We are currently sitting in an internet cafe in Auckland across street from the church that our team is staying at just for a few hours before we leave early in the morning for our flight. I didn’t really plan on doing another blog but I really wanted to tell you about last night and a challenge for us all.
Last night we were given a Maori going away celebration with food, following that our teams split up and went to have feedback time together at the beach one last night before coming back to El Rancho to meet Rob for our final “discussion”. Rob wanted me to get my guitar and have some worship and following that we all shared our hearts, about our experience at the place, how much Rob, his family, and the staff had meant to us. For the last few hours of the night we did laundry, packed, got rid of TONS of things (which wasn’t easy to do), but this trip is about abandonment in many ways. It was so hard this morning saying goodbye to all the staff, with tears and happy hearts we were off for our eleven hour bus ride.
We will be in Brisbane in a matter of eight hours. My team will be there for a couple of days before heading to another another town which I honestly can’t remember the name and my team with be doing some evangelism and outreach services on our own. Then we head to Oenpelli for some serious outback and outreach, evangelism, etc.
But the reason I came here to do this blog was because I wanted to share just a couple of things that were on my mind from the last day or two.
First, this staff where we were was just awesome. No matter how much you intend to go and bless people, you always get blessed back. Rob said, in some ways, that the environment was not this way and a lot of the reason they were a blessing was become when we came we brought life out of them. Whether this was true or not, and we’ll never truly know the impact we’ve made, it’s just encouraging to hear that. As a Christian, when you encounter people wherever and however long you know them, are you bringing life and joy out of them that it spurs them on to be like Christ and live in community?
Second, Rob asked us a question that was asked in the beginning of when we got there and it relates to everyone. “If you had EVERYTHING stripped away, all the people you knew, stuff you had, EVERYTHING, would God still be enough?” And it would have been easy at that moment to say “YES!” like it was an easy Sunday School answer. But I can tell you in a room full of people who have given up a year to do this Race, that it was silent. Jesus tells us that we can’t be his disciples unless we are willing to fully abandon everything for and follow through it. I want to be honest, I want to say I’m at that place, but it’s not where my heart is yet. I hope, by the end of this, through brokeness, lack of comfort, breaking away from a American lifestyle of having everything when we act like we have nothing, that I can truly say that “Yes, God is enough.” What about you? And feel free to leave comments with your answer. If EVERYTHING you had or knew was completely stripped away, would God (Jesus) still be enough for you? Following Christ costs us more than we really give him, and I wonder were our passion is for Him at times.
keep living in abandonment and realize that you work with people and live beside people who need the love of Jesus. Are you directing traffic to heaven or not, and is your time not worthy enough to share Christ with those around you and your neighbor?
