Kristen Welch
About the Author

Kristen writes at her parenting blog, We Are THAT Family and is author of Rhinestone Jesus: Saying Yes to God When Safe Sparkly Faith is No Longer Enough and founder of The Mercy House. Follow Kristen on twitter as @WeareTHATfamily.

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things we love
& you will too!
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  1. Kristen,
    When God first called me to help start Redeemer Christian School in Pakistan…I said…Who? What? Why me? I didn’t know very much about the Middle East at all, nor was I very versed in International Missions. I’m still not, but I’m trying. I gave God every excuse I had, and yet, He still wanted me. I could sure use a mentor, though, to come alongside me so that I didn’t feel like I was re-inventing the wheel all over again. Fundraising is one of the biggest hurdles. Who would have known that I had family I never knew existed in such a far away place…Amazing our God!!
    Blessings to you for answering His call…
    Bev

  2. How wonderful…We are all God’s family. There are no boundaries…no fences….
    Your family is a shining example of love for all….

  3. This has been God’s mission even in the Old Testament. Israel just didn’t do what God asked…..

    When I was involved in Child Evangelism Fellowship, they broke apart missions in a way that makes sense. Know, pray, give, go.
    Know the missionaries, be in contact with them, encourage them, listen to them, give cards, letters, etc.

    Pray for your missionary, and the field they are in, the people they are reaching, all of their needs and respond how we feel led to pray as well, pray for the strongholds to be broken.

    Give, money, time, other resources, expertise if applicable, mobilize other people if you are unable to go, help with training. Support a foreign, native missionary through an organization, support a child through another organization. Learn about another culture. We also have a mission field right where we live too, and act on it. Love your neighbors. When we have more than someone else, we have resources we can use to help other people.

    Go, go to another country, or be involved with the people who don’t know Jesus here. I found out we had refugees from Kosovo right in the same neighborhood, we have foreign students at our local colleges, and foreign exchange students in our high schools, we have ethnic grocery stores, and we also have neighbors who don’t know Jesus because they didn’t grow up in a family who knew Jesus.

    Statistics are one half of one percent of our resources in our churches in America are used for foreign missions. I don’t know the percentages through private donations of people giving on their own.

    These are our brothers and sisters in Christ. Sorry, I didn’t mean for this to be so long. When my eyes were opened, I was astounded at the opportunities we have to be involved in missions because it is God’s heart that all should know Him and worship Him.

  4. Thank you, thank you! I do not feel called to overseas missions like you but God certainly used this for what He has called me to do. It is so easy to convince myself that what He has put on my heart I should put off because like you said… “I can’t even keep up with the laundry.” This was so encouraging!

  5. JUST taught another lesson on this….”as you go” … and stop making excuses! 🙂

  6. Kristen,
    AMEN! I know God calls everyone to the mission field of some kind. I just never understood what my mission was or how to evangelize the Gospel. Lately it has become crystal clear. DO what you do best…encourage others. Cook for the sick or friends with family in the hospital, send cards, buy little gifts for people. Basically let people know you are thinking of them and love them just like God does! There is no excuse families can’t do the simplest of acts like praying for others, sending cards, mowing a friends yard, etc. Do something to the least of these and we have done it to Jesus!!
    Blessings 🙂

  7. Loved this: “where are you going today?” Simple and beautiful. Thanks for sharing!

  8. Thanks for this post. My husband and I train and lead short-term ministry teams to Eastern Europe every summer. We host family camps and LOVE having entire families join us in building God’s kingdom in the post-Communist countries such as Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, and Ukraine. Getting involved with one’s entire family promotes spiritual growth in every member’s life as they pray together, do fundraising/trust God to provide, and serve together outside their comfort zone. These things are all wonderful, but what about the impact that a loving, well-functioning (not perfect) family can have on those to whom they’re ministering? This, in our opinion, is of eternal value beyond words. We serve among people who have no positive role model for parenting and marriage thanks to the destructive influence of alcohol throughout previous generations. When these folks see a couple or a family working together, laughing together, and showing respect for one another, they’re amazed. They want to know the secret. And that secret, of course, is the love of Jesus poured out in our hearts. i can’t say enough for the value of families building God’s kingdom together.