"And they took offense at him. But Jesus said to them, "A prophet is not without honor except in his hometown and in his own household." And he did not do many mighty works there, because of their unbelief." Matthew 13: 57-58 Tells of Jesus' trip to Nazareth, his hometown. The last verse of chapter 13 (verse 58) remains one of the saddest verses ever. To think, the Son of God walks in and out of Nazareth without doing mighty works because of the simple and sad fact that there was no one to believe.
On the other end of the spectrum in Matthew 9: 20-22 as Jesus is walking through a crowd, a woman who "had suffered from a discharge of blood for twelve years" reaches out to Jesus knowing that if she can just touch the fringe of his garment she will be healed. She barely touches the garment, and as she believed, was healed. This woman didn't need to prove anything, recite scripture or even call out to Jesus. She simply believed that Jesus compassion and power was so great, that just to touch his robe would heal her. She was right.
In the first story, there is a lack of healing and power shone from Jesus because of a lack of people to just believe. While with the woman, it is belief and understanding in Jesus' compassion that results in a mighty act of healing. It's all about believing.
Though a missionary can have spiritual gifts in this or that, the primary role of a missionary is simply to believe. We believe on behalf of those who don't. We are here because if we were not here, who would believe? I don't want Puerto Barrios to be another Nazareth.
Here in Guatemala, sometimes we may not know the reasons for going certains places, we may not know the perfect prayer and we may not even know the language well enough to always communicate. What we do know, what we do have, and who we do believe in, is Jesus; and in him alone, with faith, with belief, many mighty works will be done. So I say to you, oh Christian, where is your faith, where is your belief?
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