It doesn't matter how many mission trips I've been on or how prepared I think I am, travelling with a team of fellow believers to serve in the name of Christ is a profound, moving experience. Couple this with immersion in a different culture whose people who speak an unfamiliar language, and it becomes disorienting and exciting all at once. To say that being here elicits mixed emotions is a dramatic understatement.
There is joy and satisfaction in building a house for someone like Concha, a sweet lady who plays her guitar and sings for us while we work. There is also sadness in not being able to meet all of the needs of her and her grandchildren. There's a disconnect because of the language barrier (I have trouble ordering a cheeseburger without help) yet relationships form that are built on more than words, like when a little girl I've never met before smiles at me and takes my hand. I miss my family, but still I feel a sense of belonging as I live out the particular call I sense from God to be right here, right now.
In the familiarity of my home and job and family, it's relatively easy to avoid the challenge of moving outside of my comfort zone. But it's the disorientation and reorientation that make experiences like this so hard to describe and so wonderful. Like a potter reshaping clay, God can use my disorientation to reorient me more perfectly to him. That is the beautifully difficult reality of experiencing God on mission, and that's why I keep coming back for more.
Carter
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Well said Carter. Just as when our Honduran friends offer witness to God's blessings with the phrase "Dios te bendega", there is only one word that provides an adequate response:
ReplyDelete"Amen".
Oh, and by the way, the next time you are in McDonalds its: "quarter pounder-O with cheese-O".
ReplyDeleteCarter,
ReplyDeleteI know your many feelings. Believe me you are having an impact and the lady with more needs than you can imagine is normal.
Don't worry about your Spanish. I've learned the louder you speak the more they understand plus hand motion speak a thousand words.
I am proud of all of you. Just try to keep Jonathan straight and tell me when Chase gets beaten by an 8 year old with no shoes in soccer.
Give us your construction progress so that we might know how good team 1 really was. We wre great and humble servants. Yall keep trying!!
Bobo
...."oh Lord it is hard to be humble when you are perfect in every way"...and BOBO aka TL1.5 is in charge....
ReplyDeletethis is David Guzman... Carter,,.. The words you wrote... IS WHAT I FELT AND EXPERIENCED last week! even though I know the spanish language. You just helped me put a bunch of emotions in place! Keep up the good work. Can't wait to see you back here to discuss this further!
ReplyDeleteCarter,
ReplyDeleteWell said...as you always do.
As for the matter of 'disoriented'...be careful how much of the local dust you breathe daily...you do not want to know what is it's primary ingredient is.
Tomas