The
biggest lesson I have learned in Ireland is the necessity of community. It seems simple, but I am finding that some
of the simplest things are the most necessary things we need to learn. On the race we are called to live in
community, just like the early church did.
Acts 4:32-33 says “All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one
claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything
they had. With great power the apostles continued to testify to the
resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and much grace was upon them all. There were no
needy persons among them.”
This month
God has really been teaching this to us not necessarily from the inside of our
team but from the outside. What I mean
is that there have been people placed in our path that have taken care of
us. We really have not had a need that
hasn’t been met both by God and the people here. When you are on the race you are pretty much
at the whim of your surroundings. We
can’t just go take a shower well you can but it is a Euro to do so for 4
minutes (it gets expensive). We can’t
just do our laundry it’s either real expensive or if you hand wash you have to
make sure it’s not going to rain. You
can’t just eat what you want on team money because once again it is very
expensive here and we stick to our budget.
So when people offer to meet even simple needs it is a huge
blessing.
Now the
importance of people helping us meet our needs is the development of interdependence. For me this is huge because back home I did
what I wanted to when I wanted to do it.
But now I am completely dependent on others. This in itself is very humbling. I am learning that being dependent on others
develops the sense of community that God desires for our lives.
Also
when people are offering to help or give what they have I have found if I don’t
receive it I am taking away their ability to be part of my life and my
journey. Sometimes accepting a gift is
not about what you receive it is about the other person’s ability to give and
letting them have that joy. We met a woman
named Gabriela who had heard about our race teams camping. She was on a mission to find us and went to
different campgrounds until she found us.
She met up with us and said that she would let us use her home to cook or
we could stay the night, or if there was anything we needed she would help us
find a way to get that need met. This
just blew me away. Someone was on a
mission to make sure that if the missionaries needed anything she would help in
any way she could.
This
month God has surrounded us with people to show us the importance of
community. Relying on others shows me my
weaknesses and strengths. It shows me
where I am dependent and where I can contribute. Doing things on my own is selfish and really
doesn’t take much effort when I don’t have to work with someone to come to an
end goal. The real test to completing a
task with the most challenge is doing it in community with many different
thoughts and opinions all while respecting one another. God’s goal with community is to have many
different gifts working together for the same purpose. It really isn’t easy but it is so rewarding.
I also
want to take the time to let people know where I am at financially. As you can see off to the left I have about
$2,000 left to raise for the race. I am
truly grateful for all the support as I am in the home stretch. I just want to take this opportunity to ask
people to pray over possibly partnering with me to reach the end goal. This may look like a monthly donation or a onetime
donation. Just to see how close I am if I were to have 25 people
partner with me at $10 a month for the next 8 months I would be at $2,000. This is just a thought and any amount of a gift is greatly appreciated, so
please prayerfully consider supporting me in any way. If you would like to donate you can click on the support tab on the left. I am thankful daily for the opportunity to be
here and I could not do it without your support.
