In the midst of shoveling mountains of dirt which will one day be a ramp-like entrance to a future drug rehab center, our team and team cypress stop to pray over the future of this location. This was the last moments we would share working on this property for the month we had labored over.
This location has been purchased and worked on without notifying the government of the church's true intention for fear they would negate all the progress. This site is the future home of a drug rehab center and $800,000 church building designed to look like Noah's Ark. This place is worked on daily by church leaders, some who have quit their paying jobs to work for free. Needless to say the church community is excited and believes in this place.
That's when it hit me.
Missionaries lived a cursed life.
Not cursed in the voodoo sense, or in that they will never be blessed, but cursed in that the fruit of their work, for the most part, will never be seen.
I may never see the fruit that this building has to offer. I may never see the lives changed forever. I may never see the drug addicts and alcoholics come in these doors and leave healthy.
Instead what I see is mountains of dirt and mountains of possiblities.
Many mission trips are a one-week trip, one month, or one year. Nonetheless, it never feels like enough time. I feel it every time I have to pack and go to the next country.
Month 1- We ministered to many children on Tony's property in Honduras and did tons of work, however I may never see the vision he has come to pass.
Month 2- We taught with our contact Luis in Guatemala with a goal of seeing a new generation of youth become leaders and have knowledge that I never had, however I may never know if the things I taught really sank in.
Month 3- We worked with our contact Erica to preserve a soccer field on property, however we may never see any games played on it, bringing people closer together and closer to Christ.
Month 4- We worked on a camp property with our contact Mihai, however we may never see the joy the camp brings to the youth when they attend in the summer.
All this to say a missionary's life is not always to bring in the harvest. I believe all these things will happen, I just won't be there to see it. And thats OK!
A missionaries job is to be a blessing to the contact they are serving, coming alongside them in ministry and helping push the collective vision closer to reality.
It is not always going to look like YOU think it should. YOU will not always see the fruit. YOU will not always see the finished product. YOU will not always see the purpose.
However, YOU will see mountains of dirt and mountains of possiblities.
And that's the curse. Are you ok with that?
