Mayfield Guest House

I have had the pleasure of staying at the AIM guest house three times now.  They serve three meals a day, family style.  With missionaries from every organization imaginable passing through meals are always full of fascinating conversations.  Whether staying for one night, one week or an afternoon to sleep before your flight the world doesn’t seem so big around the Mayfield tables.  

I’ve eaten with missionaries who have been on the field longer than they have been off.  In fact, I met a woman who came over with her husband when they were young and is now going back to retire after 25 years.  She has seen members of their church die due to persecution.  Her own husband died on the field.  Now she is going back to live in a place where she has only visited, to be near her grandkids.

I have meet short term missionaries who are on their first time through.  Their enthusiasm is always encouraging.  Then, with the AIM boarding house nearby I’ve run into kids and families who come from all over the world.  One 7^th grade boy flew all the way here from Canada by himself to start the school term.  His family was originally from Hong Kong and will go back to serve after their homestay in Canada.  Figure that one out.  

I have shared hymns with missionaries from Sweden and talked about our heritage. I have sat with a Nigerian missionary who has lived most of his life with his family in the Philippians, where my dad spent much of his senior year in college serving as a short term missionary.  What? 

Recently, my mind was blown when I found myself at the table with people from the town of St. Joe, MI, where I taught in for three years.  Two couples were here to volunteer with a hospital they have a long time partnership with.  For 20 minutes we exchanged names of churches, students, doctors and friends that we had in common.  My mind was blown again when they said the missionary, doctor who taught science at the same school I taught at was now the same distance away from me now as I was when I left the school to live with my family again.  He and his family came half way around the world and here we are only 2 hours from each other again.     

My favorites are the conversations I have with African missionaries.  Today, I had lunch with a gentleman from Uganda who is part of an African Evangelical Missionary Group.  They are an African grown missionary organization serving all over.  I was even more amazed to learn that their former president was from Madagascar and that there is a chapter in Mada.  It is in these moments point to the fact that we are all working together for the same things – the Kingdom.  

The call to prayer can be heard as we walk into lunch and I am sobered by the reality that people within earshot are praying to Allah. Then, as we eat I hear that God has risen up national missionaries and minutes later we are talking about how the compound of a missionary being looted while he slept.  I shake my head and wonder what this world is coming to and then God reminds me in this place He brings people from all over the world who love Him and are committed to encouraging others towards faith in the One Way, Truth and Life.