What is Mission? This is the question that you may or may not of seen floating around the M:E Facebook page. So what is mission?

A couple of the M:E team members saddled up their rides and headed up to Lincoln, UK for the One Event conference. Although the living arrangements were not quite the same with some of us in a cozy home, with heating and home cooked meals, while others of us were alternatively sleeping in a supposedly 2 man tent (more like 2 child tent), freezing and eating undercooked rice.

Nevertheless, we all came together as a team to promote our beloved organisation at the expo for the conference. Now I have to admit, personally I was not looking forward to the One Event. Three nights camping is a big enough mountain alone for this princess, but furthermore constantly having to stand around at a stand also did not really appeal to this young intern. However, it turned out that the time I spent at the Mission: Europe stand was definitely one of the best parts of the One Event for me. Now don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the preaching and worship at the conference, but being able to engage with the vast variety of individuals that attended the One Event was definitely a prominent highlight for me.

We, as a team, had a great time, laughing and sharing with one another, eating more of the free sweets than the people we were supposedly giving them out to, but the best part of the stand for me personally was being able to talk to people about our organisation. It was especially exciting when the person you were talking to had a heart for mission. The idea of being able to bridge the gap and create that opportunity for another person was just incredible.

However, the most interesting award for all the things that occurred at the stand would have to be the people’s answers to the question above: WHAT IS MISSION? We received an array of different responses to this question. Some people were incredibly specific, clearly stating ‘what mission is’ to them currently in their every day lives. Some people gave responses such as ‘teaching, developing leaders, and other things such as ‘helping people with addictions in the community’. Multiple people said life changing, which is absolutely true and other fabulous, promotional statements, which are also true, were used such as an ‘adventure, exciting and fun’. Yet, the most frequent answer that was given was a statement that related to people. Now, a lot of people said spreading the Word of God, or something along those lines, and many people also focused on showing and sharing the love of Christ to people. Whether it was reaching out to people, helping people in need, or telling people about Jesus, the majority of the responses given, focused around people and communities. This brings joy to my heart because this is what we are about at M:E.

Our Mission is for the individuals who we work with to experience true riches. To use a quote from our website: ‘Mission: Europe is a catalyst for bringing about transformation in individuals, communities, and nations across Europe’. People are always at the centre of our heart because they are at the centre of God’s heart. We wish to spread God’s Word and love, not only through ourselves, but through you.

I loved some of the unique statements we got to this question, and I particularly loved the answer ‘essential’. At M:E, we truly believe that Mission, in some shape and form, is essential to every follower of Jesus Christ. Our director's statement said ‘Needed in Europe.’ Another individual said mission is ‘ An opportunity to transform peoples lives.’

Mission is essential and needed in Europe, so we would like to offer you the chance to be able to take an opportunity to change peoples lives and to be a catalyst for change in Europe. The last answer I will quote was ‘ For everybody’ and this had to be my favourite responses. M:E may not be what you feel God’s mission in your life is, and that is completely ok, but everybody does have a responsibility to be a missionary in their own community, whether that is their local or global community.

So I leave you with a different, final question: What is YOUR mission?