A reflection after my first full week in Argentina:
Last month my team received a lot of gratitude from the locals. At first we couldn’t believe that these people would be in such awe at us for simply following the call of the Lord. We didn’t feel like what we were doing was that great. I can’t tell you how many hugs and cheek kisses and sweets and favors we were offered just because we held the title of “missionaries.”
Of course there was the part of my brain that understood what we’re doing is costly. Ever since I confirmed my spot for this trip it has continued to cost me something. Time away from my career, important relationships, MONEY, improv, holidays with my family. It’s hard to leave your home, your job and your people in order to fully pursue the Lord. I fundraised and had to figure out the logistics of putting my life on hold for a year and financing a trip like this. I had to (and still have to) process what a year of service abroad will require of me mentally, physically and spiritually. Once I had time to adjust to this being my new normal, it’s hard to remember that complicated feeling of the costliness because in the end you’re just responding to Jesus. I wake up in my bunk bed in Argentina, make my instant coffee and walk outside to begin deconstructing a dilapidated green house on base. That’s my normal for now. I read Jesus’ words and am trying my best to be obedient to them.
This month I am the one in awe. We are staying on a YWAM base (“Youth With a Mission”) or “JUCUM” in Spanish. I wasn’t very familiar with YWAM until this week. I knew it was a missions organization and obviously had something to do with youth. My critical thinking ended there. While I’ve only spent a week here I have witnessed a level of costliness I had little exposure to before now. There are people from much further away than the United States and for much longer than a year. The missionaries on base here range from teenagers to seasoned veterans, all devoting their lives to the Lord. They live together on this little plot of land outside the city of Mendoza, Argentina where tarantulas are not uncommon and the WiFi nonexistent. They study here, raise families here, and often work a second job on their off day in order to continue being able to volunteer here full-time.
The more time I spend with the people here the more I learn about how worthy Jesus is of our everything. This past year has been rooted in a lot of false comfort for me. I tried to find comfort in the words “it’s just a year,” and secretly praying that God wouldn’t want me away from my country, my church and my family for longer than that. I’m extremely grateful to be walking out this journey with my team and squad mates, they are an incredibly passionate group of Christians who encourage me and make me laugh. But there has been something about living in community with full-time missionaries that has painted a larger picture of how big my God is and how much he has for me. The members of this YWAM base left their homes indefinitely to live their lives for Jesus in whatever form that could take. Sometimes it’s cooking for 500+ missionaries on a tight budget, visiting local schools with curriculum about environmental sustainability, or sweeping the leaves out of the 8-million gallon pool on base before they open it to the community. I could go on forever about the variety of jobs and labor these people walk into everyday knowing that it is all to glorify the Lord.
What would it look like to leave my country with no return date? How much faith would I have to have to truly rely on God for my income and provision? How would I handle having to celebrate Christmas during one of the hottest months of the year, every year? Or to have to take a bus 40 minutes into town to download a podcast? Right now I can say I wouldn’t want that for myself. I wouldn’t want to say the hard goodbyes to people and my car and my air conditioning. I’m not saying I believe I’ll have to, I just feel the Lord reminding me that he’s not going to be done using me next September. I was created for Him and by Him not because he needed me, but because he wanted me and in response to that I want to live for him.
As always, thank you for reading my thoughts. I will try to be more disciplined in sharing them weekly. Also, if someone ever comes to you fundraising to be a YWAM missionary please thoughtfully consider supporting them. They are good people trying to good things.
