At a recent Missions Revival conference, @cliff.tam and I loved the questions youth asked us about missions. So grateful for the chance to speak with these mission-hearted youth ❤️
Here’s a summary of the top 3 questions asked:
1. How do you navigate the balance between your parents’ objections and whether one should embark on missions?
Cliff: The first question you have to ask yourself honestly is- do I want to embark on missions to fulfill my selfish reasons (sense of adventure, to get away from my family etc) or is it truly a call from God?
Once you discern correctly, that will help you navigate how to intercede for the situation.
WJ: My parents said no to some very big decisions I had to make. But God just blows my mind. Each time I wrestled in prayer, He just blew my mind by orchestrating things and situations that moved my parents hearts.
Young people, never EVER let the complacency of accepting your parent’s first answer as a reason to say no to God. Discern rightly first, then press in in prayer.
Parents, the Bible says to train a child in the way he/she should go, not where YOU want him/her to go. Don’t end up protecting your children from the God who gave them to you!
2. What can I do as a student to prepare myself for missions?
Cliff: The mission field is a lonely place. Away from your family, friends, and home church, your old infrastructure of support will be all demolished. Build a deep and vibrant relationship with God as a youth, so that when those times come, you will not cave into the loneliness.
WJ: Ask yourself some questions:
1. What do I enjoy doing? Can I cling loosely to those things?
2. Do I regularly make time to “stop for the one”?
3. Do I regularly say yes to God, outside of my comfort zone?
3. What’s the biggest personal risk you’ve ever taken to go on the field?
Cliff: I have a liver transplant and am immunocompromised, so every time I go somewhere, it’s a risk. But God has been so good. Even when He called us to Uganda and I couldn’t take the yellow fever vaccine due to my transplant, He opened the way for me and has always protected me.
WJ: Leaving my speciality training to go to Uganda was career suicide. I knew once I left, I could never return to the system and it was true.
But God has been good and He took me on a journey beyond my wildest dreams.
When people say- “the Singapore system is so rigid, your whole life is mapped out for you,” that’s exactly what we must choose not to settle for. Who’s to say you can’t take a gap year or that God can’t make a way for you if He has called you. There’s no risk too big for us to take if He’s called us to it.