When my wife and I lived on the foreign mission field we found ourselves running a café as part of the ministry.

I’m not sure why, but that café was the talk of the missionary community. Everyone had an opinion about how it should be run, what should be done with profits and whether or not it was even a legitimate ministry.

It wore me out. Not the ministry. The missionaries.

I’ve heard over and over that the number one reason Christian workers leave the mission field is not lack of financial support or illness or burnout – it’s other missionaries.

Based on personal experience I can believe that’s true.

It’s tragic that interpersonal conflict exists on the mission field. But I wonder if something important is missed when it comes to conflict on the field.

I have to believe that God is always working. He’s sanctifying us. He’s making us who we need to be. Lots of the time he uses people to do that.

Maybe what separates the pros from amateurs on the mission field is how well we manage interpersonal conflict with our brothers and sisters.

God is relentless about making us holy, which makes me believe he is more concerned about who we become than what we do.  This being the case, maybe the way we handle those other missionaries says as much about our faith as our call to minister to those who know nothing of Jesus.

Maybe the conflict is all part of the bigger picture of God’s redemptive work across the world.

It’s easy to love the lost. It’s hard to love that obnoxious brother. But God uses it all to bring glory to himself when we submit to the process.

By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. John 13:35

By Joël Malm

Joël Malm is an author, speaker and life coach who leads outdoor expeditions around the world through his organization Summit Leaders. He has extensive experience abroad with missions and international humanitarian work.
@joelmalm   summitleaders.org

 Original article: www.frontiersusa.org/blog/article/missionaries-drive-me-crazy