One chilly winter night a few weeks ago, enjoying the inside warmth and good time together, three missionary families (we’ll call them A, B and C) were sharing stories from their past fields and hopes for the new ones. We were all embracing the unknown, each at a different stage—orientation, mid-fundraising or veterans. Among other things, somebody brought up the psychological evaluation they had just completed. The conversation went along these lines:

A: “I wonder how we did with that one. I just hope we’re not crazy.” (Laughter.)

B: “You most certainly are not!”

C: “I don’t know about that. To do what we’re doing, you need to be a little bit crazy.” (Laughter again, then silence.)

There was a lot of truth in that statement. What person in their right mind would move to somewhere unknown and learn a new language when their own country offers everything they need and more? What sane parents would take their children away from family and friends and church and drag them to a place where there could be harm, illness and loneliness? How do you call a person who lives in a nice, comfortable home to live in a hut? How do you convince someone to trade a well-paid job for a mission salary?

We probably owe all the progress of humanity to some slightly crazy people. To believe that you can fly, to want to explore life across the ocean, to make a dead heart beat again or to have electricity—these ideas sounded ridiculous at one time. I like to think of those people as visionaries. For us as missionaries, vision means believing that a person can be born again, and that’s worth the effort. If you believe the same, then we probably have more in common than you think, and we would love to have you as partners! “For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength” (1 Cor. 1:25).

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