While I was in Africa in September having breakfast with my hosts Ben & Candi. Ben was talking about a time he was really encouraged during a missions week at Baylor. He said one of the college professors who invited him to speak at her class said she was very thankful to missionaries because her parents became Christians through the work of missionaries in China.
I told them that I could easily relate to that college professor.
You see my mother's immediate family became believers through close contact to missionaries. My mother's paternal uncle who lived in the rural parts of central Mexico was the first to become a believer because of the witness and outreach of missionaries. My mom's uncle then came back to his family to share the good news of how Jesus Christ had changed his life and then my grandfather and grandmother became believers. Through their lives, teaching, and example my mother also became a believer as a young girl.
My father was the first believer in his family. He happened to walk past a church on a certain really bad day and heard people singing. He stopped and went inside to listen to the singing and then ended up hearing a missionary preaching. This missionary would end up being my dad's spiritual father, a great friend, and role model.
My family has been blessed by the labors and sacrifices of men who feel the call to leave their homes to reach others in the name of Jesus.
I would not be here if it were not for the work of missionaries.
