**Words Written by Veteran Missionary in a sensitive location** Editor’s Note: The author’s husband was placed in prison in a foreign land as a direct result of steps of obedience to their missionary call. Although the words below don’t address this situation they carry a weight that is worth noting.

My host smiled and offered me a goat eyeball. I waited for his laughter to follow to break the building tension. None came. I was the guest and therefore received the best part of the evening’s dinner. My mind wandered to a meal that I had had in the States just a few months before. Surrounded by friends, I laughed at their jokes, recognized the food and understood all of it. It felt normal.

A grunt brought me back to my senses as the host continued to move the light blue eyeball closer and closer to me. I realized in that moment that a 30-hour flight brought me here to this strange place filled with bizarre customs and questionable food choices. How could an uneventful plane ride from Michigan to the Middle East make me feel as though I had landed on Mars instead?

Absolute everything was different.

Then it hit me, I was simply one plane ticket from normal…back to a place I knew, understood and loved. Dorothy, could point and click (with her finger and a decent credit line, not her heels) and be home again. But Jesus was asking me, “Do you want a normal life or an extraordinary one?” I still answer that question every day. Am I willing to let go of “normal” to tell others about an extraordinary Savior?

What if I asked you the same question? Are you willing to let go of your preferences, routine, schedule, rightness and “normal” to tell those you’re near about Jesus?

“Of course!” you say. “That’s why I’m going. I’m a servant’s servant. I am the meekest and the lowliest person you’ll ever find!”

I hope you’re smiling. We may not make actual statements like this, but somewhere in our hearts, we believe it to be true. And it may be, but ultimately the contents of our hearts will spill out in words and attitudes… especially in uncomfortable, unpredictable, uncontrollable environments.

• Accomplishment is not as important as attitude.
• Productivity is not as important as attitude.
• Schedule-keeping is not as important as attitude.

Because it is your attitude that those near see and experience.
It is your attitude that frames their understanding of who a Jesus-follower is.
It is your attitude that builds or corrupts team unity.

It is our attitude in which Jesus holds us responsible.

Mission trips create opportunities for “mission with-ness” of other peoples. Jesus demonstrated “mission with-ness” when He came in human form giving those near a chance to experience God. His attitude stayed on mission. Now He charges His followers to the same “with-ness” or witness:

“Think of yourselves the way Christ Jesus thought of himself. He had equal status with God but didn’t think so much of himself that he had to cling to the advantages of that status no matter what. Not at all…

“Be energetic in your life of salvation, reverent and sensitive before God. That energy is God’s energy, an energy deep within you, God himself willing and working at what will give him the most pleasure.

“Do everything readily and cheerfully—no bickering, no second-guessing allowed! Go out into the world uncorrupted, a breath of fresh air in this squalid and polluted society. Provide people with a glimpse of good living and of the living God. Carry the light-giving Message into the night…” Philippians 2 (MSG)