Who Says You Can’t Do This? My friend Esteban grew up in a rough part of town. As a teenager, he went the way most kids from his neighborhood went – and it was not pretty. He got involved in all sorts of things he shouldn’t have been doing and nearly ended up in prison more than once. Eventually, he became a Christian and started coming to a college group I was leading. He served faithfully in the ministry. One day I decided he was a good candidate for something we were about to do. So I struck up a conversation with him: “You should come on the short-term trip I’m leading to __________________ (a closed country).” He laughed. “Bro, I’m from the hood. I can’t do that stuff.” “Why not?” I asked. With no hesitation, he informed me. “You have to be a special kind of person to do that stuff. I’m not educated enough. I haven’t even left Texas.” It took two years, but my friend finally went on a short-term trip to see what God was doing in a closed country in Asia. That trip changed his life. But I think the most important thing it did was teach him this valuable lesson: All are called to be involved in missions. Jesus called everyone from fisherman to IRS agents to be part of sharing the news. He doesn’t seem to care too much about their past or their education. He simply said, “Follow me.” They did, and then they discovered they had a huge calling on their lives. You and I are no exception. You have a call on your life to be part of reaching those who are far from God. That call may end up being to go or it may be to support others in going. Either way, we can all do missions. Let God use you to spread his life around the world– no matter where you came from. "Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they were astonished. And they recognized that they had been with Jesus." —Acts 4:13

By Joël Malm Joël Malm is an author, speaker and life coach who leads outdoor expeditions around the world through his organization Summit Leaders. He has extensive experience abroad with missions and international humanitarian work. @joelmalm summitleaders.org