6 Reasons Why Asian Americans Make Great Missionaries (Part 2)

The last post gave you 3 reasons why Asians can be strategically positioned to fulfill the Great Commission.  Here are the final 3 reasons why you’d make a great ninja for Jesus.

Reason 4) Pioneering Opportunities: Caramel Faces

Just the other day we sat in a thatched house in a tiny little village at the foot of a mountain range. It was the last village on the map because beyond the mountain was another Asian country. For hours we sat telling God stories and explaining the basics to a group of new believers. These Animists have never had a Church among their people since the beginning of time. Here we were seeing the Kingdom advance in a closed communist country where sharing Jesus is illegal, made possible by our Asian faces that allowed us to blend in so well.

Your yellowness (or caramel…whatever flavor you want to be) increases your chances of engaging the unreached where they actually live. You become a prime candidate for dangerous pioneer work. Whether it is an Asian, Middle Eastern or African context, YOU are able to enter difficult places where there are no existing Churches or Christians.

Reason 5) Marketable Skills: Dormant Superheroes

Don’t get hung up on the fact that you need Bible, seminary or Church-planting training to make a meaningful contribution to overseas missions. Missional living can be anything from business, development, media, education, coffee, art, music or even gaming. The fact that you know how to send email puts your technical skills ahead of 80% of the world. The fact that you use toilet paper and wash your hands puts your sanitation skills ahead of 60% of the world. The developing world needs YOU just like the comic book world needs superheroes. Combine marketable skills with creativity, a willing heart and clear end vision and you have yourself an unstoppable superhero force for God to use abroad.

Reason 6) Cultural Awareness: Sticky Rice

Many of us are bi-cultural, meaning we live our lives engaged in two separate cultures at any given time – three if we count our Asian American sub-culture. And if you wear really tight skinny jeans you live on a separate planet altogether. Why do we understand more than one language? Why do we often prefer sticky rice over a sub-sandwich for lunch? It’s because God has entrusted us with the unique ability to adapt to a variety of cultures. We have the sensitivity to learn, experience to engage, and resiliency to love any culture on this planet.

With blessing comes responsibility. We live in a unique time in history where the world is connected, leaders are diverse, trust is elusive, pioneers are needed, young people are skilled, and skinny jeans are trending. If you read deeper into the 6 reasons why Asian Americans make great missionaries you’ll find that it really has nothing to do with being Asian…but has everything to do with being obedient because we are all stewards of this Gospel.