Before I left I had the same conversation over, and over, and over again.
“What will you be doing?”
I would respond with what they wanted to hear.
“So many things; working in orphanages, teaching English, maybe some manual labor.”
But that is not what this year is about. (But yes, there has been a lot of teaching English so far!)
I know when people my age think of taking a year off to do mission work they sometimes think bible thumping, door to door evangelism, or forcing Christianity onto non believers.
That’s not what I’m doing either.
Things were put into perspective for me last month by our host who told us to wear Jesus on our skin, to show them by doing not saying, and to “love them period”!
That last part really stuck. Love them. Period. Not tell them there is a God who will love you if you change your ways. Not condemn them for their life choices or to guilt them. Not only help those who are willing and ready to pursue a better life style. Love them, period.
Love them where they are at, right now. That’s it.
So that is what I am doing this year. I am loving them as He would love them. As He does love them.
This is also not just loving those that are easy to love, i.e. the children, our hosts, the women and ladies in the bar, the people that are easy to talk to.. It’s loving them all, the men who frequent the bars, the monks, the nonreligious university students, the hecklers, the drunks, the taxi drivers who rip us off because we’re foreigners. Love them all, no exceptions. It is such a simple concept with a complex action.
If we loved the way He loves us what a different world it would be.
Something that I have been working on is accepting His love and realizing he loves me where I am at. I am not the perfect christian. I have baggage and sin often. I still chose to do what I want even though I know the choice He would like me to make. For some reason he still loves me and has more grace for me than I do for myself.
Although I don’t have any stories of miraculous healing or life shaking realizations, something in my heart has changed for sure.
ON A DIFFERENT NOTE: One continent down, three to go! We leave for Africa Sunday evening our time/Sunday morning US time! I’ll be in Uganda for month 4!
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Until next time, later days!
