Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.  Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Matthew 28:18-20

Do you have your passport ready if God calls you to be a missionary out of the states? I don’t necessarily mean a lifetime missionary, but what if He called you to go on a short mission trip? I once had an opportunity to go to Romania with a mission group from my church for two weeks and had to say no because I didn’t have a passport. I didn’t really know how to apply or that I could even apply for a passport on line. Yet I procrastinated.

I know what you may be thinking—God won’t call me to be a missionary, but what if you’re wrong? I’ll never forget the first time I felt the nudge to go. It was by the singing group, No Other Name. That year, their song “Lead Me To The Cross” was chosen by the Southern Baptist International Mission Board to promote missions to Northern Africa and the Middle East. During the concert, they asked a question I haven’t been able to get out of my mind even years later.

“What would it mean to you if someone traveled around the world to tell you how much Jesus loves you?” Because I’ve always known about Jesus, I can’t even imagine a life devoid of Him. But so many people have never heard His name even.

No Other Name didn’t just give lip service to the Great Commission—they followed it up by organizing mission trips to different parts of the world. They even had passport applications on the table with their CDs. Yet I didn’t pick one up…

The second time I was nudged, it was by two people from my church who had just returned from a mission trip to Tanzania. Their description of the people and the living conditions of the people in that part of the world briefly shook me out of my complacency. In the village where they went as medical missionaries, one well supplied water for about five thousand people. Yet, I still didn’t get a passport.

I’m too old…or too young…or too…our excuses go on, don’t they? Mine do. How young is too young, or how old is too old? Several teens from our church have gone on the Romanian and Haiti (when it was safe) trips, and I have several friends who’ve gone on mission trips in their retirement years, one who took her first mission trip to the Philippines when she was 76. And our very own Christians Read author, Delores Topliff, has gone on mission trips to the Philippines three times, and to Mexico, Israel, and South Korea…and to a tributary of the Amazon where Colombia, Peru & Ecuador meet.

I know we all can’t go halfway across the world to be witnesses for Jesus, and maybe God hasn’t called you to a foreign mission field. Perhaps He has your mission field right in your neighborhood, your town, your state. But what if He did call you, to say… Romania. Would you be ready? I am…now.