COMMUNITY. I
never knew what the word really meant until this trip. I have to say that this last month has
shown me the true definition community. In America it is so easy to live in what
we think is community. One definition of community that I found in the dictionary is – A group of people having a religion, race, profession, or other particular characteristics in common. The first few months of this mission our team (Natalie,
Faith, Kacie, Katherine, Dave, and I) learned about each other and that one of the only things we have in common is our faith in Christ. The rest of those months we discovered how different we are. Most of the time this
learning process resulted in many disagreements and sometimes-even tears. We fought through it though and grew as
a team. The nice part of these
last few months is that we had space to retreat to collect our thoughts. There
was always an empty room to go or an empty bed to rest in peace and quiet. Not this month though. I am sharing a bed with my teammate
Dave and our bed is a couch that is in the living room. The four girls are sharing a bedroom
and when they open their door it comes right out to Dave and my bedroom/living
room. We also have a translator
living with us that we just met this month and he has his own room. His room also opens right up to our
living room as well. We have a
very small bathroom that all seven of us share with one shower, and we have a
small kitchen that if I sat in the middle of it I could touch all four
walls. Every day we cook all of our meals so you can imagine the
chaos in the kitchen.
I took two pictures of the kitchen and bathroom just so you can all picture it a little better.
This is our Kitchen
This is where I spend most of my time:)
Each day we have breakfast and then we have a time of prayer
and worship together. After that
time together we go off to our ministry site. We are working with a local church and doing mainly
children’s ministry. We have also had the chance to go to several other
churches and preach. I will be
doing another blog on what we did this month later though. After our ministry time we meet
together as a team and pray and then we talk about any issues that we had in
the day. We call this time
“feedback.” These issues can range from bad attitudes to dealing with
insecurities. One of our favorite
issues is learning to love each other even when we do not like each other. Some
of the issues can be as minuscule as using all the hot water in the
shower. Every day there is a new
issue or new attitude to deal with. The best part about all of these issues is
that there is no room to retreat to or bed to rest in. When you turn around to retreat you
bump into one of your other teammates who then ask you if you are okay, but
that just makes you even more frustrated. The key word of this month is
CONFRONTATION. That is why I have
renamed this mission’s trip from the World Race to Eleven Months of Learning
How to Die to Oneself.
I have learned so many things in these last couple of
months, but one major thing I have learned is that WOMEN ARE AN ENDLESS
MYSTERY. They want us to comfort them, but they do not want us to talk or give
them advice, they want to feel pretty, but they get mad when you tell them they
are pretty, when you offer them a hug they do not want to be touched, but if
you do not offer them a hug they will be upset that you did not offer them a
hug because they want you to somehow know in your inner being when they need a
hug! They want you to think about them and love them enough to want to serve
them, but when you try to serve them they get mad because they think that you
think that they are not capable of doing it themselves, so they refuse to let
you serve them and later on that night I get to enjoy a four hour feedback on
how I do not love them enough to serve them. Oh Lord have mercy on my soul and
bear me strength! At least by the end of these eleven months if I ever sign up
for E-Harmony I will have four women to back me up that I am ready for marriageJ.
They can even give many examples of how I have failed, but somehow redeem
myself by cooking them breakfast or buying them chocolates.
How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity!~ Psalm 133:1
God calls us to live in community He created us for
relationships because He is a relational God. He longs for us to be in relationship with Him, and to just
dump all our mess on His lap. He
loves us unconditionally despite our mess, but He also calls us to love each other
as He loves us. The key word that comes with that is grace. Our team has grown
very close this month, but it has not been easy. We have failed each other many
times. Through the failures we have learned that we will continue to fail each
other, but we have to have grace for each other and for ourselves. That is what the Church is though a
bunch of weak failures that are in desperate need of a Savior. This Easter I just
want to thank Jesus for His sacrifice and that when I am weak He is strong.
PS. When in doubt buy chocolate…
