Aaron:  I heard that.

Shawna:  Just kidding, Daddy. 

Aaron:  (To Becky) Why are you having such a cow over going to India? (To Josh)  No pun intended. (Back to Becky) This is something your parents have wanted to do since way before you were born.

Shawna:  Sure wish I could be a missionary. 

Aaron:  You are a missionary, darlin'.  Your mission field's in your own backyard!  There are lots of people in this very neighborhood you can reach for Christ. 

Shawna:  I know, Daddy.  But I'd rather go someplace exotic like…like South America! 

Becky: (Incredulous)  South America?! You don't want to go there, trust me.  I read a book about the missionary, Jim Elliot.  He went to South America.  (Shivers) The Indians shot him full of arrows and he died! 

Josh:  It's true that he was martyred, but years later his wife, Elizabeth Elliot, went to the very same Indians.  Not only did she live but she won many of them to Christ.  (Pause) You know about Martin Luther don't you?
(Becky nods)  Martin Luther said, "Faith is a perturbing thing."  That means that spreading the Gospel often puts us in peril.  But we shouldn't ask 'Will it be safe?' What difference does it make if it's safe or not, as long as Christ is our Lord?

Marian comes in singing…He is Lord, he is Lord, he is risen from the dead and He is Lord…

Aaron:  Hello wife.  We were discussing the mission field.  Do you need a volunteer to set the table?

Marian:  Nope.  Did it myself.  Dinner will be ready in a few minutes.  (To Becky)  Give it up, Beck.  You're going to India. 

Becky:  Why can't it wait 'til next year?  At least let me finish my Freshman year.

Marian:  (Mocking Becky) Yeah, Dad, why can't it wait 'til next year?  It's sort of inconvenient right now, with Becky in school and all.

Josh:  Inconvenient, you say?  Since when does the Lord's work depend on our convenience? If it doesn't inconvenience us, there's no cross in it! 

Aaron: Was there ever a cross that was convenient? 

Josh:  If what we do for Christ costs us nothing --no disturbance, no bother, no element of sacrifice--we're not getting anywhere with God!  You know that Marian.

Marian:  I was only thinking of my precious niece.  (Teasing)  She looks so pitiful.  I could serve a banquet on your bottom lip, Rebecca Ann.

Becky:  Life should be fun!  Being a missionary's kid doesn't sound like much fun.

Shawna:  I think it would be way cool!

Aaron:  Anyone who does what he does for the Lord because it's fun will never be anything but a common Christian, Becky.  Mediocrity is not something we should strive for. 

Becky:  Yeah, but I'm still young, Uncle Aaron!  Didn't you guys want to have fun when you were young?
Aaron:  I was never young.  When I was born I had gray hair and wore these same glasses.  We lived on a farm, so fun for us was chopping firewood, slopping the hogs, and plowing the back forty.