Glancing up at the rearview mirror of the little mission truck, I caught a glimpse of Aida. There she sat on the bench seat, holding her infant son. A little smile played across her lips as she calmly stared out at the mountains where her people lived.

Aida never ceases to amaze me. Her body is disfigured from an injury to her back when she was a child, her husband went to prison for committing a series of hideous crimes against his own family, and she has been left alone by her tribe to care for and provide for her six children. Yet I have never known anyone more at peace or more on fire to share Jesus with the lost.

As she noticed me watching her in the mirror, a huge grin broke out on Aida’s face. “Brother,” she shouted over the noise of the truck. “Those mountains are full of my relatives who don’t yet know the peace that Jesus gives us. No matter how hard the enemy makes my life, I cannot stop working to bring His peace to them!”

Many of the stories that come out of mission work have to do with suffering. God does not promise that He will deliver us from pain while we are still in the world. In fact, Jesus promises us in John 16:33 that “In this world you will have trouble” (NIV). It is not until the second coming that we will be delivered from all suffering.

What God does promise us unconditionally and right now is peace. “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you” (John 14:27 NIV). This is the great down payment, the promise we Christians have of better things to come. No matter what pain, suffering, or conflict swirl around us, the Christian’s heart is calm and at peace, resting by faith in Jesus.
Won’t you join us in bringing this peace to those who have never experienced it?

• Twitter