After team changes at the beginning of last month, my new team, Nautilus (Lauren, Carley, Gina, Jesse, Derek, and Brittany), then stepped into a month of ministry with St. Gregor School in Saldus, Latvia. Our team name is derived from a poem, titled The Chambered Nautilus written by Oliver Wendell Holmes. The nautilus lives in a shell, and as this sea creature grows, it doesn’t seek a new shell. Instead, the nautilus builds a newer, bigger compartment in its shell that can contain it while sealing off the entrance to the previous compartment. Thus, the shell of the nautilus grows bigger and bigger as it builds off of its past, but never returns to dwell in it. This takes place repeatedly in its lifetime until death parts the nautilus from its shell. Holmes writes in the last stanza:
Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul,
As the swift seasons roll!
Leave thy low-vaulted past!
Let each new temple, nobler than the last,
Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast,
Till thou at length art free,
Leaving thine outgrown shell by life’s unresting sea!
Stepping into a new team, we didn’t want to live in our past experiences, but neither did we wish to throw them away. We wanted to build upon the first four months of the Race, yet live in a new experience – create a new compartment. Similarly, we wanted to go deeper in our relationships with the Lord and with one another, not discarding our past experiences and lessons, but also choosing not to live in them. We were excited to live beyond the past, dwell in the present, and grow into the future. Of course this process will continue for all of our lives until we shed our earthly shells and receive heavenly ones. Thus, we are Nautilus.
At St. Gregor School, we experienced both sides of missions work – the sending and the receiving. In the past month, our team had the blessed experience of being sent to minister in the local community – doing home visitations, working with the Zantes crisis center, youth center, and day center. We also had the blessed experience of receiving – being ministered to by the staff and volunteers at this school. And we certainly were not the only people to be recipients of their love, service, and dedication to the Lord. In just a few short weeks, we saw youths, elderly, men, women, and people of all nations come through the school, and each person left blessed by a deeper understanding of God’s love and desire for relationship. Doors and hearts were open to any who sought refuge, and those who came in were blessed to discover shelter and rest in the God of salvation. Then they were blessed to be sent, as the staff encouraged both young and old, men and women, Latvian and American, to go out and share the Gospel through acts of love and service that draw more people back in to receive. St. Gregor School operated in the heart of missions in the community, and it was something we were privileged to be a part of.
Our team is now in Hong Kong, where we will be going into mainland China and into a month-long internet fast. Prayer and intercession will be much appreciated during this upcoming month!
“But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.” Philippians 3:20-21
