Anxious. Unsure. Questioning.
These are the common feelings that may arise for some when given the task to find somewhere to stay, eat, sleep and do ministry with no direction or contacts given. The compass you have to use is God’s voice, the Holy Spirit’s guidance. I can only imagine that Jesus’ disciples may have had to fight some of these same feelings when they were sent out to towns and villages.
Matthew 10:6-10 “Go to the lost sheep of Israel. As you go, preach this message: The kingdom of heaven is near. Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received, freely give. Do not take along any gold or silver or copper in your belts; take no bag for the journey, or extra tunic, or sandals or a staff; for the worker is worth his keep.”
My mission trip looks vastly different from this. I have not one pack, but two: a big 35 pounds pack and a smaller 18-20 pounds daypack. Our teams are equipped with money that equals out to about $10 a day for food, lodging and travel. We have this budget so that we do not burden anyone as we journey from country to country and town to town sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ. Though I am not being sent out in the exact way Jesus preached in Matthew, I am still being sent. Daily, I am being sent and led by the Holy Spirit to encounter people He has set before me in His perfect timing.
However, I am preaching the same message: “The kingdom of heaven is near” (Matt. 7). Heaven. What is heaven? Jesus. He is heaven. And He is near. He is for us. He died to take on our sins – His perfect blood was shed – so that we could be united in Spirit and we would NO LONGER be separated or our sins seen and remembered by God. Jesus is our path to God, our path to Heaven. He became the sacrifice needed for us to enter the heavenly gates and be welcomed to our eternal home. And our mission is founded on the common ground Jesus commanded of the disciples to find the “lost sheep.” We go to find those who do not yet know the goodness of the Lord. We seek to find the hopeless, the lonely, the broken, the misunderstood, the forgotten. We seek because we were sought out first, and now it’s our turn to freely share the wonderful gift we were first freely given.
Our lives are short. In Psalms 39: 5, it says “You have made my days a mere handbreadth; the span of my years is as nothing before you. Each man’s life is but a breath.” Life passes us by so quickly. Time is the one thing we always want more of, yet can never gain back. We have a limited existence on this earth, and I plan to spend my time wisely. For me, that means to glorify God to my best ability. No matter the circumstance, in joy and in sorrow, to give God the honor and praise He deserves.
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For our ministry this month in Uganda, our team was led by the Holy Spirit to work with an organization in Kampala called Amari Uganda. We reached out to the organization and Martin (Matt B) suggested he come to us (he came to the hostel we were staying at) to introduce himself and to talk about what Amari does. Martin is the founder and was a street kid himself growing up. Amari is a ministry organization that feeds over 100 street kids three times a week, does multiple night outreaches on the streets each week, helps reconnect kids to their families, and provides a place for some of the boys to live if available. Overall, the goal of Amari is to teach each child on the streets about Jesus and encouraging them to place their hope in the Lord.
Our team helped Amari move all of their belongings from their old building into a new one that is closer for the kids to walk to. We led a program one day for the kids that included teaching them the game ‘duck duck goose,’ singing worship songs, serving them a meal and telling a Bible story. We taught the boys the song “Jesus Loves Me” with sign language, and afterward a boy wanted to teach us a song. The lyrics are below:
There is hope
There is hope
One day, my life will be better.
There is hope
There is hope
God will wipe my tears away.
I will survive
No matter what comes my way.
I will survive
God is by my side.
A street boy sang this to us and taught us this beautiful song. I don’t even know what to say. He sang this song fully believing every word and with a smile on his face, and he survived Kampala as a street kid. Everyday he is faced with the hardships and challenges of poverty, drugs, stealing for money or food, diseases, gangs and much more.
I have so much more than him, probably more than he could ever imagine. Yet, I still find the littlest and most insignificant excuses to complain. I know that the Lord purposefully ordained this time and place for this little boy to sing a song from his heart to me. I know my team was able to bless the Amari boys in a small way, but I believed their faith in God blessed us all the more. The joy they expressed just having a small meal and a place to play a game – not even with a toilet, fans or running water – that is true hope in the Lord providing. That is true thankfulness.
“Find rest, O my soul, in God alone; my hope comes from him.
He alone is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will not be shaken.
My salvation and my honor depend on God;
He is my mighty rock, my refuge.
Trust in him at all times, O people;
Pour out your hearts to him, for God is our refuge.” Psalms 62:5-8
After spending time with this little boy, his faith challenged me in my walk with the Lord. The hope and joy he experiences in knowing the Lord humbled me to see all that I have in my life to be thankful for. I think so often we seek more and more and more, but all that “more” is really wants. I can’t say that the Lord has never provided one of my “needs.” He is always faithful, always good, and always true. If the Lord doesn’t answer one of my prayers, it isn’t because He doesn’t love me. Most of the time it’s because there is a better “yes” in my future.
