To say missions has been apart of my life since I was a kid would be pretty accurate. At the age of three, my parents and my older sister and I packed up, left Arizona and moved to China and later on to Hong Kong.
I have a 4 year old now (and an 8 and 2 year old) and the idea of moving my family across the world to be a missionary and pioneer a church seems very daunting- I can’t begin to imagine how it was 35 years ago!
I stayed in Asia until I was 18. During that time, I was able to travel to other countries in South East Asia and even joined my first mission trip at the age of sixteen to Thailand.
When I moved “back” to the United States, it didn’t take long for me to realize I was no longer “home.” People talked a little different. The slang was a little different. People dressed differently.. everything that I knew from when I was here for the summers was not the same.
Today, I get the opportunity to not only be a part of what is going on around the world through PCGlobal Missions but I am able to give to missions monthly. I started this several years ago when I realize that we (my husband and I) weren’t giving to missions. I was working in the missions office (and have been since 2010), but giving was not on my mind.
A lightbulb went off one day during an offering at a conference. I was counting the offering to be able to update if we raised enough money for the goal of the offering- and realized I didn’t give towards it. The person who spent half her life overseas and her received her high school education, because of missions support wasn’t being a “sender.” I had acclimated to life here in the United States and forgot about my roots.
Maybe you are like I was and can easily say where missionaries are or what they are doing, but are not apart of sending them. Let this be your light bulb. It doesn’t just take one person, or ten people, it takes all of us supporting and working together to be senders.
On the other hand, maybe you have been a sender in the past, but have stopped- I would encourage you to not stop- let’s go back to sending more, doing more, and seeing more lives changed around the world together.
-Andrea Solis
PCGlobal Network Administrator & Pastor at PCRC
