When you think about missionaries or the mission field in general, what is the first thing that comes to mind? Do you picture a village full of primitive huts in the middle of nowhere? Do you imagine foreign cultures, languages, and lands? Do you picture the missionaries as the only white-skinned people around?

Most do. Most don’t picture small town America. They don’t picture teenagers who grew up in the States. They don’t think about the tumultuous homes that those teens grew up in, whether because of trauma, abuse, neglect, drugs, alcohol – or all of the above. They don’t think that those teens (who very well may be sitting in a classroom next to their own teen) could possibly live in America their whole lives and not hear the saving grace of the Gospel message.

According to Merriam-Webster, a missionary is a person undertaking a mission and especially a religious mission.

As Christians, what is our mission? To spread the Gospel unto all nations, right? The Great Commission (Matthew 28:19).

If you’re a Christian, you’re a missionary — and our very own nation needs missionaries spreading the Good News.

Gateway Woods is just one way to be a domestic missionary, to pour into those like the aforementioned teenagers. And while Indiana may seem like a foreign land to some, it’s probably not so different from your hometown. We do have lake effect weather and Amish buggies galore, but there’s no new language to learn and you don’t even need a passport to come visit.

In fact, we invite you to come visit. Come fellowship with and encourage our domestic missionaries who are on the front lines every day. Come connect with the teens that may have not heard of the Gospel until coming into contact with Gateway. Come be a part of a mission field that is white for the harvest — it just needs some willing reapers with an eternal perspective.