Our 4 months thus far have been spent in first world countries;
much like the US (economically speaking)…we are yet to experience life in a
third world country. In fact 2 of the
countries we have spent time in, Ireland and Israel, are the 2 most expensive
countries in the world or so we’ve been told (which is crazy, absolutely crazy
when you only have $3 a day for food)!
With that said, the people and problems we have come across
thus far have been different than I was expecting. We aren’t going around meeting physical needs
like providing water or food, we haven’t seen physical death or suffering on
the scale I would have imagined. So far
we have taught English and organized a soccer tournament and taught Bible
studies and lead worship and played with kids and cleaned graffiti and trash
and worked in a soup kitchen and interceded on behalf of nations. I am quickly learning through this that ‘ministry’
isn’t something we set up and go to each day, its life. I don’t have to be in the slums of Africa to
be a life and hope bringer. I can be
sitting in Starbucks in Charleston, SC or in Istanbul, Turkey and I can serve
the Lord.
So despite the economic status of the cities and countries
we have been living and serving in we have seen plenty of pain, hopelessness,
and confusion. Just because people are
comfortable and living a life that won’t make the covers of a national
geographic there is still plenty of hurt and plenty of people longing for
more. Heck, it didn’t take me leaving
the US to see that…I saw that where I worked prior to the race and in the faces
of people in the suburbs of my hometown.
So with that said I would like to share something I have
been milling around in my mind for the last week or so…that is the idea of
misdirection.
Misdirection: inaccurate aim, to address incorrectly.
Despite the relatively ‘normal’ way we have been serving
there has been something stirring in my heart.
The first time this occurred recently was visiting the
beautiful Blue Mosque here in Istanbul, Turkey.
I mean it is absolutely incredible.
No detail was sparred. To think
of the money and time and dedication it took to complete this beautiful
building blows my mind. A few weeks
ago, during our first debrief in Istanbul, I stood in one of the courtyards looking
up at the magnificent building that stood before me with tears flowing
uncontrollably down my face. All I could
do was apologize to God for all the misdirected praise that comes from that
building. The millions of tourists that
come to that building to worship something other than the one true God… And to
think that in one second God could without blinking destroy that building and
turn everyone’s eyes towards him in humble adoration…but he doesn’t. He allows us to choose if we want to follow
him or not. That is something my simple
mind cannot understand.
The other time my heart truly moved lately was while we were
serving at a soup kitchen in Jerusalem. Soup
kitchens, as far as I have understood it, are created out of the overflow of
someone’s heart for the poor and hungry and needy. The creators receive little to no money for
it and it’s a relatively thankless job…but none of that matters to people when
they have a vision to help out the needy and love on people who have little. I love the idea behind them. During our short time in this soup kitchen I
hoped to see this same vision, despite the difference in beliefs between our
team and the workers of the soup kitchen.
My heart was stirred when I saw the needy people who came for meals
mistreated, unrespected and yelled at at times. I fought back
tears as all I wanted to do was fight for them…to fight for the forgotten and
the unwanted.
So what comes out of these two not so spectacular stories…two
things. One is that God has really put
on my heart is a passion to be a fighter…someone who fights through injustice
for people who can’t or won’t fight for themselves. And so far a lot of that has been fighting in
prayer and more behind the scenes but I know there will come a day where the
Lord will call me to action on this and I will be equipped at that time to take
a stand for someone and show them that someone does care and someone is there
and someone is fighting for them. The other
thing is to just see the perversion of something that at its root is good and
how it can be turned for evil. Both praise
and service are good things, straight from the Lord…but in the wrong hands they
can be turned against the very creator of these things.
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So I am entering into this month, and especially into these
next 2 weeks, in a truly expectant way.
I cannot wait to see how the Lord honors our efforts to refrain from
using the internet and how He brings our team and squad together as a
family. I cannot wait to blog again and
share the amazing things God puts in our paths this month. Thanks for all the support. I love you all.
Holland
