missionary of missionaries

i have been on two mission trips to haiti, but that hardly makes me a missionary.  before i decided to Go, i wasn't sure how the concept of mission work fit into my worldly life.  but i went anyway.  i slowly started to see good things happening in and around me.  i am not one who understands accident or chance.  i see purpose and plan.  i have faith in the end game even when i don't see the finish.  

i met jim in 2011, none the wiser about his life circumstances.  he was an american agronomist working with the methodist church in haiti and the haitian government to establish a system of agricultural practices before and after the earthquake.  he talked to us about american foreign policy.  he talked hurricanes.  he talked agriculture.  while the members of my team joked that maybe i would turn into a missionary, or that baptism by being thrown into the pool might suffice, his words about haiti weighed heavily on my shoulders.  my heart was already in a heap, but i knew there was more to it.  

i got to know jim in 2013.  unlike me, he knew he would be a missionary one day.  his heart was always fashioned for foreign lands.  it's the story of his life after tragedy, where i see firsthand, his mission work begin.  sitting around the table drinking coffee, he recounted the events of the earthquake in january 2010.  we were with him under the hotel montana, we climbed out of the debris when he was rescued, and we walked through the US embassy with him days later.  we listened to his survivor's story and agonized with him.  

it was no accident i was sitting at jim's table, the most improbable receiver of his story.  jim never knew his life would be swallowed up by the rubble of the hotel montana.  his vision did not include a girl from colorado.  this missionary of missionaries was no accidental survivor.  his words of compassion and examples of humanity are still living in my heart today.  his story tells me, out of the most broken places goodness comes.

i like the thought that one doesn't have to go far to be a missionary.  a life's work might be to encourage people to write or use their art.  you might be the athlete who champions someone to finish the race.  you might be the mom of three boys.  you might be the chairwoman of an amazing organization.  you might be the middle aged woman who listens to a neighbor.  you might find yourself in haiti, or at the community breakfast down the street.  your purpose in life is waiting for you to show up.  you just have to decide to Go.