“Do whatever needs to be done, when it needs doing.”

I am on a journey to discover exactly what it is that God is saying to me when he tells me to become a missionary to the town I am in. As I travel this path, I am looking at the missionaries I know and seeing what the differences are between me and them.

One thing that really stands out about my friend Rob, the missionary to the Philippines, is what he tells me time and time again.

“Do whatever you have to do, whatever needs to be done – and do it now.”

Rob and his family have been living this concept ever since they arrived in the Philippines.

• Rob identified that the island he was on needed a doctor – so he went to med school and became a doctor
• When buildings get blown down by the typhoons that ravage the island, Rob and his team grab their tools and help rebuild
• When children needed adoption, Rob and his wife adopted them
• When a new churches need planting, Rob plants them and oversees their growth and development until they were mature enough to stand on their own feet.
• When Rob saw that people needed education, he opened a school to educate them
• …and the list goes on.

Rob demonstrated this philosophy to me the first time we met in person. He and his family were staying with us for some R+R and during that time we did a community outreach BBQ.

Although they were here to rest, not work, Rob and his family helped set up tables and decorate them, move chairs, prepare food – anything that needed to be done, they did with gladness. They even went to the store to buy burgers and hot dogs for us.

That really impacted me.

Rob is a missionary, a doctor, a church planter of multiple churches, a spiritual father to many, a great teacher and preacher and yet there he was going to Smart-and-Final for us to buy food.

When he visited a few weeks ago I got up one morning to find him folding clothes. He had risen early and done a couple of loads of our washing and was folding our clothes. Why? – Because it was a job that needed to be done!

This is a big challenge to me.

Am I willing to open my eyes to see what needs to be done and do it without question?

Am I willing to be all things to all men?

Am I willing to serve with no question of reward, simply to live the gospel of Jesus Christ?

Are you?