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| Chicago's O'Hare International Airport |
If you've never been in a third world country, it's a bit of a shock. What you see, smell, hear, eat...it's all foreign to what you're used to. You're entrenched in the daily routine of the marginalized poor who often times have nothing but severe depression - no sign of hope. You come from a country where your homeless are so much better off than the people and families you are serving. Your heart aches for these broken hearts before you because you want to give them everything you have but you know that's not possible. So, why are you there? What can you do to help?
The good news is when you're hooked up with a ministry that is doing the work of the Lord in a way that is pleasing to Him, you get to witness miracles and breakthroughs, frowns into smiles and the lost finding their way to Jesus. You see God's children who were closed off to Him begin to warm up. Then sometimes, they catch you off guard and ask you to help them get into Heaven.
When I was in the Dominican Republic in October 1995 for a week, we partnered with Habitat for Humanity. We worked alongside the same families the entire week and we busted our butts. Those families said they'd never seen a group of workers work so hard to help them finish their homes so they'd have a place to live. We never thought about it. We were there to do a job - Serve Jesus with all our heart, mind, soul and strength. That's what the Bible tells us to do.
Before I left I was told to pick a person I could unload my experiences onto when I returned. I asked a woman named Pat who was on staff in our children's ministry. Pat and I, at that time, had been blessed with a little bit of a friendship. Not a long one or a deep one but one that served a major event in her life and two major events in mine. Being listened to was wonderful. Faith is doing the same.
Because Faith and I have a strict therapist/client relationship, I won't get to sit across from her and listen to her trip. I won't get to ask her how it started when she got there, where she sensed God talking to her, when she most used her spiritual gifts, who would be the in country people she'd be working alongside, did she have an easy time fitting in with her team, did she make new friends, did God use the story of Jesus calming the storm when the disciples were in the boat with Him and freaking out?
Then I would ask her this:
This trip is filled with moments when God made His presence known to you. Which one was most significant to your spiritual growth and how will it prepare you for the mission God has for your future?
Yeah, I wish I could sit across from her.
