Leaving New Zealand…
It’s 2:01 am here in Waikanae, and I am sitting here contemplating everything that has happened in the last three weeks here at El Rancho. I leave tomorrow morning, very likely never to return to this oasis on the North Island. As we prepare to leave all of the memories in the short time I have been there begin to flood back. It’s amazing how quickly you can get attached to places and people when God is involved. This time we spent at El Rancho has created lasting friendships, awesome ministry, and a desire to pursue God more than ever before.
It’s funny I felt great about leaving a couple of days ago. I’ve always been the type of person who has no problem immersing myself into an environment, making great friends, and then moving on to the next thing. Two days ago that was the feeling I had. We came to New Zealand and accomplished everything He had for us, and now it was time to move on to the next country. But tonight my team walked down to the beach as the sun was setting and it was absolutely stunning. I was just overwhelmed by the beauty and majesty of New Zealand. The rugged mountains next to the lush greens and rolling river brought me to a place of worship. Why would I ever want to leave this place that God is so powerfully working in? I began to think about all of the relationships we had made, how deep and beautiful they were. Maybe I’m not quite ready to leave…
Once the sun faded into the depths of the sky we headed back to camp. Rob (the camps director) was waiting for us. We spent some time in worship, singing to our King of Kings and Lord of Lords. It was a holy moment. Here were 21 people, ages ranging
from 22 to 42, backgrounds as different as the Kiwi accent, all coming together to worship our God. Sure we have our differences and don’t always get along, but for the sake of Christ we will lay it all down and live in unity and love. It was such a beautiful thing. Sometimes we get carried away by “doing” lots of things for God. But what God really wants is just for us to lay down at His feet and enjoy His presence. So that’s what we did tonight. We sang, we prayed, we encouraged each other, we shared our triumphs and our struggles, we just rested at the Lord’s feet. It’s a beautiful thing to do, and we do it far too rarely. Sometimes we have to get outside of our Western mindset of performance and just do nothing in the presence of God.
Before we took off though, Rob left us with a word. A word which I want to hold onto dearly. He walked us through the passage in Genesis of Abram turning into Abraham. And the key verse was Genesis 15:1 when God said to Abram, “I shall be 
your shield, your very great reward.” That truth resonated with me. God is our reward and nothing else. We can clean toilets, prophesy over others, lead people to Christ, but in the end God is our reward-not doing things. Our reward for sleeping in a tent in 110 degrees in Australia is God. Our reward for sleeping in dirt in Africa is God. Our reward for loving kids and sharing the Gospel with them is…God. In the end we have absolutely nothing but God. It’s not as frightening as it sounds. In fact, its liberating and life giving. Rob left us with a question he asked us earlier in the week. If you lost everything, if you literally had nothing, no car, no computer, no house, no friends, no health…would Christ be enough for you? It’s a tough question, and I’m not certain I can answer it yet. But I’ll challenge each of you to ask yourself the same question. I know what the Bible says, of course He is enough. But do I really believe it in my heart and the depths of my soul? Could I really be content with God and God alone?
Reflecting back really is a beautiful thing. God saved the souls of so many children, God tore down walls and revealed His love to so many believers, He gave all of us the strength to love and serve as we cleaned toilets. But above all else, above all the things that we did, God was brought to the center of our lives. We united as the body of Christ and worshipped Him together as one.
There is no thing in this world as sweet as a life fulfilled by the lover of our soul, the King of the Universe, our God and Heavenly Father.
P.S. It is now 3:57 am ; )
