I Am a Missionary to Mars-Chapter 1: "Preparations"

Dear Journal,

My name is Simon Stephenson and I’m 11 years old. Grandpa Abrams gave this journal to me for Christmas and he said that I should write about all of my exciting adventures on Mars. He doesn’t plan to go to Mars so he thinks that reading about it will be like enjoying it vicariously. (“Vicarious” is one of my vocabulary words this week.) My parents are going to help prepare for the colonists who are flying there in 2055. Dad is going to do some vertical farming experiments and Mom, actually I don’t exactly understand what Mom does but it has something to do with maintaining a livable habitat for humans and she works with computers and other types of technological gadgets. She’s an engineer. At one time she planned to be an astronaut engineer but then she met dad at church and, as she says, “God changed the trajectory.”

Aaron and Sarah aren’t going because they’re in college. Anyway, I don’t think that they want to go. Do I want to go? I guess so. I hadn’t really thought about it until now. It seems like I always go where Mom and Dad go-at least on vacations. But this isn’t a vacation. This is a month of work. For me, it’s a chance to go to school. I’m usually homeschooled but Mom and Dad will be too busy to help me much on Mars and there’s a small school there for the other kids who come with their parents. (Dear God, please help me shine Your light, Your truth and love, at the school. In Jesus’s Name, Amen.)

The kids at the school might not be Christians. They have probably never heard that Jesus Christ died on the cross for the forgiveness of their sins. They’re walking in the darkness and can’t see the light of His lordship and sweetness of His salvation. We can’t take much on the trip, but I’m going to bring my Bible and my old children’s Bible in case someone wants it. It’s not really my old Bible. My old Bible is falling apart because I read it so much. Grandma Stephenson bought me a replacement but, around the same time, Mom and Dad gave me this new unabridged Bible so I didn’t really use the children’s one much.

Today at church we learned about how Jesus broke Sabbath laws to help people. Mr. Andrews pointed out that something like that happened in Acts when it was against man’s rules to tell others about Jesus. It’s more important to follow God’s rules. At the end Mr. Andrews talked about how I’m called to go to Mars. “If your parents are called, you are called too.” He said that I will have many chances to help people. The help they really need is to hear that Jesus can be their Lord and Savior. They must believe. Everyone came around me and prayed for me. Maggie told me that she will pray for me every morning when she wakes up and every night when she goes to sleep. She put a small silver ring in my hand. It says, “And surely I am with you.” It’s what Jesus said at the end of the book of Matthew before he went back to Heaven. Journal, I think that I’m going to miss Maggie.