I feel like I am finally exhaling a
deep breath I took in two months ago. Summer is a flurry of activity, and being my first time on this side of
the looking glass, I was absorbing and learning as much as I was pouring out and
participating. Over the course of the
summer we sent hundreds of college and high school kids to ministry
destinations including: Nicaragua, Guatemala, Swaziland, Thailand, Peru, Kenya,
Uganda, Ireland, Puerto Rico, and New Zealand.
In the chaos of training camps,
debriefs, weekly check-ins, and unforeseen circumstances, I can easily lose
sight of my foundational purpose and get consumed in the task of getting
through the day and the difficulties immediately in front of me. However, God is good, and sometimes all it
takes is browsing through blogs from these teams on the field to bring me back
to His heart and my purpose.
Here is the one that blessed me
today. It is an excerpt from a blog
written by Jillian Webb, one of the 22 girls on the college team that spent two
months in Thailand doing bar ministry.
“How
do we go back home and be the same person we were? That’s the question that has
been on everybody’s mind since we started our ministry here in Phuket. The
answer is a simple one, but it is far from easy. The truth is we can’t. There
is no possible way you can see the things we have been seeing for the past two
months and not be changed by it.
Going into this trip, part of me knew that I wasn’t
going to be the same person when I went home. I think that’s part of what made
me so hesitant in the weeks right before this trip. Not that change is a bad
thing, (in this case the change has been a GREAT
thing) but change is always scary. There is no way I can go back home and be
the same person I was before I left for Thailand. I have been wrecked for every
single one of His children walking down Bangla…
…In
a few short days I will be heading back to the Midwest to try to get back into
the swing of “normal life”. I’m not really sure exactly how that is going to
look. But I know one thing is for sure, I am not coming back as the same
person. I will be forever changed, and eternally grateful.”
This is the key…CHANGE. Not only in the communities we visit around
the world, but in the individuals we send to those communities. First change must happen within each one of
us. Individual change within becomes
transformed behavior and decisions that initiate a ripple effect through those
around us. And as the ripple expands and
continues it brings transformation the ends of which can be eternal.
But it always starts small, and seeing
that spark ignite within college and high school students, contributing to the
beginning of something transformative and powerful in their lives, is why I am
passionate about what I am doing. There
is life and light that needs to be released in the darkest places of this
world, and I get to invest in the lives and voices that deliver it. And so do you. Your investment in me and this ministry,
whether financial, spiritual, prayerful, or material, is all part of the
tapestry God is weaving as he tells his story of bringing the Kingdom to
earth. Praise him for letting us be a
part of it, and creating so many different ways to jump on board with the work
He is accomplishing.
