(Month 1) My first rant about it…

…it's official, it's my first rant. Here it goes…it was the end of the month 1. (Admittedly, I've got a few blogs to upload and this isn't as fresh as it was in the moment. I'm happy to report …things will get better.)

I wish I could tell you that everything is perfectly fine. But that would be a lie.

I am well aware that many parents and supporters read my blogs, and a mixture of grief, tragedy and shame has delayed this report. If I only reported back the amazing, miraculous, praise-worthy aspects of mission life you wouldn’t be getting the full picture.

So here it goes, because I’ve made it a personal mission to keep things real.

Month 1 in Pretoria, South Africa was glorious – by God’s grace.

In fact, I don’t want to diminish the wonderful works of the Lord through us by emphasizing how terribly and grossly short of perfection we come daily out here in the nations. Honest, anytime we lose sight of why we are here and in Whose name we come it gets pretty ugly quite quickly.

Imagine for a moment 29 individuals (4 teams & 2 squad leaders) with all their gear sharing sleeping quarters in a small sized sanctuary hall, two small shower stalls and about 6 toilets respectively. Meals come from within an amazing commercial kitchen daily prepared by teams and organized by individuals with different culinary skill levels, food safety not always required, diet preferences, tastes and various perspectives of dietary health using a $3/day per person food budget.

When you add all the other teams meeting up for end of the month, the numbers go up to 60.

But when God’s grace is abused from a spectrum of sin such as licentiousness, entitlement, griping about ministry, pride, arguing with each other, laziness, acting clueless, anger…the whole shebang … the body of Christ can begin to unravel.

Now the works of the flesh are evident which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like;
Galatians 5:19-21a

So let me confess, living in community is the pits!!!

Here’s why:

• The more people sleep in, the more others have to do to prepare for the day.
• The more people stay up late, the less those who get up early to prepare for the day get to sleep.
• The more tired people are in general, the more whiney or grumpy they get.
• The more people get complacent and comfortable in one place, the more they’re prone to living like pigs and leaving their messes everywhere. EVERYWHERE.
• The more people spend getting to know each other and socializing, the less they spend time in the Word and with Jesus.
• The more people that there are in one space in one place at one time, the more confusing every communication becomes and disorganization abounds.
• The more people you have around you to seek out like-mindedness, the less likely you are to spend time bonding with your own team unless a great effort and intention is made.
• The more people you have to go to at any given time, the probability that you’re taking it first to Jesus is less likely. (And it shows.)
• The more tantalizing surrounding sights are, the easier it is to spend free time in utter dissipation.
• When we travel in packs of people throughout the city, it becomes quite evident that we are loud Americans moreso than Christian missionaries.
• The more entitled people began to feel, the more dirty dishes suddenly piled up in sinks after meals with no one to claim them or wash them! (Not to mention people would take each other’s utensils and plates/bowls without permission.)

People get short. People get rude. People get gross. People get retarded. People become oblivious to why we are here. And some people are totally OK with living out their faith like this – but it’s not OK by me. It’s month 1. We’re still getting it. We’re not top-notch, pick of the crop, crème de la crème missionaries. There. I said it. We are just people.

Thank God, Jesus loves people.