In keeping with this week’s “small world” theme, I wanted to share with you the blogs of some of my missionary friends. I love reading missionaries’ blogs because the differences between our worlds virtually guarantees that their blogs will be interesting. Also, they (obviously) tend to be strong Christians, and so I enjoy reading about their thoughts on God.
The first blog I want to share is that of my friends, Tommy and Becky Brown. We met them back at our church in South Carolina, and they now form part of a three-family team that is serving in Nicaragua for five years. They just went over there this past fall, and by all accounts from Facebook and their blog, they are doing well. Their blog is simply called, “Brown Blog.” And it is brown. Here is a post to give you a feel for the blog. I particularly love this line from Tommy: “It feels like God has taken the fabric of my life and unwoven it back down to the individual fibers so that He can craft it again into something new.”
Another good missionary blog is “Aliens and Strangers,” written by Brett Harrison. I met Brett at Lipscomb, although we didn’t know each other very well. I did know him well enough, however, to recognize him out in the internet world when I stumbled onto his blog from another missionary blog. I would search through his blog to find a good sample, but I actually think his most recent post is pretty riveting. I don’t know about you, but I find that a story about a drunk and heavily armed cop looking for a bribe is something that holds my attention well. And now that I’m thinking about it, I also found this post, in which he shares openly about the stresses of the missionary life, to be quite enlightening, also.
Lastly, I will officially share with you a blog to which I have alluded in a couple of other posts: Jamie the Very Worst Missionary. I feel like I need to warn you that her language is rough, and sometimes that can be offensive to people. Also, her blog seems to be slowing down some, but she has a unique and original voice that–to me–is worth reading. I found her series on the (dubious) value of short-term mission trips to be thought provoking. And posts such “You’d Be Surprised” or “I Have a Heart for You” are really moving. And for Becky, here is a bonus one about Nicaragua.
Okay, those are all the missionary blogs I have. Luckily, there are three of them, so I am keeping up some semblance of “Top 3 on Tuesday.”
Do you know of any other good missionary blogs?
Kingdom Civics 
Posted by bekster on March 13, 2012 at 9:48 pm
Thanks for the shout out, Kim. 🙂
I just want to say, though, that, yes, you can classify me as a “missionary,” since I am living in a foreign country trying to help people and bring them closer to Christ. However, I am greatly encouraged by people that I would call “missionaries” too who have the same goal but are still living in the States. I’m talking about people like you and Ann and Courtney (and many more) who seek to serve God in EVERYTHING you do. I think your thoughts on having “one job” and about reconciling people to God really get to the heart of what all Christians should be doing… and anyone with these goals is really a missionary. Although there is a lot of “hard stuff” that foreign missionaries have to go through, in some ways I think it is easier to be a missionary here in Nicaragua than it is in the States. The (North) American culture makes it SO HARD to focus on that “one job,” but I really admire people like you who strive to do that anyway. Reading your blog helps me in a major way to stay spiritually connected so that I can focus on my “mission” here, but the reason I can relate so well is because you are so mission-minded. Thanks for that. 🙂
Posted by Tim on March 14, 2012 at 1:56 pm
Becky, you are so right. There are more ways to do mission than we can count, aren’t there?
Tim
P.S. Is “do mission” an apt phrase? Well, it works for me anyway. 😉
Posted by kingdomcivics on March 14, 2012 at 9:59 pm
Becky, thank you so much for your kind words. I am so thankful for the way the internet allows us to stay close and encourage each other, even though we are countries apart. Very cool.