Raising Up Missionaries

After my last blog post, telling about all of my missionary-minded children, I know people will wonder, "How did she do that?"  So, I'll give you a little excerpt from a post I did last fall, "What Does the Future Look Like for Our Children?"

Recently, someone asked me how I have raised up 3 children who have chosen to live overseas in service to the Lord.  This woman went on to say that it is exciting when even one child from a family chooses such a personal journey ... but for 3 to choose a similar journey was quite unbelievable for her.

No we did not tell our children, "When you grow up, you should be a missionary."  So, what did we do?

1.  We demonstrated an active, everyday, personal walk with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  The heart of a true missionary must come from such a daily, vibrant relationship with the Lord, that they absolutely know, without a shadow of a doubt, that they are called into missions work.

2.  We trusted God for financial provision, when having 13 children and a teacher's salary don't match up.  Our kids know that the Lord will provide for their needs.  They grew up learning how to pray, and how to trust God for the outcome.

3.  We talked about and read about missionaries ... ordinary people doing extraordinary things for God.  One year, each of the children that knew how to read, read Christian biographies for their homeschool history course.

4.  We went to hear missionary speakers, and we supported missionaries on a regular basis.

5.  We took the whole family on Mission Trips.  In 2001, we took all 9 children to work in inner-city Los Angeles for 10 days.  In 2006, we took all 10 children to New Orleans for 2 weeks.

Seriously, we didn't make a plan to "raise up missionaries".  We made a plan to raise up children who joyfully love and serve Our Lord.  Whether He calls them to the military, to missions, to teaching, to the pastorate ... it doesn't matter.  Really ... ALL we have wanted for our children (career-wise) is for them to love and serve the Lord in whatever they might do.  And, that's exactly what they are doing.  While we have 3 young adults serving the Lord overseas, we also have 3 young adults serving the Lord here on the homefront.  And, we have 7 younger children, still at home, that we are raising up to follow the Lord, follow their dreams, follow their passions, and to be excited wherever it may be that the Lord leads them.