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Tom Strachan is considering whether God is calling him into long term mission. He shares with us his thoughts after his first two weeks of short term mission in Musanze, Rwanda.
Short term in North Africa
Have you got a heart for reaching Muslims with the gospel? Why not serve through short term mission in North Africa?
Getting involved with short term mission in North Africa provides a wonderful opportunity to see how God is moving among Muslim people. Traditional mission work is not possible in these locations and so we must find opportunities that are a little outside of the box. Many people use the things that they would be doing in their home countries and find ways through their work to share the gospel.
At the moment, we are looking for people to be home school teachers and mothers’ helpers. That kind of support would be such a blessing to many of our missionaries. We are looking for people who can teach English or who just want to be a part of an afternoon English Conversation class, and use this to build relationships. In addition, there are tremendous opportunities for anyone in the medical profession to put their skills to use and have direct contact with Muslim people that might not otherwise meet a follower of Jesus.
The beauty of doing short term in a creative access format is that we can be creative! If you have a gift that you’d like to use to reach the lost, let us help you find a place to use it.
My goals for this trip are to experience something of what being a long term missionary is like, and to see how God is at work in another part of the world. And so, I have been staying with Chris & Fiona Tyrell, a missionary couple who demonstrate faithfulness and love in abundance and who have a real heart to reach the people of Musanze. They also set up the opportunity for me to spend a weekend getting to know Rwandan Christians from a village called Nyabageni. So I can consider my goals achieved!
More than my goals
What I didn’t expect from this trip was for God to encourage and challenge me as much as he has. Seeing two guys sitting around a fire and using the Bible stories they had learnt at the church in Nyabageni to tell their family and friends about Jesus was one of the most encouraging things I have seen. And, I felt challenged by God about my own joy and excitement for the gospel.
Learning to trust
So far, my short term mission experience, due to the slightly last-minute nature of it all, has been an exercise in trusting God in everything. This was especially true as planning happened during my exams and then I had to trust God’s timing for my visa. Through the experience so far, I have come to realise: he is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or imagine. Our God is great.