You want me to lead what? Discovering a New Calling in the Missions Ministry

by Heather Stewart

Are you serious? You want me to lead the Missions Ministry? No way, that’s the most boring thing I could think of to do! 

Here’s what was silently going through my mind when my church Elder in September 2014 asked me to lead missions. Don’t all missionaries live in mud huts on the African continent? There is no excitement in that. There is nothing I can “do” to lead that. There’s nothing…. period…. to do in this ministry. Why do we even need such a ministry? I turned my head and rolled my eyes. I committed to “pray about it”, as that’s what we are supposed to do. But I had my mind made up: there is NO WAY I am going to do such a mundane task. 

I did talk to God about this “opportunity”, although it did not really meet the definition of an “opportunity” in my mind. I wasn’t willing to hear God agree with my Elder in what was being asked of me. I was middle aged in 2014 and by that point I had served in various ministries at my church. I had a second meeting with my Elder coming up and I planned to say, “Please offer me ANY ministry, just not boring missions!” 

At the second meeting, my Elder said they really needed someone to step into leading this ministry, the Missions Ministry had been rather “inactive” and the leadership team at my church wanted me in the role. Oh boy, I can see that he is not expecting a solid no. I ponder silently, “Do I have the capacity to lead? Yes. Am I being selfish in wanting a more exciting role? Perhaps yes. Time to give this serious consideration.”

My first concern: there is a current Missions Ministry leader and if I accepted the role, was I pushing her out? My Elder said she wanted to step down and she knew I was being asked. “Well, there goes that excuse to say no.”

My next concern: “What are the expectations you have for me as the Missions Ministry leader?” My Elder said, “you can do whatever you want”. “A blank slate, hhhmmm….. that IS an opportunity, I can start fresh and maybe make this less boring?” Ok, I agreed, …. reluctantly. 

I started by asking: Who are the various missions my church financially supports, and I was given a list. I started to look into what they each do. No one is living in a mud hut on the African continent (huh!) - well, one is living in a house on the African continent - but there goes my negative stereotype image. 

I got to know these missionaries as real people, not just names. I started to communicate with them via email, I followed them on Facebook, and over time, I met all of them in person. Some of them have even stayed at my home - what a joy to develop our professional relationships into friendships. When an earthquake happens in their country, I quickly email them “are you ok?” and they quickly respond with an update. This ministry is NOT about me, but I have to say - I am so blessed in this ministry. 

My church supports ten missions (including MCC), but I’ll highlight a few for you and how they changed my view of this “boring” Missions Ministry.

One is in a foreign country where they had to learn the language of the country. They communicate with well educated professionals who struggle to understand faith and what it means to have a relationship with Christ, or if Jesus really exists. There are numerous missionaries around the world facing this same challenge in their missionary role, and I am privileged, in my Missions Ministry role, to know one of them and call them friends.   

The other was fluent in the language of the mission field in the new country, but had to start with few resources in their mission’s

ministry when they moved to this country. They have seen several in this nation come to salvation in Christ through their mission’s work, but roadblocks keep surfacing: poor family health, loss of financial sponsors, devastating weather events, gang violence, and on and on it goes. They have a beautiful heart devoted to God and I am privileged to have had them stay in my home. 

A third does Bible translation. While I have a university degree, I was illiterate in what it takes to translate the Bible. What could be so hard? Just translate word for word - easy - done! Not so fast. It takes a team of many people, one extra smart mind (the missionary), and lots of haggling over the meaning of one or a few words in comparing Hebrew, Greek, and the country’s language. And this missionary has a significant long term medical condition with no cure. I am amazed by this missionary’s devotion to translating God’s Word for various people so they can read the Bible in their heart language. I have been privileged to have this person stay in my home and call me friend. 

Remember that I was given free reign to do whatever I wanted in this ministry? I could have kept this as a cozy ministry solely between myself and the various missionaries, while posting the occasional newsletter on my church bulletin board for a couple people to read. However, I decided (or God led me?... I can't remember - remember I am now 10 years past “middle age”)...that prayer would be the crux of leading this ministry. I asked probably 60 people at my church if they would pray for missionaries if I sent them a daily email with a couple sentences of information. Quite a few said they were not interested, which did not deter me, but at one point over the last 10 years, there were about 45 people from my church on my team praying for missions every day. The current number on my team is 27 and I’m working on growing the team. There are even some people on the team who moved away or chose a different church to attend in my community, but they wanted to remain on my team. I say it is the easiest team to be on at my church …. there are NO meetings, your task takes up to 1 minute per day (or longer - your choice), you have huge Kingdom impact, and it is interesting. It really IS interesting. Those on the team tell me that even though they have never met these missionaries (or meet them once every 5 years), they feel like they know them; and when the missionary visits, conversation is easy between my team members and the missionaries as they are not really strangers. The missionaries tell me that they feel so valued to be prayed over by such a large team and that no other church does this for them. What a joy to do this for them! 

I regularly read blogs written by missionaries around the world on www.alifeoverseas.com/ and it has opened my eyes to both the challenges and rewards of people moving to new cities and new continents as missionaries to help new communities (big and small) come to know Jesus. Leaving parents and friends behind, whom you may not see for years, can be gut wrenching. Marriages can be strained in the new “field”. Sometimes this life of service means delaying finding a spouse or never having one. You bring up children in a location where none of the child rearing traditions you are familiar with exist. After five years in the mission field, you come “home” for a few months, “rest”, but you don’t feel at home as time has changed things, and you have no “house” to come home to.  You struggle with what to write in a newsletter to your supporters, wishing you could say that you have led many to Christ, but it hasn’t happened despite all your efforts. You fear losing financial donations without achieving “results”. It is frequent effort to source new financial supporters. Then a pandemic or civil war breaks out forcing you to return to your passport country. Did I already use the words “gut wrenching”? 

If you are reading this blog as a potential future missionary, don’t let this turn you off. There are immense blessings and rewards on the missions field. The point I am trying to make is that I was terribly wrong in my view of the missions ministry as being boring and not worth my time. 

Then I got involved, literally. No, I didn’t move and become a missionary. But, I led a couple short term mission trips, and I am leading a team of 7 in June 2025 on another short-term mission trip. It's a lot of work, but gosh, it’s so much fun too! 

Then I went to Central America as a short term missionary in 2017 under the leadership of a large Christian organization. It was to serve children and help Pastors, and such a great trip! On a side note, there is a lot of controversy around the merits of short-term mission trips, whether they help or cause harm. Controversy is anything but boring, I chuckle to myself thinking back to myself believing missions was “boring”.   

God continues to show me new ways to expand this ministry for His glory. The latest He has placed on my heart is to have members of my church paint/refurbish a 20 ft shipping container to be sent to the mission field to become something (pharmacy, cafe, church, school, or ???) that will lead others to a saving faith in Christ. I’m not sure when this will actually happen, we’ll see. 

I would also LOVE to help other churches, in Atlantic Canada or around the world, start a team to pray for the missionaries their church financially supports. MCC can connect you to me if you want some guidance to get you started (it takes me about 4 hrs/week in prep work to create the prayer emails). 

And what has all this taught me? Missions is NOT boring, rather it is the MOST exciting ministry in the church. If I was not the Missions Ministry leader at my church, I doubt I would have had ANY of these wonderful experiences.  If I could go back to September 2014 to the question asked of me “will you lead the Missions Ministry?”, I’d respond, “heck YES, can I start today?”.