Wednesday, Jan 15
Air time: 23.5 hours
Bus time : 33 hours
We are halfway through our travel time to Bali. Tomorrow our host will meet is at a McDonald’s and drive us to our living/ministry accommodations.
While our official ministry hasn’t started, I am already seeing the phrase “Life is ministry, ministry is life” being lived out by my squad mates. At launch we were told that relationships within our team and our squad would be a primary focus for living on mission.
As one of the logistics coordinators for the squad I was responsible for guiding 17 of my squad mates through the airport and to the hotel in Jakarta. The simple fact that they gave consistent affirmation and expressed gratitude was an example of loving me well. Our sense of community is strong, even though we haven’t spent more than 3 weeks together face to face, I know this is a group of friends that will fight for each other. A group that will fight for each other to know they are loved and cared for deeply. A group that will not leave anyone behind. A group that longs to bring Christ’s Kingdom to earth.
Traveling for almost 24 hours by plane and then getting on a bus after a short night of sleep is not glamorous. It would be easy to be grouchy with one another. But instead of giving into our flesh and agonizing over the long bus ride ahead of us when we met to leave the hotel this morning, The Fierce Five opened up about our struggle to find joy in this, asked each other for accountability in our attitudes, and prayed together.
We are building an intimate, mission focused community. It is incredibly beautiful. Knowing that we can admit there are struggles along the way and joy may not always come easily creates a sense of freedom.
Our trip from the hotel to the bus station created another opportunity for us to give into frustration (the ride took over an hour and we thought it would only take 15) or to see God’s character manifest in the people around us.
After being dropped off at the wrong bus station and not knowing where to go because the driver followed the directions to the address we were given, I have to admit that I was feeling frantic. It was already 30 minutes past the time the bus was supposed to leave. Our international phones were a challenge to get used to and the group that made it to the correct bus station didn’t know how to give us directions … street signs and addresses are just different here. In this moment of “Ahhhhhhh!” a stranger helped us communicate with the bus driver about where we were supposed to be. It turned out we were just 200m away, within walking distance! Angelica, Kylie, and I started walking. When we weren’t even halfway there we saw Morgan and Rachel running towards us … guiding us to the rest of the group and coming to relieve us of our bags, a heavy burden. The immense relief and joy I felt knowing we were going to get where we needed to be AND we had friends to help us was indescribable.
Morgan and Rachel didn’t have to run towards us, but they wanted to because they love us. They did because Christ calls us to run after each other in love, “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
We may not be at our ministry sight yet, but God is always working. He is not confined by a church building or a church program. We are the church. Loving and living as Christ did is the program.
Boy am I thankful to be doing life with these beautiful women.
