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We were asked to write a blog about how we felt before leaving on this mission trip. This is what I’m expecting.
To tell you the truth I hadn’t really
thought about it until we were asked to write it out. Up to this point I’ve
just been trying to get there. As I’ve been thinking about it though, what
keeps coming to mind are the places in scripture where it talks about trials
and suffering for Christ. Any time a person decides to follow the Lord we can
pretty well expect trials to follow, the two seem to go hand-in-hand for the
saints in the New Testament. I think this especially true when we’re outside
our comfort zone. Needless to say, I expect this to be true of next year, but
that’s not all.
I also expect great joy and blessing to
come from all of this. Even in their suffering, people in the past persevered;
always looking on to something greater, something more valuable then their very
lives. We have a unique opportunity to
experience several cultures in a short amount of time but our purpose is so
much greater than that. We have the amazing privilege to be able to share what
so many others who have gone before considered worth dying for, what people now
consider worth dying for; the salvation and grace that we ourselves have
experienced. The trials that will come next year will seem so small in
comparison to seeing Jesus Christ work in the hearts of others. I can think of
nothing greater to live or to die for and these are my expectations of not just
next year but now and after as well.
Blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great
mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection
of Jesus Christ from the dead.
1Peter 1:3
Consider it
all joy my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the
testing of your faith produces endurance.
James 1:2-3
