I was knee deep in pig feces.
To call it ‘poop’ or ‘crap’ would be a disservice. This stuff had been sitting out in the area behind the pigpens for months. There was no sign of the ground and grass that used to be there, instead what was left was a couple feet of filth that made you gag just at the smell of it…much less physically walking through it. Excuse my language…but there is no better way to describe it than a deep field of shit. (Don’t tell my Grandma I just used that word! It won’t happen again!)
Our task was to dig a tunnel along the wall that would become a natural channel for the water and other liquids to flow straight from the building to past the fence. Currently the liquids mixed in with the poop and made it into the most disgusting swamp imaginable. Then we had to clear the entire area.
As I worked with my team, most of us knee deep in the filth, I came to a realization:
This year, this day, this moment doesn’t happen if I didn’t decide to GO.
No, I never heard God tell me to go clean out pigpens in Albania. I didn’t hear an audible voice telling me to sign up for this mission trip. I didn’t have a letter dropped off by an owl like they do in Harry Potter. (Although that would be pretty awesome!) I had desires in my heart to go spread the gospel and help people around the world…so I decided to GO.
I feel like it’s very easy as Christians to spend our whole lives waiting on the Lord. Waiting to discover ‘our call’ or ‘hear from the Lord’.
He’s already told us what to do!! Draw close to him, live a life modeled after Jesus Christ and go tell the nations! For some people ‘the nations’ means small-town America…but for others it’s Africa, Asia, the Middle East and all the unreached people around this globe!
Going takes faith. It’s not always easy…but Jesus never said it would be. Sometimes we don’t know how the plans are going to fall into place or how the finances are going to be provided, but when we are in our greatest need God can show up in the most incredible ways.
So if you are reading this I challenge you to GO! Take that mission trip to Africa with your church you have always had on your heart. Start that bible study with your neighborhood friends. Have the conversations with co-workers you’ve always been too nervous to have!
And for some of you I mean GO….go to the nations. Apply for the World Race, go to Thailand to work with sex trafficking victims, go to Tanzania to work in an orphanage, help plant churches in Eastern Europe. Take that leap of faith. God will provide. Draw close to him and make disciples of ALL nations.
Who knows…your journey may eventually lead you to Albania where you are knee deep in pig feces all day. And you’ll be so glad you are.
