see the world fully transformed, restored: united as a family loving each other unto complete healing.
I wholeheartedly believe that Jesus has called each of us to a lifestyle of missions. As children of God, we are called to live and love like Him wherever we go! But sometimes I do get asked, “Why go?” What they mean is, why go on a missions trip to another country when there is so much need right here? Why go when I could just send the missionaries the money I would spend on the trip? My answer is always this: Jesus said GO. In Matthew 10, Jesus tells His disciples to GO, declare that the Kingdom of God is at hand, heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, free the demonized.
GO.
Further on in Matthew 28, Jesus says, “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.”
I am convinced that missions trips are a reflection of the heart of the Father. Over and over again throughout the Bible, we see God intervene when there was a need. His greatest example is the cross. Jesus was sent to earth to take care of a sin problem He did not create. And He said Yes when the Father said GO.
In its simplest form, “missions” is seeing a need and moving towards it knowing that the solution resides within you. The beautiful thing about Jesus is that He is a God of expansion and recompense. Loving and serving people will never bring in a bad harvest; it is never a bad investment. In fact, what we usually see is that the people coming to serve end up being radically transformed; and they thought it was just about the nation they were visiting.
On April 16-19, Lifestreams will be joining me in Romania for our annual trip with our friends at Jesus Culture! Each year, God shows up in an incredible way, I can’t wait to see what He has in store for us. I would be honored to have you join us.