Frankie Lee

Missions 101: A Lesson in Humility

In the beginning of this trip the Lord was quick to humble me through the difficult physical conditions and the struggle my body had in adjusting. It had gotten to the point where I asked God, “Why in the world did I sign up for this trip? I cannot do this for the rest of my life. I was wrong, missions is not meant for me.”

Before this trip, whenever I was asked about my future plans, I always thought in the back of my mind, “Easy. I’m going to be a medical missionary because doing anything else would be settling. I’m going to go all-out and shake this world for Jesus Christ!”

Lesson—Missions is a lot easier said than done. Through this trip, God clearly revealed to me my pride and sinful heart.

I remember one week I led a Bible study with different Kenyan pastors. Our group was dubbed the “All-star” small group because we had the senior pastors—some 60-70-years-old. And even though a 23-year-old, arrogant, hot-shot Calvinist snob like me was preaching to them, at the end of each lesson, they would humbly and gratefully thank me for teaching them the Bible.

I remember Pastor Titus and Pastor Rotich, two pastors over 60-years-old who were faithfully serving their small churches in the middle of nowhere, receiving no recognition, but still hungry to know more about God. I asked myself, “Would I be willing to faithfully serve at a small, remote church like that?

I remember Pastor Patrick Ochanga, who takes care of an orphanage of 46 children. When asked about how he will support these children through high school, he always replied, “God will provide. We need to depend on God.” He has very little in terms of material possessions or praise from men, but he is still on fire for God.

I remember missionary Elder Lee sharing about how he did not plan to go on missions and did not know anything about missions, but as he faithfully prayed and sought to love God every day, God led and opened the way for him to serve in Kenya.

I remember walking quietly into the chapel at the missions base in Nairobi in the afternoon and seeing Reverend Shin, the head of a missions organization in Korea, on his knees in front of the stage, crying out to God in prayer. He was not living for the eyes of men, but for the eyes of God.

I remember three Korean women missionaries—missionaries Grace, Yoon, and Park—who left their homes in Korea and America to serve the people of Kenya. Though they may not do anything spectacular and people may never hear about them, they want to serve because they love Jesus Christ.

The common thread among all these people is their humility and desire to simply serve Jesus in any way because they love Him. Through their lives, I felt like God was using a sledgehammer to break my pride. I realized I wanted to go on missions and do all these spectacular things not out of love for Jesus, but for my OWN glory. God was challenging me, “Frankie, if you get absolutely no glory or recognition from men, are you still willing to serve Me? Are you still willing to go all-out for Me?” This will be a lifelong struggle, but God is slowly changing my heart from responding, “No way!” to “Yes Lord!”

Do I still want to go on medical missions in the future? Yes, definitely, if that’s the will of God. But God is teaching me that whether I am a doctor, pastor, teacher, “missionary”, student, janitor, or whatever I do, to serve God humbly and wholeheartedly out of love for Jesus Christ. I know that if I serve out of love for Jesus Christ, because of His great love for me, I will never be settling in whatever I do.

That is humility. All glory to Jesus Christ!