Let My Life Be the Proof

(This is my little 8 year old host brother)

I think now I'm starting to understand more about the idea of "living your mission." It made sense to me when we talked about it in training and I understood it on an intellectual level, but I hadn't experienced it before, so I didn't know how it felt or what it looked like practically. 

Earlier this week I was thinking about our time here and what we've done and it didn't seem like we were doing a whole lot. We had just been living with host families and helping at the school with yard work and in the kitchen and the chocolate factory with cleaning the foyer because the factory part was closed all week. We haven't done kids programs or building projects, which are activities you would normally associate with missions trips. So, I found myself asking the question, what is the purpose of our group being here? And, what is my purpose in being here? 

In one of my previous blog posts I ended with this statement: 

"So instead of asking "What will I do?" now I'm asking "How will I live?"" 

I was reminded that we are here to live. And the "what" that we are doing is not as important as "how" we are doing it. 

As Paul says, 

"If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don't love, I'm nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate. If I speak God's Word with power, revealing all His mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, "Jump," and it jumps, but I don't love, I'm nothing. If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don't love, I've gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I'm bankrupt without love." (1 Corinthians 13:1-7 The Message) 

God continues to bring this passage to my attention again and again and again. The more I read it, the more it sinks in. Love is the lifeline of Christianity. Without love, our churches, our organizations, our bible studies are nothing. Without love I am bankrupt, no matter what I do, what I say, or what I believe. 

This is why we need God to work in us and through us, because He is love (1Jn 4:8) and apart from Christ we can do nothing. (Jn15:5) We need Him working in us and through us to complete that which He has called us to, because apart from Him I can do nothing. 

So, Why is my group here? 

To allow God to work in us and through us; to love others, to listen, to learn and to be open to His work. 

We are here to share and experience life with the people in Shiroles. To experience God in the daily things like doing chores, helping our host mom make supper, and playing with our host siblings. We are here to love and to learn. We are here to live our mission.