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When I first moved to Romania in 2000, I naïvely assumed that the only difference between moving to Romania and traveling there for a one-week mission trip is just the length of the mission work. It’ll be awesome! I’ll be doing missions 24/7 for every week of the year! I thought.

I had no idea how different it is to live in your place of ministry and to visit your place of ministry.

It’s true that when you’re living on the field, you’re involved in missions and you see yourself “on mission” all the time, but this mindset does not have the same intensity that a short-term mission project does. When you’re going to a foreign country for a week or two, you have a specific agenda, limited time, and a plan that must be taken into account. When you’re living on a mission field, your goals are further out. Your every minute is not stressful. You don’t just parachute in and out of the society you’re in. You become a part of it.

We need to recapture the long-term mission goals that God would give us for wherever he has placed us. Now that I am back in the United States, I might not see myself as a “missionary” in the sense that I was in Romania. I am back in my home-state, working among people whose culture I know and have been immersed in most of my life.

But I still have long-term goals and am definitely “on mission.” The intensity is not as strong as a short-term mission to another country, but there is still a sense of urgency. I am still called to enter into this culture, to immerse myself in the culture and my surroundings, learn the “language” of the people around me, and begin speaking the gospel in this place.

written by Trevin Wax  © 2007 Kingdom People blog

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