Our team of twenty from Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee have just returned from our very first medical mission trip, here are my thoughts:
Each one of us is now at home. We've reentered the atmosphere of our earthly reality and gone back to the life-sustaining oxygen of our jobs, our families and all the things that make us comfortable and happy. But as we go back to the ordinary, we can't help but remember that one week in November when we seemed to draw our breaths from extraordinary spiritual air. When we seemed to be touched and healed at the very softest and most intimate places within our hearts. When we seemed to literally work alongside our Creator to fulfill His desire to lift up the poor and needy. For He called and we went. Out of obedience we ventured to a strange land far away to help a people we do not know. A people whom God heard from heaven. "This poor man called, and the LORD heard him; he saved him out of all his troubles." (Psalm 34:6, NIV)
We are at the beginning of acting upon God's call to this ministry in Guatemala. It is a time when our faith is tested and strengthened. It is a time when all He allows us to see is today. We are totally and completely dependent on our heavenly Father for everything. It is a time when we are constantly reminded that our hope is in Him... in Him alone. He is the reason we are there in Guatemala. "Come, follow me," He said. Now here we are on a journey... a difficult and glorious journey where we learn to surrender our will and depend solely on Him. A place where we run out of ourselves, our own resources and our own ideas. A place where
we are left only to rely on Him. This place is not a natural land, it is a land of the supernatural... where miracles live. Where God's strength is seen. May we always live there.
Peter said to Jesus, "We have left everything to follow you!" "I tell you the truth," Jesus replied, "no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age (homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields—and with them, persecutions) and in the age to come, eternal life." (Mark 10:28-30,NIV)
There is a story of a missionary couple that was in Africa for dozens of years and were finally coming home after growing too old to remain there any longer. They happened to be traveling on the same ship as a diplomat. Upon arriving home, the diplomat received a great welcome... a band played... speeches were made. The missionary couple looked at each other and the man said to his wife, "How is it that we have served in Africa for so many years and we come home to a quiet reception with our family and he comes home after a few months to such a grand welcome?" His wife looked at her husband and said with great love, "We're not home yet."
May our eyes always be fixed on eternity. May we live like we believe Him, not just in Him. May we be doers of the Word, not just hearers. I pray our Lord will protect and continue to grow the seeds that have been planted deep within you and I pray:
May the fruit of your tree be good
May your roots grow long and deep
May your branches reach toward heaven
And your shade cover those in need
In Christ,
Steve
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment