My teammate Sara wrote this blog and i loved it so much i wanted to share it with you…
The other day, as we went out for ministry
in Malawi, I was struck by the four women I have spent this year
with. At training camp we were told not to expect our teams to stay the
same through the entire year, and there was some accuracy in this
statement. I think I can safely say I am on a different team than I was
8 months ago. Eight months ago, as we launched in Palenque, Mexico, I
was on a team of five strangers, both strangers to each other and
strangers, in many ways, to the God we worshipped. Eight months later
you find us operating as a family, with all the ups and downs a family
experiences. More than that, we are operating as God’s family.
It
was this new reality that struck me the other day as we led a small
meeting of believers on the outskirts of Zomba. Each of the women on my
team has seen God this year and I have seen God through each of
them. Through the highs and lows of being known by the most high King,
these four women have rarely given up or given in. Their dedication to
making God less of a stranger and more of a lover is unshaken by eight
months of sacrifice, sweat, and sadness as well as days of more joy,
laughter, and faith than most of us have before experienced. So the
other day as we sat in this prayer meeting I looked around at the new
women with whom I am surrounded. They pray and preach with more
authority than we could ever muster before. They seek the Lord for one
another and for strangers here in Malawi. They admit failure, sort
comings and fears so we can operate as a body and surround each other
in times of need. It really shocked me, because I am not even sure when
it happened; when we stopped operating like strangers in the house of
God and started to live as Disciples of Christ.
Yesterday I was reading in Galatians about Paul’s desires for the
church he loved. He says that he labors and prays for Christ to be
formed in them. I think I have some sense of what he was feeling as he
gazed on the family he loved and watched in expectancy as Christ took
over their lives. We are a small church of just five, but in the course
of the past eight months, I have watched Christ be formed in each of
these women. I wonder if Paul ever had an experience like I am having
now, looking at his beautiful church family and not being able to keep
himself from smiling.
