Last month my team was an Unsung Heroes team, and we were stationed in Gaborone, Botswana. We stayed at a tiny campsite in the middle of the city and searched for churches, ministries, and Christian organizations that could use some help and would benefit from hosting World Race teams in the future. Not having a set ministry can be frustrating, but it gives us the opportunity to watch God show up in incredible ways. It also allowed us the freedom to meet people all over the city and show appreciation to Christians and missionaries who work hard to further the Kingdom of God.
One church we found this month was called Harvest Church, and it was a huge blessing to my team and I. They welcomed us into their community, and before they even learned our names they invited us to lunch. They made us part of their church family, and they invested in relationships with us even though we were only in town for one month. They shared their testimonies with us and revealed their struggles and triumphs as a church striving to being more people to Christ. They even came to our campsite on the last day to bring us muffins and African worship music. There was so little we could do for them, but they loved us anyway. They loved us well and we were immensely blessed.
They had the right idea, because if God is love and we strive to be holy like God, then we should exude love. Everything we do should be a reflection of our Father. People should leave an encounter with us and feel blessed simply because of who we are.
The truth is we have been tasked to love the person in front of us. Whoever it is at any given time. In Botswana, God showed me the power of Christian love by allowing me to be the recipient of true, unconditional, unexpectant, Christ-like love from complete strangers.
What followed was an incredible ripple effect that made my month better than it ever would have been. Because of the kindness Harvest Church modeled, I fought to love everyone around me; our taxi drivers, our waiters, the car in front of us at the red light, the non-believers, my teammates, and myself. I realized that when you are constantly fighting to love people, it is really hard to hate them. Even when people hurt, insult, degrade, or undermine you, it is hard to curse the ones you are fighting to love.So I challenge you to love people well. Esspecially when you don’t feel like it.
Love people well and I promise, your world will be a little brighter!
Beloved, if God so loved us, we also must love one another. No one has ever seen God. Yet, if we love one another, God remains in us, and his love is brought to perfection in us.
1 John 4:11-12
On another note… My World Race journey ends this month, and I will be returning to Louisiana on May 24th.
However after a crazy turn of events the Lord has called me on another (much shorther) adventure, and I will be leading a group of 11 college women on a one month mission trip to Cambodia in July. I need to raise $1600 by July 1st, and I am selling these T-Shirts to help make money. They are $20 each and you can click this link to purchase them – http://goo.gl/forms/VJnQaeYGfG
If you do not want a shirt but would still like to donate, you can click the “Support Me” tab to make a tax deductible donation.
