What Is the Cross That Jesus Calls You to Carry?

The September issue of Christianity Today has an article about a small number of Christian missionaries who call themselves “New Friars.” Like friars from the past, these missionaries live and minister among the poor, people who live on the “crowded margins of society.” Most of these missionaries are from the United States, New Zealand, and Australia.

The article points out that “for the first time in history, one of every two people lives in a city. Some 860 million of these city-dwellers reside in slums—uncertain, cramped, and frequently cruel. Most are there by necessity.” The New Friar missionaries also live in the slums. They are there by choice.

The writer of the article, Kent Annan, spent Easter weekend this year in Bangkok, Thailand, meeting and observing the ministry of some of these missionaries. Among them were:

Michelle Kao: She was a premed student at John Hopkins when she visited Bangkok as part of a missions program. Instead of going to medical school, she moved to Bangkok six years ago. Now she works with Thai church leaders to help people who had been evicted to find land and build new homes. Annan observed that when Kao walks the neighborhood of 3,000 that she lives in she knows the stories of the people she meets.

Anji and Ash Barker: This Australian couple moved into a tiny house in Bangkok eleven years ago where they’ve raised their three children. They have listened to suffering in their neighborhood—”to the cries of a child being abused at night, to the screams of a child being raped by her father, to the aching silence after another child died. They also listened to strengths and dreams and, through friendship and work, found the resources to help those strengths flourish. “

Tim and Amy Hupe: They have lived in Bangkok for five years and have two girls, ages 4 and 6. “They are gathering missionaries and local Thai and Cambodian leaders to serve Cambodians living in Thailand. This includes teenagers who sell flowers in the red-light district (and are pressured to sell much more).”

This brief introduction to these amazing missionaries only scratches the surface of their ministries. They have chosen the life of servanthood, which is central to all followers of Christ.

Jesus himself taught us “For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:28, also Mark 10:45). Jesus himself ministered to those who live on the margins of society. The New Friar missionaries are certainly following the example of Jesus—and he calls us to serve in his name.

The New Friar missionaries are setting one other example for us that Jesus called for: “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it” (Matthew 16:24-25). These missionaries, like so many others and like so many Christian today and through the centuries, have laid down their Lower Story lives to live out the Upper Story of the Gospel.

That is also our calling—not just the calling of missionaries. What is the cross that Jesus calls you to carry? What does he call you to deny in order to follow him? To live in God’s Upper Story, we must answer that question.