Today (October 13, 2016) was our first day of Village Ministry. This means our ministry host drives us an hour outside of the city to the village, and we get to hang out with 40 children for 2 hours. 40 little faces huddled into a corner staring up at you with expectant faces. My team and I struggled to fill time. After a 20-minute duck duck goose game (to which I got goosed more then anyone else, which is okay because I ran like a goofball which made all the children laugh), and a few skits my team was tanking. In desperation we ended our time with the children with the classic song, Jesus Loves Me, complete with hand motions and all.
It was in this moment, looking down at 40 little faces singing in English, having no idea what is going on but who are happy to follow along with 6 silly white people, that I thought about how many other times “missionaries” had sung Jesus Loves Me to a bunch of little children in a foreign country.
I have disliked the terms “Christian”, “Ministry”, and “Missionary”. These terms seemed too shallow. Very rarely do these words capture the depth of what is really going on in the moment. (But to be honest, very rarely do I have any clue what is really going on in the moment).
For too long I have seen the terms “Christian”, “Ministry”, and “Missionary” thrown around flippantly by dualist dogmatic judgmental so-called Christians. Not to mention, with my Western American Christian mindset, I notice the negative effects of our imperialistic influence on the world. It all puts a bad taste in my mouth.
Yet here I am, going around the world saying I am a Christian, who does Ministry, as a Missionary.
We could psychoanalysis, and trace the root of my distrust of Christians back to my childhood.
But instead I have chosen to forgive and move forward. Moving forward with God, with His Church, and with the World.
Part of my healing has come from identifying with Christians throughout all of history. (Special thanks to the Liturgist Podcast for presenting this mindset to me.) I have a connection to the first disciples, the early apostles, the desert fathers, the early Catholics, the Anabaptists, current living Christians from every denomination, sect, and hermitage, and even future Christians not yet born. The same spirit that was in Jesus is in us.
In that moment today I felt the connection. The connection all Christians share, past, present and future. I was now counted among the many who have sung Jesus Loves Me in a foreign country. That is a bond I now share with millions of others, and millions to come. It was an exclusive feeling. Christianity is about exclusivity and inclusivity, that we all are called, that we all are loved, and that we all are sons and daughters of the Creator, whether they speak English or not. Whether they know what they are clapping and smiling too or not, they are loved.
I do not what measurable difference my team and I made today in the lives of those 40 children. However, we did love them right where they were at, and that is a Christianity I can get on board with.
**Currently my team and I are just outside Kampong Thom in Cambodia, living at a Children’s home filled with mostly boys, with ages ranging from 7-21. Our ministry work includes teaching English at the Church in the City (my class is 30-40 2nd graders-ish…which is very intimidating, who don’t speak English), I have a video editing and film class for teens at the other teen home in the City, all while living at the Children’s home and getting to know those boys, and every so often we get Tuk Tuk’ed into more remote villages to hang out with kids like we did today. We are all still figuring things out. But we have a packed schedule, going from 5am devotions with the kids to ending english class around 6pm, with a 3 hour lunch in-between. We get to cook all our own meals. (this is probably the most healthy I have eaten in a long time..it is a lot of rice, noodles, veggies, eggs, and local fruit cooked as many ways as we can think of. Today we had pineapple fried rice, so we are getting really creative in how many ways we can cook and use rice.**
