Reality check served with a little raw feeling minus the shameSo you think you want to do missions? Maybe you have been inspired by a short term trip experience or really love to help people. (Its raw but if you keep reading I promise it gets better ;)
Let me ask you this- Do you also really love to have your heart broken? Do you love to have the fragments stomped on often? Or maybe you really love to be face to face with the world's hurt and feel guilty for everything you have or a lot of times what you don't. The feeling of broken and poured out is exactly that- things do not break open by a gentle breeze or a butterfly kiss. Breaking open to pour out means there might be some jagged edges or scarring. There might even be some aftershock like quakes that tear up what is left. I think so often we beautify missions and we glorify it in ways that make us look good and look heart happy. The reality is we all have things we are dealing with under the surface of that smile. Chances are they are just waiting to boil over and bubble out leaving us in a pile of mess. Our pictures are full of joy, yes, but also unspeakable heartache. Being a missionary has its moments, the ones where I have played and loved on some pretty incredible kids while sharing the love of Christ with them. Or the time I was serving at a malnutrition clinic and twelve toddlers escaped their care simply because I was holding one and they were just tall enough to reach the door handle. Those moments are near and dear to my heart and bring a smile to my face. There are other moments though- visiting a home for dying and destitute people where I sat with them and offered massages and a hug. So many older women dying in these beds, with no morphine to ease their suffering. As the bell rang and I had one more massage to give out to complete the task so everyone had received, I quickly rushed to the feet of a woman to hurry and be done. Thank God Holy Spirit prompted me to smile at her face and it was then that I realized this was no woman at all, just a girl. I placed myself on the side of her bed and began talking to her. She was afraid to die. She was sad to be dying alone. She had no momma to hold her close and no papa to tell her how strong she was. She had no family at all and only seventeen years of life experience. I could imagine she was vibrantly full of joy and spirit before she became sick with tuberculousis. And now she was withered, the life gone from her long boney limbs. She was caving in before my very eyes and there was nothing I could do. I did do one thing though, I held her hand and looked into her eyes and offered all that I have left of my own broken, fragmented heart. I gave her everything she needed because I already have it- I asked her if she knows Jesus. I told her he will be the reason she does not die alone. I told her God is the good Daddy who will carry her home and she will no longer suffer but be in an eternal embrace of love and affection. She was so ready to pray with me for the love of God to wash her sin away and accept a new life. My heart lost another piece of itself that day. Maybe we become this way because it is when we lose all the pieces to our puzzled hearts that we truly find our lives. I trust my pieces to the Puzzlemaker so He can make the puzzle more complete. I entrusted this precious one right into His care because I can do nothing to change her circumstance but He can. Those hard moments are also near and dear to my heart but come with a price. The whole first year working with those precious kiddos and learning the reality of what they face and what orphanages here are about- came with joy and so much pain. Then there are the inbetweens- you know, everything that makes up the majority of our time. There are the other missionaries who love to judge whether or not your posts are up to their standards. Or there are the ones you serve who have formed opinions while trying to survive and maybe want to try to squeeze you for as much as they can even if its hurts. There are those back home who need to know what you're doing but the weight of doing it tastefully, so as not to leave a bad impression of your life, brings you down. And even when you think you're doing it right someone lets you know its still wrong. Aside from those realities- the social interaction is just enough on whatever social network you now reside in virtually to keep you from banging your head on the wall. The loneliness is strangling. And the times you long for that coffee chat with your best friend but avoid socializing because you are processing a lot internally. For awhile we operated in so much fear of posting anything- we were afraid of the judgements of fellow missionaries. We were afraid of misrepresenting the country we serve. We were afraid of deterring people from wanting to come visit (especially those closest to us) but it does not matter how you paint the picture- if it is important to them they will make it happen even if its all done in crayon and goes outside the lines. So many painful realities we face daily. So much negativity in this world and we chose to succumb to fear. We are no longer standing by idly while opinions are thrown at us. We will portray things the way we perceive them and we will not feel guilty for it. We will fight against the guilt we have of having a home with a roof and food to eat and work harder to provide opportunities for those who don't. We will continue to bring Jesus wherever we go and equip whoever we can with the Good News so they too can can fight their battles. And you know how we are going to accomplish all of this? We are going to praise and worship and bow down to The One who fights our battles for us. Now that we are past all the tough stuff we have been bottling up for a long, long time lets move forward. There is beauty wherever we go here. And in the midst of so much pain and brokenness we do find our lives and our joy. But it is only possible with God. We do not have our funding yet but also know that every need we have is being met. God has been providing a way for all of them as they arise. We recently gave out a microloan that will become a savings account for a woman we love dearly here. We truly did not have the money to give but we will make it work so she and her family can continue to live in their home. We will make it work and skim on our own groceries for a family that stays together. And we will work toward her having the money in an account to be able to pay for her next emergency- empowering her to use her own earned funds to cover costs and building her self confidence and making an example for her children. This is the passion and the heartache that drives us here. There is pain in various forms but as we learn to walk things out in faith instead of fear we are able to overcome. We are learning to be truly satisfied by a Holy God. To trust Him with all our needs (physical, emotional, mental, & spiritual) and the needs of those around us. When I talked about feeling guilty for what you have and what you don't, I simply meant its hard to live in a third world country surrounded by people with nothing and have things they don't. Its even harder to live in a third world country surrounded by people who have nothing and need money or food or a job when you do not have the funding or the means to meet their needs. As our time here continues I continue to trust God for all our needs but especially laying down their needs too. He is always in control.
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AuthorKristen & Alex Bradshaw Archives
November 2023
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