Feed on
Posts
Comments

Saying good-bye

Good-byes are hard. I guess they are designed that way because you have to deal with what you are leaving and what you are gaining at the same time. They are usually filled with a lot of emotion and, for many of us, a great many tears. I’ve had to say good-bye a lot in recent years. In this journey called marriage that I’ve been on the past 4.5 years, I’ve moved four times to three states. Although I’m generally a clean person who hates clutter and takes a load of stuff to Goodwill every other week, I hoard moving boxes like a bear stores food for the winter. My husband is convinced that we have created a fire hazard in our attic.

I guess I’m always waiting for the next move, never really feeling like I can settle down and “be” somewhere. But Jesus wants me to find my home in Him. My identity in Him. Not in this job or my role as “Mama,” or any of the other positions that I fill. To “be” anywhere He places me that moment. It’s a tough thing to do. Some of us have personalities that handle transition better than others. (“Others” being me.)

I always have to remind myself that life with Jesus is a journey and an adventure. I wasn’t called to sit on the sidelines. I was called to be an active participant in His world – a world that moves and changes with rapid speed and I better learn to keep up. Sometimes keeping up means saying good-bye. But Jesus is there to wipe away every tear and stand beside me in the next adventure He’s planned.

  • Share/Save/Bookmark

I’m attending a missions week up at Toccoa Falls College in the mountains of NE Georgia. Today I decided to go for a jog. I looked at Google Maps to chart the course. And off I went. It didn’t take me long to realize I should have checked out the topographical version. The first mile went up, up, up. Then I came to a fork that was not on Google Maps. I went one way, up, up, up for about 10 minutes – dead end. So I came back and went the other way – another dead end. Oh well, I finally returned – so much for my nice, clean five-mile loop!

Being the somewhat neurotic sort, I got back to my computer and turned on satellite view. Aha! There were more roads than the map showed, so I should have made a turn somewhere that just did not show being a crossroads. I also could see now that this was a mountainous trek, so I should have anticipated some hefty hills.

This reminded me of what I learned way back in Missions 101 about worldview. Our worldview contains all the assumptions we make about how the world works, how we relate to one another, how we do the basic routines of life. My prof called it our “mental map.” When we go to another culture, it is a different “mental map,” which can cause disorientation.

Well, I knew I needed a different map here, but I didn’t take the time to look at all the dimensions of the new map. So I ended up with unexpected difficulty and I made wrong turns. If we head to cross-cultural ministry, however well intended, without doing the hard work of learning the various facets of the new culture – the new mental map – we are apt to run into all sorts of surprises and difficulties that just didn’t show up on the initial rendering. And we very well may end up getting lost in the process and create problems not only for ourselves, but for others. Most importantly, the very gospel we came to share can get distorted or even just lost in the process.

That’s why good preparation for missionary work, whether for a two-week trip or for a lifetime of cross-cultural ministry, is of vital importance. I get very concerned when I hear of a church group going to another country to “do ministry” with only an hour orientation before heading to the airport! They are going with a surface version of the new mental map at best. We need to show our love for the Lord and respect for the new culture by doing the work required to get a decent handle on the new mental map we’ll be using to negotiate the culture!

Tomorrow I’ll try my run again, this time armed with satellite imagery that should help me find the elusive loop!

  • Share/Save/Bookmark

Dr. Edgar Nelson, one of the original 37 founders of The Mission Society, passed away on January 23, 2010. Dr. Nelson was a United Methodist pastor and served Yuba City UMC in Yuba City, California for many years. Please pray for his family, especially his wife Marian, during the time.

  • Share/Save/Bookmark

The Mission Society welcomes a new member of its family – Saniya Coleman. Daughter of Richard (director of mobilization) and Amanda Coleman, Saniya was born January 24th and weighed 7lbs and 11ozs. Welcome to the world!

  • Share/Save/Bookmark

The Mission Society grieves for the victims of the earthquake that struck Port-au-Prince, Haiti on January 12. Mission Society missionary Joetta Lehman, seconded to OMS, was on the ground when the quake struck. She and her fellow OMS colleagues are safe.

The Mission Society has set up a relief fund for the victims of the deadly quake. To make a donation, please note account #631. Click the link below to give online.

http://www.themissionsociety.org/go/give

  • Share/Save/Bookmark

My wife and I watch Law & Order reruns sometimes. Usually there are interesting plot twists as clues are uncovered and the detectives try to discover who had the motive and opportunity to commit the crime.

We read in the gospel of Luke how John the Baptist points the way to Jesus as the true Messiah saying, “I baptize you with water. But one more powerful than I will come, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire” (Luke 3:15-17).

I learned that farmers would let the wheat and chaff (weeds) grow together and then it would all be harvested together and put on the threshing floor. Then the farmer would take the winnowing fork and toss the wheat and chaff into the air. The chaff is lighter and would blow away while the heavier wheat would fall back to the ground – the useful was separated from the useless.

I have usually understood this scripture as it refers to salvation with Jesus separating the saved from the unsaved. Recently, however, I heard a sermon with a different, yet helpful perspective that applies to our motives and our daily walk with Christ.

Often, we try to sort through our motives on our own, but it is Jesus who holds the winnowing fork, not us. He can separate the good from the bad, the light from the dark. Don’t misunderstand me; this doesn’t let us off the hook in examining ourselves and our motives. Instead, it is a call to stay near to Christ and let Him transform us, separating the good from the bad in our hearts.

As Jesus sorts out our motives, helps us grow spiritually, and live the Kingdom life He desires for us, we will have greater opportunities to point others to Him.

  • Share/Save/Bookmark

A new generation

I just finished attending the huge Urbana 2009 student missions conference. Over 15,000 young people gathered to learn about and explore commitment to God’s mission in the world. It has been an amazing time.

As I have listened to the sessions and had well over 100 individual conversations with students, I began to see an exciting pattern develop. It is clear that God is calling a new generation to His mission. No surprise there – every generation is called by God to His mission. Yet each calling has its unique characteristics – each generation has aspects of God’s mission that is revealed with more clarity than other generations may have had. They come with new passions and new ideas. The same Mission of God, but new facets and approaches.

There is an exciting passion among students to confront issues of injustice and poverty with the power of the Gospel. This isn’t a fuzzy “do-gooder” type of approach, trying to come up with human solutions – the approach that has characterized various “social gospel” attempts of the past. This generation seems to be gifted with a radical abandon to Jesus Christ and a willingness to confront systems of poverty and injustice with the light of the Gospel. They seem to experience the deep offense that such systems are to the Creator and feel compelled to challenge and change.

As I listened to them and felt this passion, I realized that it is not a negation of what has gone before, but it really is that God is stirring something new. Those of us who are a bit further along in years – parents, church leaders, mission leaders – need to recognize what God is doing and do all we can to encourage, to advise, and to release this incredible energy and passion.

  • Share/Save/Bookmark

Urbana 09

The Mission Society is hosting a booth at Urbana 09. Stop by to talk with our staff members about exploring cross-cultural service in 36 countries around the world!

  • Share/Save/Bookmark

I’m returning to work from 12 weeks of maternity leave. While my brain in still foggy and I don’t expect to sleep though the night for the next 18 years, I am constantly overwhelmed by how blessed I am to have these children. I also stand amazed each day by how much love God actually allows us to feel for another person.

Although I was on leave, I still managed to work most days, even an hour or so if I could get my children to sleep at the same time. In addition to my duties as “mama,” (feeding, bathing, diapering, taking them to the doctor, keeping up with their shots, fearing H1N1, nap schedules, documenting with lives with photos and video, potty training my two-year old, helping my daughter adjust to being a big sister, finding adequate childcare, etc., etc.) work, my household, my marriage, church activities, and life in general just seemed too much for one person to handle each day. Most days I found myself unshowered and in tears by lunch. I marveled how two little humans could need so much and how I could continually feel as if I did not have enough to give them. Enough undivided attention, enough patience, creativity in parenting, … But I never doubted that I loved them enough or that they felt that.

I understand how lucky I am to have so many stresses. I am thankful to have these children, this job, my husband, my house, my church and everything else, and know how typical my little stressors are to every family.

On the days that I feel overwhelmed by life’s demands and unable to be everything for everyone, I always hear God whisper, “My grace is sufficient for you” (I Corinthians 12:9). When I don’t know how to discipline my daughter, or think of my friend whose husband is in ICU, or think of the victims of sexual servitude that weigh on my heart, God’s message to each of us is the same – “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”

  • Share/Save/Bookmark

Facing AIDS in Africa

The Mission Society sends out about 10-to-12 interns every year, mostly young adults between the ages of 18 and 25. It has been said that this generation is one of the most in-tune to injustice in this world. Here is a story of one of our interns and how she embodied this:

Kim Klein is from Washington state and connected with Life for Children Ministries, which helps AIDS orphans in Kisumu find homes with guardians and works with the guardian families to care for the kids. One of the guardians is a woman named Coletta who has four children, the youngest of which has AIDS. Coletta herself contracted the disease from her husband, who died of the disease. Just as Kim was starting to form a relationship with Coletta and her children, Coletta committed suicide. She left behind Nick, Dennis, Joshua, and Laura. Now Nick, at 17, was left with the huge responsibility of caring for his younger siblings. To further complicate matters, Luo tradition mandates that a family cannot continue to live in a house where someone has committed suicide. So the children were forced out on the street while still grieving for their mom, and eventually had to separate.

Kim was understandably devastated as she had a rapid orientation into the harsh reality of poverty and despair. She had such a burden for the kids, wanting most of all for them to be able to lean on each other. So she took action and through her communication with family, friends, and supporters in the U.S., raised the funds to build a house on the land that the kids used to occupy. The community had quickly torn down the old house, but felt that it was permissible to rebuild in the same place. Kim also enlisted the help of the community, challenging them that if she could raise the funds, they could provide the labor to build the house.

It’s now Kim’s last week in Kenya, and as I type this the community is building the frame for Coletta’s childrens’ new home. Thanks to Kim’s compassionate heart and actions, Nick, Dennis, Joshua, and Laura will have a steady roof over their heads. Best of all, they can live together and grieve the loss of their mother together.

Here is a link to Kim’s blog as she was processing the loss of Coletta – http://kimberlyklein.wordpress.com.

  • Share/Save/Bookmark

Older Posts »