A brush with customs

As I was leaving Toronto I had this engaging conversation with the US customs officer.

How long are you going for?
Two weeks.
What are going to be doing?
I am going to be doing some training.
Where do you live?
Georgetown ON
Training for what?
I'm going to be training to be a missionary.
Where are you going to be going?
Japan.
Really? Two weeks? That's not very long to become a missionary.
Well I suppose that's not all the training there is to it.
Have you read the book Shogun?
Yes I have.
That's good then you know how they treat missionaries over there. Have a good trip.

Two nuggets of wisdom in that exchange of words in my humble estimation. Being a missionary is more than two weeks of training and it is more than ten years of training. It is a daily commitment to training. Reading and studying God's word everyday is necessary to being a successful missionary. It is quite possibly the only necessary ingredient to being a successful missionary. Everything else grows on that foundation. Second, when a missionary is on the front lines of the battle, it is fraught with danger. But that holds true whether we engage in a missional way of life anywhere in the world, including our home.