Christian lingo has often confused me.  You hear it often enough that you tend to lose the meaning of phrases that get batted around. One of the phrases that tended to baffle me was “having a heart for missions.”  Whenever I heard that, I heard, “We’re a church that likes to pump our congregation for cash to send our youth group to Mexico for a week.” The last few years, I’ve been rather agonized over social injustice other countries.  (Heck, we have our share here in North America, too, but at least we have a decent court system to root it out.)  I support Amnesty International because I deeply believe in the work that they do.  I hear stories about people who go through horrors and it hits me on a really deep level.  I hate it.  I don’t think it’s fair that we are spoiled rotten in North America while other countries have famines and struggle for survival.  I wish I could change it, and I support organizations that are trying to make things better for everyone. That said, I’d never identify myself as someone “with a heart for missions.” This weekend at church, we heard from a missionary.  I’ll be honest.  I did a little mental eye roll when I realized the speaker would be talking, but I couldn’t have been more wrong.  This was a woman who devotes her life to making things better for people in Brazil.  They run an orphanage for abandoned children and plant churches.  While I don’t believe on pushing religion on anyone (that is very much against my belief structure), I do want those who are searching for some peace when it comes to spiritual matters to find what I’ve found.  I don’t want to tally souls, I just want people to know that God is real and death doesn’t have to be the end for us.  That’s what gave me peace, and if it can give someone else the peace that I’ve found, I’d be thrilled to pass that along.