Earlier this semester, Emily shared what a typical week looks like in Global Frontier Missions’ Missionary Training School. Today, she shares more of her experience living in Clarkston, a refugee resettlement community and how God is opening her eyes to the nations in her neighborhood. 

The missions road is not one you can unwalk, unlearn, unsee, nor unexperience. Once you begin, you are already changed for the better. I have only just started on this road and am beginning to see that I will never be able to fit back inside my neat little box. And it’s all because of Jesus; His love is too real, His heart too big, and His sacrifice too great. 

Now, as I drive through the bigger city and see the people with their fancy clothes, seemingly perfect lives, large houses, clean yards, nice cars, all I can think is…I could never be satisfied with the things of this world. Indeed, how could I go back? Do I have to?

I’ve learned too much and I’ve met too many people who need me to be their neighbor. To become their friend and live among them, like Jesus did, in their simple lives with small apartments, shallow cupboards, and hungry hearts. But not hungry like the rich, who seek and strive for more like I once did. No, hungry like the poor who, with pure hearts, desire to know life as it was meant to be: rich with love, faith, and family. 

The worthiness of Jesus far surpasses the things I was raised to chase after…security, self-sufficiency, and prestige. My heart now feels more at home in a place where diversity is the norm and where I walk through town and expect to see beautiful hijabs and different shades of skin, multiple languages, and international markets. Here is where I see the Kingdom of God at work, in doors that always open to extend hospitality, where the beautiful fellowship of community is established over individualism, and where I don’t have to make appointments just to spend time with friends. What was once my routine is now foreign to me. I am becoming a stranger in my own country, as my eyes close to the vain glories of self-gratification, and my heart opens to the beat of heaven where every nation, tribe, and tongue will bless the Name above all names (Philippians 2:11).

No matter where I end up after Missionary Training School, whether distant shores or the familiar streets of this city, I know that my life is worth nothing to me, for now my only aim is to testify to the good news of God’s grace (Acts 20:24). But, I guess that’s what happens when you experience the life changing reality of Jesus and decide to radically follow after Him. Rather than go back, I will move forward and seek to build His kingdom on earth by pursuing the nations in my neighborhood, laying down my busy agenda to make room for those in need, and above all by looking for ways to share the joy that is mine with those who have not met Him…yet. I am waking up to the world that God has called us all to live in, and all the while I am dying to the American Dream.

Read Emily’s first article: A Look at Missionary Training School: Student's Perspective

Are you interested in cross-cultural missions training? Join us in Clarkston for Missionary Training School! 

Written by: Emily, Current Missionary Training School Student

Published on: May 15, 2023