“As Pharaoh approached, the Israelites looked up, and there were the Egyptians, arching after them. They were terrified and cried out to the Lord…What have you done to us by brining us out of Egypt? Didn’t we say to you in Egypt, ‘Leave us alone; let us serve the Egyptians’? I would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the dessert!” – Exodus 14:10, 11b-12
Scripture can be a mirror reflecting our lives and decisions even though the events are separated by thousands of years. It is described as alive and active because every time we read it, something new stands out based on seasons and circumstances. Sometimes making things relevant or distinguishing similarities can be difficult, but also convicting when the similarities are less than desirable. One such group we can often find ourselves reflecting is that of the Israelites. We hear sermons all the time of how this people group shows us countless examples of the Lord’s faithfulness, His correction and guidance in our lives and ways that our human nature is so far from the character of God. However, the section quoted above, I’m sure you would agree, is not typically one thought of as an example of any of these. Strangely though, in debriefing as a team on our time in Indonesia, it describes our attitudes really well.
Some of you may have heard that we spent a week in a treehouse. Before leaving, the only description we received of our destination was that we would be in the mountains, living in a treehouse, bathing in a river, sharing food and participating in a cultural exchange. We barely hesitated in saying an almost unanimous yes! Who doesn’t have a childhood dream of living in a treehouse AND it was our guise for ministry. What could be better? When we returned and had a day to breathe for a second, I realized the better question was, “What were we thinking?” We all hopped on a bus to the complete unknown for a week of what we hoped would be a grand adventure.
I thought it would be fun to open the floor to my team to share our experiences this month. Here is their very edited version of our week as told by Brushed with Glory…and me.
We bathed as a village and there were whole families in our bathtub (river). Vicious wildlife interrupted the serenity of our stay [all the mosquitoes] and woke up the tree itself one night smacking all of the bugs on the floor that flew at the phone light. No bones were actually broken in the process of tubing down the river, even though we thought possible at the time. The evening was always the favorite spectacle for the handful of men we lived with because getting ready for bed was such a process; sleeping in rooms, tents, hammocks oh my, brushing our teeth out the front door and passing toilet paper around for the what seemed like the very long walk to the bathroom. We had about five foods to pick from for the week we were there so needless to say Pizza Hut was one of the first stops when we got back to the city. The stop right behind the laundry mat where we were mortified at the rancid smell that arose from our clothes bags after a week of them being wet because the clothes line was just for show. This became abundantly clear especially after the torrential downpour we camped in and the fact that some people are still scared to air out their tent. *Katie*
Me again – When we returned to the city, it was with dreams of Wi-Fi, AC, a way to wash clothes and dry them. Breathe some clean air, sleep with no bugs, and be able to take a shower, maybe even in hot water. That is not what we got at all. The AirBnb we booked is little to be desired. At the halfway point of the week we found ourselves living in a place with one working AC unit in the whole apartment meaning we all spend our time piled onto one bed because everywhere else is pretty miserable. The propane in our stove went out day two so we all cook out of one rice cooker which is surprisingly effective. The Wi-Fi has yet to work in the apartment and the availability around town is unreliable and disappointing because the city doesn’t open anything until after 10am and with a 12 hour time difference, leaves a very small window for communication. We ended up having to wear the same clothes for two days again because there wasn’t laundry as promised so we had to send it out for cleaning and wait which ultimately ended up smelling amazing when it came back which warranted no complaints. As more and more things broke, the kitchen light, the refrigerator, discovering the giant, unsealable window in the back that was letting all the mosquitoes in, the attitude of our conversation began to shift. “When we ran out of propane at the treehouse, S* had more for us in 10 minutes.” “We never had 30 minutes of traffic to go one mile on the mottos.” “How will we make coffee with no propane? Maybe B* will bring us some?” Eventually it turned into, “we might as well go back to the treehouse because it’s better than here!” Then we sat down to study the above section of scripture and had to laugh at the similarities. We had complaints at the treehouse, we had complaints in the city, but those made the first complaints not seem as life altering. The Lord’s response to the people as they complained was verse 15b, “tell the Israelites to move on” which when translated sounds a lot like, “suck it up, Buttercup!” Moses had spent the verse before telling the people how the Lord was going to fight for them, deliver them and all they needed was to be still. All of us had been in worse conditions this year than what we were experiencing now, but in those moments, we couldn’t think of any and several may have been experiencing mid-race crises syndrome. Now we look back and laugh: we say, “what in the world were we thinking?”, we bonded over piling in one bed to be in the vicinity of the AC and we call each other higher when someone needs a pick-me up. Luckily it didn’t take 40 years for us to stop complaining or realize the “deliverance” we would have because at the end of the day we are only here for a month.
Our team later reminisced how we already missed our dear friends. The ones who rode to the bus stop in the rain and waited for an hour and a half when we left. The friends who carry us coffee in the middle of the river and feel genuine remorse when they win, by a lot, in chess. Morgan reminded that “your hard moments don’t define you, beauty comes from hard.” Things were good and we could clearly see why the Lord had us there. Katie kept asking the team “is it worth the gospel? Even if it’s not what I was feeling at the time, every time the answer was yes.” DJ dropped the mic with “the truth of eternity gets me. Why hoard the life I have when it could mean someone else’s eternity? Regret is longer than embarrassment. You don’t want to miss those opportunities.” I still find myself reflecting on Marilyn’s realization that our experience in the treehouse is a small glimpse of what our Race would look like without Jesus. Without Him being the center of our conversation, His exaltation being our goal for the day and glorifying Him in the presence of likeminded people and local partners. Olivia felt as though the second part of the race was a new season of realizing that it is easy to say yes to surrender, to the hard and the uncomfortable because He sacrificed everything, but we continue in those places, choose those places and seek opportunities in this places because we also love Him. This is a two way relationship and it’s high time we start to realize that we will never have an excuse to say no. But what is the biggest difference between us and the Israelites? We know the end of the story; that the Lord never stops fighting for you (verse 14). Jesus is the reason we gave up comforts, the Gospel is why we consider eternity rather than two weeks, and the people in front of us is why we go another day without talking to our people back home. It’s worth it, this month was worth it, the Kingdom is worth it and we live in community to help each other remember that.
