Before I moved to Lima, I had been praying that I would meet other missionaries with whom I would be able to walk through this “new life”, learning from their wisdom, encouraging one another, and sharing in God’s mission for the city. After about one month of being here, I met Bill, a middle-aged missionary who has been here in Lima with his family for almost two years. Quickly after we met, we began to get together weekly to drink coffee, share experiences, and pray. Today was our third time to get together, and it was great. I have been greatly blessed by our time together and our new friendship. Praise God for answered prayers!
Gone
After four years, my time in Abilene has come to an end. With my car packed, I drove away from Abilene on Friday, knowing that I wouldn’t live there again for a long time (if ever). My last week in this windy, West Texas town was filled with good-byes, all of which reminded me of the wonderful relationships that God has blessed me with during my years of graduate school and mission training. These relationships will always be the living reminder of these years in my life. The good-byes were filled with laughter, great conversations, and prayer. I can only hope that I have been as much of a blessing to these friends as they have been to me.
And now I continue on the journey of life that God has set before me; closing one chapter and opening the next. These periods of transition has always been hard for me. The comfortable, familiar patterns of life are difficult to give up, or better, to mold to new circumstances. This has probably been largely due to my insistence on self-reliance in new situations. So here’s to hoping that the next few months and years of my life will be characterized by trust in God, constantly leaning on His wisdom and guidance. Pray for me.
Putting Me In My Place
God has been teaching me lots about my own limitations these days. While it has always been a comforting thought that my actions and words were capable of bringing about major changes in the world, God has continually been teaching me that it is primarily through the Holy Spirit working in the hearts of people, the church, and the world that the real changes occur. So, at the same time, God has been exposing my pride and revealing his power. Good things, but hard.
Boundaries
Sometimes I wonder if I have created boundaries in my life that keep me from interacting with hurting people. There is no doubt that there are thousands, even millions, of people that are hurting in our country from substance abuse, physical and emotional abuse, poverty, loneliness, and brokenness. Do I make decisions that place me out of the reach of these people? Do I insulate myself through my choices of where I shop, eat, live, study, play, and relax? If so, how do I make decisions that will cause my life to intersect with theirs? How do I make choices that will make my life reflect the life of Jesus, who frequently came into contact with both wealthy Pharisees and poor beggars? And when I do come into contact with those that are hurting, will I have the faith to display the love of Christ to those who need it so desperately, or will I continue to live in my insulated world? I am ashamed of myself, but hopefully that will change in the future through God’s grace and direction.
Random, Recent Happenings
Our team had a great retreat with the Halbert Institute for Missions this weekend, the main topic of which was intimacy with God. I have been both renewed and challenged. – Why is it that I still say bonehead things? You would think that after 28 years I would have learned some restraint. – Three months, five days. – I began training for my first triathlon two days ago. Here’s to hoping that I don’t drown. – I have been blessed with an amazing group of brothers and sisters to spread the gospel with for the next 5-10 years. I am incredibly blessed, despite my ability to restrain my comments…Yep, I am still upset about that one. – The peace of Christ be with you.
Paris & Shelbyville
Over this past weekend our team gathered in two very important locations. One of these places was Paris, Texas – “the second biggest Paris in the world” – where the Davidson clan is spending time with their supporting church, the Lamar Avenue Church of Christ. The purpose of this gathering was to get to know members of this congregation who have been so supportive, encouraging, and loving towards the Davidsons, as well as to get some business and some fun done. Thankfully, we were able to accomplish all of these goals in style, and we were overwhelmed by the warmth and hospitality of the entire church. As a team, we look forward to partnering with the Lamar Ave. congregation for many years to come. It was truly a joy to see the Lord working powerfully through an amazing group of Christians.
The other location was Shelbyville, Tennessee, where the Thompson family traveled to spend time with the Fairlane Church of Christ. This church is interested in partnering with the Thompsons for our future work in Peru. While Justin, Alison, and Cailyn were severely missed in Paris, we are incredibly excited about the opportunities that this trip might bring. So, please be praying for the Thompsons and the Fairlane congregation as they seek to discern the Lord’s leading in this matter. As a team, we have been constantly been reminded of our need to rely completely on the Lord. What a great place to be – resting in the loving arms of our great God!
Mark 10:35-45
Read this text several times over the next few days. It is one of the three major passages in the later half of Mark concerning discipleship (8:31-38; 9:33-37; 10:35-45). Mark begins his gospel by letting the reader know the true identity of Jesus (1:1), but the disciples seem to be clueless about Jesus’ identity, as well as his teachings (4:13, 41; 6:50-52; 7:17-19; 8:14-21). Then, they appear to understand who Jesus is when Peter makes his confession, “You are the Messiah” (8:29), but in reality they merely want Jesus to be the kind of Messiah that they want; the disciples want to be the ones calling the shots (8:32; 10:35).
Mark uses the second half of the gospel to flesh out what it means for Jesus to be the Messiah: he will be handed over to the Jews, then he will be killed, but on the third day he will rise again (8:31; 9:9-10; 10:32-34). And at the same time, Jesus teaches the twelve what it means to be his disciple: you must deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow Jesus (8:34). And as we follow the Savior, we learn that we must love as he loved (Eph. 5:1-2) and serve as he served (10:42-45), even if that means that we sometimes have to sacrifice our own well-being for the good of the other (1 Cor. 10:24, slightly out of context, but still applicable, I think…).
Mark 10:35-45 is a beautiful passage that I need to reflect on more as a disciple of Jesus. It is the passage that I preached at the Westgate Church of Christ this past Sunday, but unfortunately it is not a passage that I often live out in my own life. That we may all follow in our Savior’s footsteps nearer everyday, that is my prayer.
Grateful
Yesterday, I received two new leads for potential missions support. There is still quite a journey ahead, both for me and my teammates, but I am grateful for every step forward (and sometimes even for the steps backward). So, as a team, we continue to trust in the Lord, trying not to lean on our own understanding.
Bread for the World
This will not be an easy post to write. Every time the topic of world hunger comes up, I am both convicted and enraged. According to most figures, there are over 15,000 people that die every day from hunger-related causes; there are 854 million people across the globe that are continually hungry. These figures, among many others, are very hard for Americans to grasp. We live in a country that has an over-abundance of food. We can travel to the local grocery store or one of the hundreds of the restaurants that are scattered throughout our cities. But for many people throughout the world – apparently 854 million people – food is matter of life or death.According to Bread for the World’s website (www.bread.org), the basic health and nutritional needs of the world’s poorest people could be met with an additional $13 billion per year. While this might seem to be a big amount, consider this: people in the United States and Europe spend more than that on pet food annually. Please do not misunderstand me; I am not advocating that you stop feeding you pet. But I am asking us to consider where our priorities are. As Americans, we are incredibly blessed financially. We all have, or could have (depending on where we spend our money), an excess of money. So my challenge to every person who reads this (and myself) is: start seriously analyzing how you spend your money. Try to eat out less; try to spend less money on things that you don’t need; read Ronald Sider’s Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger; consider what things that you can live without, because there are many in the world that don’t have that luxury. I definitely need to do this as much as the next person. Lord, teach me to love my neighbor as myself.
Partners In Health (PIH)
Recently, I read the book Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder. Through masterfully written stories, Kidder describes the life of Dr. Paul Farmer, a Harvard-graduated doctor who has chosen to spend his life serving poor people across the globe. Farmer first encountered the desperate need of those living in poverty while visiting Haiti, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. The people that he met living in the Central Plateau did not have clean water to drink, arable land to farm, health care, sanitation, or education. Many people in developed countries would love to credit these deficiencies to laziness, indifference, or some other reason that would pin the blame on the Haitians. But what Farmer found was that this extreme poverty often came from systematic oppression from the ruling elites, who were often supported by the United States government. These people could not will their way out of poverty no matter how hard they tried; the entire deck was stacked against them.Thus, Farmer, along with several other devoted individuals, established a free clinic in the Central Plateau. In the process, they founded Partners In Health (www.pih.org), an organization whose mission is to “provide a preferential option for the poor in health care.” PIH gives preference to those people that never receive preference in anything else; they seek to provide health care for “the least of these” (Matt. 25:40), treating such diseases as tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, and malaria, as well as any other problem that people bring them. Please check out their website. Read the book; donate your money and your voice; help save lives.
