Derek and Shea in SA

doing my best to be

ironic isn't it?  Even "being" requires a certain about of "doing" on my part.  I'm challenged by that, I'm challenged by this.

"There is something glamorous about going to help people in remote parts of the world whom we perceive to be less fortunate than we are.  Unless that spirit is challenged, however, the seeds of the dependency syndrome will continue to be sown before we even leave our own country.  The challenge is to present the  Gospel in such a way that people will not become dependent upon the good things that we go out to do.

One of the assumptions is that missionary candidates are being recruited to go out to do something significant among the world's poor, needy and unevangelized people.  The emphasis here is on doing something which I believe often results in the development of the dependency syndrome.  Without a proper understanding of how to help, Westerners end up doing things which others could do for themselves.  The need to be needed is a very powerful force.

What if our heart was  "I am going out to be rather than to do?  I am going to stand beside open graves and weep with others at funerals. I am going out to encourage other people to be all that they can be before the Lord. I am not  going out to do what others can do for themselves"

This week isn't about Derek or I really "doing" anything.  I don't have to learn to plant gardens and teach others to, because there are already Africans who know how to do that.  I can cheer them on and point him to those I know are in need.

He's here, if He is who He says He is, and His word is a promise and is real then He is reconciling the world to Himself, and it brings me joy up to my ears to get to be apart of that happening here, in this village.  I think John says it best by saying "There once was a man, his name John, sent by God to point out the way to the Life-Light.  He came to show everyone where to look, who to believe in.  John was not himself the Light; he was there to show the way to the Light" [John 6-8 MSG]

I am not the light, I am not the provider, I am not the answer to their problems, but I know someone who is and I'm gonna keep pointing that way.