Behind the Slideshow: A Modern Missionary Life
Martyrs And MissionariesMay 18, 202300:29:0926.7 MB

Behind the Slideshow: A Modern Missionary Life

Elise joins Troy from the Revived Thoughts podcast in a Revived Studios crossover episode to discuss some of the perhaps unfamiliar and unseen aspects in the life of the modern missionary, from getting to the field to going home for furloughs. We also share some stuff from our own lives including our summer plans.

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[00:00:00] Hi, I'm Dan Jones and This Is History A Dynasty To Die For is back for a brand new season. This time we meet Edward II, a larger than life character who starts out as the party

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[00:02:06] This podcast, Martyrs & Missionaries and Revived Thoughts. And this episode will also be posted in the Revived Thoughts link and Troy will be acting as the host for this episode so after I make my announcement you'll hear his voice so don't be alarmed you haven't switched podcasts.

[00:02:20] Nothing has happened. But before that I want to give you an update on what the next episode of Martyrs & Missionaries is going to be. And I think you'll be very excited because this is somebody that I should have done a very long time ago.

[00:02:33] Somebody who is without a doubt one of the top names in missionaries of all time and that is Hudson Taylor. I'm currently reading his autobiography called A Retrospect so if you've read Spiritual

[00:02:44] Secret that's by his son and a lot of the quotes that are used come from A Retrospect and it's been a really good read so far so look forward to that coming soon and in the meantime enjoy this episode.

[00:03:05] This is Troy and Elise and you are listening to Revived Thoughts. All right so I said Elise this episode does not have Joel and I'm not even sure if saying this is an episode is quite the right thing.

[00:03:15] It's more like kind of an announcement bumper idea that both Elise and I had and we want to share it with you. Now if you were a Revived Thoughts listener maybe especially if you're some of our newer

[00:03:25] listeners and you're wondering who Elise is, Elise is the host of Martyrs & Missionaries. Elise is also my wife and so we are sharing this idea. We've been kind of talking about it for a while.

[00:03:36] It's something that affects her show Martyrs & Missionaries a whole lot but it also affects the show that we're doing too, Revived Thoughts, talks about people constantly who are either going to the mission field or ascending missionaries.

[00:03:49] But the other reason we really want to talk about this too is because it's a subject that I think a lot of people interact with. It's still something we're interacting with today that people don't really know maybe fully how they're supposed to approach it.

[00:04:03] But before we talk about that Elise say hey, let everyone know you're here. Hello, very excited to do this episode. We've been looking at doing this for a while now and weren't really sure how to do it because it's kind of an odd subject.

[00:04:15] It's not something people really talk about but I wanted to mention we actually are overseas ourselves. So for those of you who don't know, who are new to the show or we don't mention it very often but we actually live in Indonesia.

[00:04:30] So if you thought we were stateside this entire time then that's a surprise. But we've been over here for a year and we live in Java on the biggest island or well the most populated island, not the biggest island. And it's-

[00:04:42] It's the most populated island in the world, isn't it? I believe it is, yes. So it's a lot of people, a lot of people. And we live in this very small town. It's actually kind of at the foothills-ish of some volcanoes and so we've got some really

[00:04:55] beautiful views. Troy, what do you do? I teach at a Christian school. I teach to high school students. It's really great. We have students from all over the world who come to this school, students from South Korea

[00:05:08] and the Netherlands and America and then some students from the community who go there. They're able to learn more about their faith and it's a really cool thing to be a part of

[00:05:18] and get to teach a perspective that is maybe not always as common in a country like Indonesia that is predominantly Muslim. We love being here. We're really glad that we get to be here and we were-

[00:05:29] If you've been listening longer, maybe you've gone back to listen to some older episodes. I always love those listeners who are like, I've listened to all your episodes. I think that's crazy that some of you have done that because that's four years worth of podcasting.

[00:05:39] You may remember that we were in Cambodia before. This last year we've been in Indonesia and as far as we know and can tell, we're going to be in Indonesia for a very long time.

[00:05:49] Now we wanted to do this episode and kind of this subject for a while but I think what's really putting it on our minds right now and kind of brought it to the forefront is that

[00:05:56] Elise and I are getting ready to go back to the States for the summer. In about a week and a half we will be flying the many, many hours it takes to get from Indonesia back to the States.

[00:06:08] We will then be dealing with all the fun of jet lag, of trying to get your sleep back situated from a 12-hour literally night and day shift. And we're- I mean, I don't want to sound too cool but we're going over hemispheres here too.

[00:06:20] We're jumping over the equator line, getting back to America. And I think this is why it's kind of putting it on our mind right now. And so we will be in the United States for the next two months and then it will probably

[00:06:30] be the only time we're in the United States for quite a while. It'll- I mean, we are not expected- At least like two years. Yeah, we're not expected to be back in the United States for really anything for a few years.

[00:06:39] So if you're somebody who's been following us, you've been talking to us, you enjoy our show, you maybe interact with us on Twitter, you listen to these podcasts, we would love for you to follow us on our Facebook group, Following the Frasiers.

[00:06:50] We'd love for you to consider supporting us or looking at us in that way. And I mean, hey, if you're like, hey, where are you going to be in the States? We'd love to meet up with you or we'd love-

[00:06:59] You know, I'm a pastor of a church or my pastor would love to meet you. We would love to hear where you're going to be at because we only get a couple months to do it.

[00:07:06] And, you know, if you're listening to this in 2024, this moment's already passed, right? You missed your window. But if you're listening to this as it's kind of coming out, please reach out. We would absolutely love to see what we can do.

[00:07:17] You never know, we might be closer to you than you think. And we're always looking to meet people. And that's actually one of the things I think I find the hardest about being overseas is

[00:07:25] that we can't- we have listeners who are reaching out, talking to us, and we can't do anything with you physically because we're not physically there. So please reach out. Don't be shy.

[00:07:34] The worst we can say is maybe it won't work out, but we'd love to see if we can try. The subject that we want to talk to you about is the life of missionaries.

[00:07:43] And what I kind of mean by that, and Elise talks about martyrs and missionaries all the time and the amazing, incredible things that people do all the time. And that's not necessarily the part where we're interested in talking about.

[00:07:53] We're more talking about kind of the transitional life of those who live overseas. And we're not even going to really be using, I think, ourselves as the primary examples. Yes, we do live overseas, but that's not- we're not- we've talked, we spend a lot of

[00:08:08] time talking to, and we have gotten to know a lot of people throughout the years. As people who've lived in China, Cambodia, now Indonesia, we've met and interacted with a lot of people. And we can kind of give some insight here.

[00:08:20] And I think one of the reasons why you might find our insight useful in this area is that Elise and I are probably not supported by you. And that makes a really key difference because a lot of people you interact with and talk

[00:08:33] with and are kind of going around, if you do know them, they are often probably a little bit guarded around you about what they say, what they're feeling and what's going on because they're nervous, I'm guessing, that you could become a potential supporter or may already

[00:08:49] be a supporter of theirs. And I cannot tell you how important it is to people who are in this line of life and their support network and the fear of losing a supporter, saying something wrong, putting

[00:09:00] their foot in their mouth, sharing an emotion that I was just telling them I was discouraged. I didn't know that they were going to, you know, rescind that money or something like that is ever present.

[00:09:10] Everyone who's done stuff like this will tell you that it does happen sometimes and that it's a fear of theirs that lives with them. So they tend to be pretty guarded around others.

[00:09:21] But we are not supported by you, more than likely, some of you, but more than likely not. And so it's not a very big deal for us to tell you what we're going to tell you.

[00:09:28] And I think it's important if you can to listen to it, because if you have these people in your life, and most of us know somebody right at church who comes around once in a while, hopefully your church has some people they're sending.

[00:09:40] And if that's the case, these are probably some of the things that they would like you to know, but they're probably not going to say them to you out of that fear that they always seem to, you know, kind of live in, whether it's justified or not.

[00:09:53] You might say we would love for them to share more, but we, you know, they don't. But this is probably what's on their mind and keeps them from doing that. Yeah, I think we're going to go in kind of the non, the unsexy part of missions beyond

[00:10:07] the slideshows. You know, I think a lot of us and this is this was, you know, us growing up as well. You go to church on Sunday and it's like, oh, hey, we've got like the missionaries up

[00:10:16] talking and they got their slideshow and they've got their like, you know, their traditional dress of whatever area that they're in. And they're really nice. But that's pretty much the your exposure to missionaries.

[00:10:28] But you think about it from the moment you say, hey, I think the Lord is calling me to do this. You are probably interacting with different organizations that you're going to go with. You may be doing some exploratory discovery trips to find out if you're

[00:10:40] going to be a good fit for the team and if you're going to, if you're in the right location, you're then going to start beginning to raise support, which is going to take a lot of work. You're then going to be going at most organizations have different

[00:10:51] trainings that you're going to go off and do. And all of this is going to take, I mean, generally speaking, a year and a half to two years. Not everyone just flies straight up kind of like we did. Most people it takes a long time.

[00:11:03] And even for us, it was not immediate. Took probably five or six months for our entire five or six months was incredibly stressful because we knew we weren't where we were supposed to be. We knew we needed to go somewhere. But also we weren't there yet.

[00:11:19] I think that anybody who's in these two year, three year, decade long transitions, it's got to be so stressful knowing that I'm supposed to be going somewhere. I'm not there yet. I'm raising something for this, but I'm not going to be here forever.

[00:11:31] And they're just stuck in this very long, flexible, transitionary loop. And then once they get out there, a lot of times they go to places that are not their final places either. They're either going for language training. Some of them are mechanics.

[00:11:43] So they're learning skills of how to fix airplanes or helicopters. And that takes extra years added on. And it can be an extremely long journey. And then sometimes you're learning a language that will help you learn the next language from a group of people way out there.

[00:12:00] Yeah, I will say using our city as an example. We have a lot of people that come from there usually with certain organizations that it takes them one to three years that they're here, that they know they're not going to be here long term.

[00:12:14] They're learning language and then they go further into the interior. And like Troy said, a lot of times they also learn the local dialect. So it's just a lot of changes and a lot of transition. And if you happen to have children, that's even more transition.

[00:12:29] All of that just to get an arrive at the location of the place that you will then begin to forge relationships. There's not many other positions really, I think in the world, maybe doctors and

[00:12:40] lawyers where it's going to be an extra four to eight years of training on top of that. But that's what this group of people is probably going to be doing the entire time stressfully trying to figure out do you know, is the Lord in this?

[00:12:52] Am I going to be able to do this? What what blocks come along the way? Everything from is this country open or closed? Is there going to be visa problems? Is that tribe going to interact with me? Okay. Is there going to be a position for me?

[00:13:06] How am I going to learn all the cultural insights that normally comes like what other religions are in that area that are going to be pushing against me as I go? What about my children? Are they going to have schools and that area?

[00:13:17] Are there going to be hospitals in that area nearby? All these floods of questions you can get them answered to a degree before you get there. But the truth of the matter is many of these questions really aren't understood

[00:13:29] until you finally have arrived at that location that it could have taken you is not is not uncommon for it to be six years before you're finally kind of at the spot where you're probably supposed to be and then your body gets to start adjusting.

[00:13:42] And here's another thing too, as you're going through those transitions, you're going to be getting hit with all kinds of diseases and flus and you're going to be learning to eat food. And yeah, everyone talks a lot.

[00:13:53] One of the things I think a lot of people will say, the overseas travelers will say, oh, we get asked a lot of food questions. But what you don't probably maybe think about as much as everything you're eating

[00:14:01] has the potential to cause you extreme stomach pain later on and that you're not only trying new foods, but you're also learning, is this safe for me or not? Is this hygienic or not?

[00:14:12] Am I going to have some very stomach hurting diarrhea for eating what I just ate later on? And sometimes the answer is yes. Learning to take things like parasite dewormer on a semi irregular basis.

[00:14:25] All these kinds of gross things that you and your kids and everyone in the family, you know, maybe those things don't necessarily make it on the slideshow back home. We don't put those up on the PowerPoint. And that was the weekend we could barely move.

[00:14:36] But there's something that I promise you, the people in your life that you know, that you sent overseas, they're having to deal with those things in real time. They may not be sending those back to you because you may not want to know it, but

[00:14:47] it is a part of their lives. They're getting hit with tons of body, physical. You don't want to know how often. I mean, if this was like a ratio of how much time is spent where the bathroom comes up a lot more than it probably should.

[00:15:01] It's not good. It's not good. But then you also have usually you have the parasite stomach issues and things like that. This depends on where you're at. Right. So if you're in the urban areas, you're probably not going to be dealing with this as much.

[00:15:13] But I do think that you probably still deal with just illnesses. So whenever you switch to a different area, you're just going to catch every single thing that comes along. So if you're doing language, for example, so you're going to be spending a lot of

[00:15:27] your language time catching a lot of different bugs. So it's just it kind of adds a little extra layer of misery that's not anticipated. Not anticipated in a really no way that you can't avoid it really per se. It's just going to happen.

[00:15:40] And at least just probably another good point. You may be in a rural area. Maybe when you think of somebody, you think of a tribe and the Serengeti. Right. Some people are in those positions. Other people are in cities bigger than your city back home. Right.

[00:15:53] Like there are people who are all over different parts of Asia and South America that are in cities that are massive compared to cities back in America. But that doesn't mean that they're living up to the same standard.

[00:16:03] But it also doesn't mean they're living in a tribe in a hut either. There are so I mean, you know, there are so many different versions of what they could be doing. And each person is doing something that's going to be a little bit unique to them.

[00:16:15] Moving to the next part, though, even once you've arrived at the location, you have not fully arrived yet and you begin to kind of have this strange transition where your new place you're living is your new home.

[00:16:30] But you also are going back to your old the old country, your old home. But the old home is changing, too. You've been gone for two, three, four years and things are shifting there. There are things that are happening. You're missing new songs. You're missing elections.

[00:16:46] You're missing important things that are important to the folks back home. But you've been living in a completely different world. And likewise, you've also been changing a little bit. You've been growing and learning and doing new things.

[00:16:56] And there becomes a bit of a disconnect for the people who are back home and the people who are overseas. Now, again, a lot of times it's not being intentional. But we've heard this over and over and over again from people. And we've experienced it ourself.

[00:17:09] When we lived in China, we came back to the States and we were surprised. And I'll be honest, maybe even a little bit hurt at how few people. Asked us about our experiences or time in China

[00:17:22] and how little interest was really given, in fact, that there's a disconnect, maybe because people feel like they can't relate or maybe because people just don't want to make other people uncomfortable, but they don't want to hear that much often from it.

[00:17:35] And it kind of goes in two directions where either people think, oh, my goodness, you're this amazing person because you go and do those things or you're still doing that. OK, I don't really want to talk about that.

[00:17:44] Let me tell you about what's going on in my life. And neither of those are really the most helpful ways to approach the person who's been overseas for a couple of years. I think it's difficult whenever you come back. There's just it's kind of like reverse culture shock.

[00:17:59] I remember talking to a lady a few years ago and she was coming from an area that was big and developed, and you wouldn't really think this would be an issue. But she said she was just I think she was in a drugstore

[00:18:10] and she saw all these different just options available when she came back to the States and she just started to cry. And she had no idea why. But there's just this is thing that happens when you come back and you just feel out of place.

[00:18:24] And so you're kind of feeling maybe a little more vulnerable than you normally would and just kind of like a like a fish out of water. So and that kind of compounds when people don't know how to talk to you.

[00:18:36] Yeah, I would say that in some ways we live when we lived over in China, I feel like we did. People often ask you, you know, do you feel culture shock? I feel like I experienced more culture shock returning to America

[00:18:49] after having lived over in China for two years. I felt like it was more difficult transitioning back to living in America for a few years because of just how different life was, how much I'd gotten used to the way life was and then going back over and saying,

[00:19:03] Whoa, like I can just say whatever I want and I don't have to worry necessarily about, you know, the CCP being mad at me or something like that. There's just so many little things where it was like I'd gotten used to this

[00:19:13] because I had to and I didn't realize how much it was having an effect on me until afterwards. And I had like a chance to kind of think about it. I was like, wow, that really did have a much more profound effect

[00:19:22] on who I was as a person. And I think it's true of many, many other people you will talk to where when they're coming back over to America, they've been gone for a couple of years. They're feeling a lot of emotions. I mean, they're missing their home.

[00:19:35] They haven't been back. They're missing foods that won't kill them. They're missing people that they haven't seen in years. You know, oftentimes when you have holiday meals, you're going over and Thanksgiving, Christmas visiting the folks. But oftentimes those overseas are not seeing them for two years.

[00:19:51] Think of how much your you have children, how much they grow in two years. And that's how long grandparents, uncles, aunts, everybody's going between seeing these children. And yet the other side of it, too, is when they're returning home,

[00:20:03] they're not often on vacation mode, although they may have a summer or some months to furlough. This is not a time usually of rest. In fact, if anything, a lot of times people we've heard people say that, yeah, I may live in the tribes

[00:20:16] and I may be like the only doctor in the tribe. But I find it more work to be in the States for furlough because I'm talking to so many people, I'm meeting with so many people. I'm raising support. I'm explaining a vision or a mission that needs money.

[00:20:28] You know, our island needs a boat, our group needs a plane or whatever it is. And so I'm doing so much work like that. I'm just trying to catch up on everything that's going on. And in between all that, I'm fitting my only moments with my family

[00:20:40] that we're going to have for two or three years with me and my kids. My only chance to have a good cheeseburger for a while. All these things are getting squeezed into this one break of whatever that time might be for people.

[00:20:51] And so it's not necessarily a relaxing time in their lives. At least that's what we've been hearing and seeing. On top of all this information, like if you're thinking about it, and you're going, oh, I like I had no idea or I knew a lot of that,

[00:21:06] you know, like I just how do you how do you talk to people? Like how when you're back home and you see these missionaries and you are like, oh, I want to talk to them, you know, how do I relate to them?

[00:21:18] My one word of advice from hearing all these different people talk about this. And once again, this does not come from me. Just hearing other people talk about it is don't feel the pressure to relate because I mean, let's be honest, you're not going to.

[00:21:31] I don't relate to a football player. You know, I'm never going to do that. I don't relate to the soldier who just came back from overseas, you know, in a war combat zone. I not that every mission field is a war zone.

[00:21:44] But yes, I mean, like there's just people all the time that you see that you're never going to relate to. But that doesn't mean you can't have good conversations. Just don't feel the pressure that you have to be relatable.

[00:21:54] Don't feel the pressure that you have to ask interesting questions. Don't don't be afraid to just come up and say, hey, like, what are some of the coolest things that you've seen? Like what are some of like what are your favorite aspects of ministry?

[00:22:08] Like what are some of the closest, you know, the coolest relationships that you've been building? Things like that that are just questions you don't often get asked maybe or maybe you do get asked, but it doesn't matter. Because just the effort that you're making and reaching out,

[00:22:22] I think goes a long way. Yeah, I think a lot of people just when they're doing these things, they're visiting churches or just looking. From my experience, what I think I've seen is a lot of people

[00:22:32] are just looking for a friendly face and somebody that they can feel comfortable to just be themselves, let their guard down a little bit and feel relaxed that they know they can just talk to you. So if you're somebody who has these people in their lives,

[00:22:44] in your lives, are moving through your community or you know they're coming to town this summer or you know that you maybe have a family or a relative, just talking to them as if you would talk to anybody else is probably most what they want.

[00:22:58] And they also probably do want to share the ministry that they are a part of. And I think that so often we these groups of people are treated differently than a lot of other groups of people.

[00:23:09] They're either, again, treated too much as too holy or I can't relate to you. I don't know how to talk to you. So I'm just kind of shutting you out. And that's not what they want to do. They really just want to come back and share.

[00:23:17] They're usually in the States for that reason, to come back, share some of their story and get some more people praying for them and stuff like that and get some time to relax. And so that's really what they're looking for.

[00:23:29] They aren't looking for you to ask the deepest, best question you've ever asked. Same with your pastor. Your pastor probably isn't sitting there going, I hope a congregant asked me the best question he's ever asked. You know, this I want him to really think about it.

[00:23:42] Hit me with a question from Kierkegaard. He's just looking for normal conversation between the stressful times of preaching and visiting congregants and just wants to know that his community cares about him. These people who are traveling into your life for a minute,

[00:23:55] they have even usually less connections, less support, less network. They're not normally as grounded. And they're looking for just that same aspect. Are there people who care about us back home? That when we know that we're in trouble and we send out some prayer requests,

[00:24:09] are there going to be people who I know I can count on that family or those people that face back in that church? I know that they're looking out for me and that I'm not alone out here.

[00:24:19] There is a group of people who are sending, the church is sending me. And so I can do this. Yeah. And then going back to the kid aspect as well, you want your kids are going to be dealing with their kids.

[00:24:30] They're going to be dealing with a lot of things. A lot of times they may not want to come back because it's a lot of a lot of work for them as well. Their friends, they feel like are back,

[00:24:37] you know, in what they consider to be their home. So just if you have kids, letting your kids play together, like just just basic things like I think like Troy said it well, it's kind of compared to like a pastor.

[00:24:49] Like a lot of people feel the pressure to say something profound and or be something profound and don't because they don't want that. And if you also once these people are back out, they've done their furlough, they've done support, they've they've done what they needed to do.

[00:25:04] Hopefully you're interacting with them once they're back out. It's always great to remember them. Send them a once in a while message, you know? Are you looking out for them? Do they know or do you just see the newsletter go by

[00:25:18] once every couple of months and you read through it and you go, I'm going to pray for them. And that's about it. You know, and are you waiting for them to see them again? That is an easy thing to do.

[00:25:25] You know, it's one of the nice things about the current world. It used to be back in the Martyrs and Missionaries podcast era. You sent the person on a boat and they sailed around the world and they were gone, right?

[00:25:35] Like they're just maybe we get a letter from them in a couple of years. But they still got letters. But maybe or maybe they didn't get a letter for a couple of years and then they find out they were eaten or something. But like that.

[00:25:45] The worst case scenario. The worst. Well, you have some of those. So that's not the way it is. I don't think that's going to happen nowadays. I mean, if that happens. Yeah, I was referring to back in those days, that was the thing. But today that doesn't happen.

[00:25:57] You can message your friends overseas usually tomorrow and get some answers. They may be in a country where they can't share everything, but they know you care. On the other side of that, if no one's messaging you

[00:26:07] and no one's checking in on you and no one is looking out for you, then it's kind of even more hurtful. Right? Because, geez, it's not like this letter has to travel around the world. You just have to hit enter. And yet you've not done so. Yikes. Right?

[00:26:20] It's again a little thing. I know we all live our lives and we're all busy, but you probably have some people in your life whom you are in this support with. And I think that a lot of them would love to hear a message

[00:26:32] from you just saying some of the most encouraging messages we received is just a little, hey, we were praying for you during this time. You know, how's that thing going? Or, hey, we were thinking of you during whatever. It means a lot.

[00:26:43] We have people who said, you know, I have a person who says every morning I pray for you. And you know how, you know what? That honestly makes me feel amazing to know that. And that person has said that to us on many of our messages

[00:26:54] and things that we send. And it's deeply comforting to know that there is somebody who has that is looking out for me. And I know that whatever I'm going through, this person is praying for me. Do you kind of respond to that when they're not in town?

[00:27:07] Let them know you're still thinking about them. It does take a little bit of work, but that's a good thing. And that's what I think the body can do. I think the people who are going don't expect the people who are back home to come,

[00:27:20] but they do expect and hope that the people back home are checking in and are looking out for them. And are there are their prayer network network? There's a famous story between Andrew Fuller and William Carey. Both of them had a heart for missions.

[00:27:33] William Carey is the one who's going to go to India. Andrew Fuller is the one who's going to stay back home, you know, run the letters, run the prayer networks, run the support and make sure that William had everything he needed. And William famously said to him,

[00:27:46] I will go into the pit if you will hold the rope. You have a lot of people going right now into the pits. You probably know some of them and they're counting on you not to go into the pit with them.

[00:27:59] But they're just looking up to see if somebody, do I see a hand on that rope or am I just falling into a pit by myself? If this if we get into some trouble, is someone going to be able to help me and pull me out of it?

[00:28:10] Maybe they can't physically do that. But spiritually, do I have people holding that rope? I always thought it would be really cool if you could get like five or 10 families together, maybe they're anonymous or something, but you just kind of walk through.

[00:28:23] They would send you little tidbits of their journey and every week, a couple of weeks, you tune in and listen to a little bit of an update. Maybe one of them is at the very beginning of the journey and they're raising support, they're choosing their location,

[00:28:35] they're getting trained and you'd walk with them for years, seeing them get out to the field and all the things they experienced. But you'd also hear from the lives of other people as well. People who are already in the field, what they've been going through,

[00:28:45] maybe people who are getting ready to transition and come back to America. They've spent years on the field. And just I always thought it would be really cool if you could hear from all those different perspectives, because we see, I think the church,

[00:28:56] I think we see these people interacting and doing things from far away, but it's so difficult for us to know all the little details of their lives and things they're going through. But I think a lot of us would, A, be really interested in knowing those things.

[00:29:09] And B, I think it's important that as we want to support, as the body is trying to support each other, knowing kind of what those little instances and glimpses. I always thought that would be a cool show, maybe someday. You know, it's actually funny,

[00:29:22] is you would think this would already exist and it does exist, but not in a good way, not in the way we would like it to exist. If you look up YouTube and you're looking up like, oh, missionary stories or missionary to this or whatever, like modern missionary,

[00:29:36] pretty much what you're going to find is the Mormons. And I got to be honest, we shouldn't be losing to the Mormons on this. I mean, I feel like the Protestants should have something. So maybe we'll do this. Hopefully we can. I don't know when it'll be.

[00:29:49] I'm not promising anything, but it is an idea we've had. Hey, revive thoughts of martyrs and missionaries were once ideas of ours as well. So these things do happen. As we said, we hope you enjoyed this episode.

[00:29:59] Also, if you are wanting to learn more about Elisa and myself and the things that we do in Indonesia, encourage you to go, if you have a Facebook, join us there on following the Fraziers. We will also have a link to our support

[00:30:11] if you would like to do some of that kind of stuff. And we would love to connect with you again if you're going to be able to reach out to us. In the States, again, never know, we might be closer to you than we think as we're traveling.

[00:30:23] And we would love to hear from some of you. This is Troy and Elisa, and you were listening to Revive Thoughts.