Wednesday, June 30th

Am spending most of the day at home today, organizing my room, answering emails, doing laundry, and just catching up on "stuff."  As Bill and Peg Pearson told me, much of missionary life is just doing those everyday activities that we all have to do!  Rather than bore you with details of the hum-drum facts of live here, thought I'd share with you something I read in the book Gracias! by Henri Nouwen.

In it he quotes an unidentified Latin American Catholic Bishop who has a message for all of us who go to Latin America as missionaries. I think it's worth sharing since many of my friends are interested in and/or support missions. Here are the Bishop's words to us:

 

Walk with Us in Our Search

• Help us discover our own riches; don't judge us poor because we lack what you have.
• Help us discover our chains; don't judge us slaves by the type of shackles you wear.
• Be patient with us as a people; don't judge us backward simply because we don't follow your stride.
• Be patient with our pace; don't judge us lazy simply because we can't follow your tempo.
• Be patient with our symbols; don't judge us ignornatnt because we can't read your signs.
• Be with us and proclaim the richness of your life which you can share with us.
• Be with us and be open to what we can give.
• Be with us as a companion who walks with us--neither behind nor in front--in our search for life, and ultimately for God. (From Gracias, a Latin American Journal, by Henri Nouwen) 

I've sought for years for the right way to say this, and this man comes as close to my heart as anyone ever has. On my first trip to Nicaragua in 2001, I arrogantly went down thinking I was taking Jesus to people who desperately need Him. This was true. The Nicaraguans desperately need Him. My arrogance was in thinking that as an educated North American, I could share Him "better" than the nationals could.

 

How humbling it was when, early on my first morning there, an elderly lady who I'd helped down the hillside embraced me saying (in Spanish), "You are my sister in Christ. Someday I will see you in heaven." That lady taught me that I'd not come to Nicaragua to bring Jesus (at least not any more than I am called to do this in my daily life in the United States), but that I'd come to meet Him who was already there in His people. I immediately fell off my elevated estimation of what I could give, and began to walk alongside this woman, and many others, seeking Jesus together. I will forever be grateful to this poor, uneducated, godly lady in San Francisco del Norte, Nicaragua, for teaching me more about missions in one sentence than all the books I've read or the seminars I attended.

  

So, as we go to Latin America (or anywhere else), let us take Jesus there. In the same way we do each day, by the fact that He lives in us and through us. But let us also look to meet Him wherever we go. Remember, He told us He was present in the "least of these." Let's not miss Him and what He has to teach us through our "foreign" brothers and sisters as we seek His face together.

  

And, if given the opportunity, do go. You'll never be the same if you do!