Nicole is 7 years old and in the first grade. She and her family are missionaries serving in the country of Armenia. Nicole is used to living far from her grandparents and aunties and uncles. Her family has been missionaries most of her life.
Nicole is 7 years old and in the first grade. She and her family are missionaries serving in the country of Armenia. [Locate Armenia on a map.] Nicole is used to living far from her grandparents and aunties and uncles. Her family has been missionaries most of her life.
“A missionary is a person who tells others about God. They tell the whole world about Jesus,” she said. She’s right. Anyone who tells others about Jesus is a missionary. So that makes us all missionaries, doesn’t it?
Sharing a Gift
Nicole has learned to share in ways we may not have thought of before. When we visited her, we offered her some stickers of animals. She surprised us by saying, “No thank you. Could you please give the stickers to a child who doesn’t have any?” That’s a wonderful way to share!
Sharing God’s Love
Nicole is serious about being a missionary. She tells her friends about Jesus in many different ways. “When my friend Vivienne lost her dog, she felt sad. I told her to ask God to help her feel better, and she did. One day her daddy came with a puppy that looked a lot like the dog she had lost. Vivienne felt better. I invited her to visit our church, and she wants to come,” Nicole said.
Nicole likes to go with her daddy when he preaches in the churches in Armenia. She’s learning Armenian, the local language, so she can talk to the children she meets in the churches that she visits. “I try to make friends with the children,” she says. “Sometimes it takes a few days, but we become friends.”
When Nicole told her teacher that she was a Christian, the teacher asked if she belonged to a certain church. “No,” she answered politely. “I’m a Seventh-day Adventist. That means we worship on the seventh day and want Jesus to come. We have a church in the city where we live, and there are churches all around the world.” The teacher hadn’t realized that.
Helping Jesus Come Soon
Nicole wants Jesus to come back—soon. “I want to be a pastor when I grow up,” she says. “I want to tell as many people as I can that Jesus wants to take His friends to heaven and live in beautiful homes and have lions for pets. It takes bravery to tell others about Jesus, but we have to tell everyone so they can go to heaven.”
Nicole isn’t satisfied to be a missionary someday. She’s a missionary now. We can all be missionaries now by telling people we meet that Jesus loves them. Who can you tell this week? And remember, our mission offerings help tell people we don’t know that Jesus wants to be their special friend. So let’s all go and give so Jesus can come back soon.
