Actually, let’s rewind a little bit.
Each of us has received an exciting letter with the opening line, “Welcome to the Guatemala team ________!” That’s when the journey started for us. As for God, well, he had this planned a little bit ahead of time.
On Sunday, the Guatemala team and the three other winter missions teams came together at 12stone church for a time of worship, planning, re-grouping, loving, praying, signing...running…searching…computing…so maybe our first meeting didn’t start out the way most of us pictured. Our leaders, Juandi Velez and Beylnn Sheffield quickly ushered us, upon arrival, into an up-beat scavenger hunt that served to give us a feel for our team dynamic.
After our team and the three other teams finished their hunt, we all met back together for a time of worship. We had a sweet time of singing to Jesus together where we got to bask in His love, the exact kind of love He fills us up with so that we can pour out to others.
Shannon Whaples, who just so happens to also be a part of the Guatemala team spoke to all of us teams about God’s purpose behind missions; what an appropriate anchor to begin the next 4 month’s journey with.
Though God spoke to each of us specifically and personally, there were few things that Shannon shared that prodded at my heart. These ideas, be forewarned, are paraphrased.
- Be about God’s agenda, not your own.
- Missions is most often less about being brave, bold, and rash but instead about humble servant hood.
- Approach missions, and especially another culture, as a learner.
- God is less about the “holy gathering” and more about active “going:” this is incredibly close to the heart of Jesus, a place we want to be.
- Although much of missions is about sharing tangible acts of compassion with people, it is true that actions without the message of Christ leaves a people without the message that will save their very souls.
- It is important that the supremacy of Christ be the motivation of our hearts.
Perhaps the most astounding, beautiful, freeing concept behind what Shannon shared was the weight and significance behind the word “go” in God’s call for us. We find it in the very beginning starting with God’s call for Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden in Genesis where God says, “GO multiply and fill the earth…” We see it again in Matthew 28:19 when Jesus says, “GO and make disciples…” What a wonderful, activist nature our generation seems to have in its very blood. I believe that it pumps with the heartbeat of God’s. I am more than excited for such a blessing of an opportunity for our team to “GO” and share the Father’s love with a dying world.
After Shannon’s talk, our groups split up into small-group style meetings where we had a sweet time of getting to know our fellow team members on a deeper level. We talked about logistics, our fears, concerns, joys, hopes, and questions regarding the trip.
As I’m sure you’ve heard more than once, we covet your prayers because behind them lies our ammunition to “GO.”
- That in the next weeks, God would awaken in us a deep love for, in particular, each other. That we would be knitted together in the most beautiful tapestry of community imaginable, that when one of sees another we would exclaim in our hearts like our Father does to the angels, “Look, there they are! That is my child, my beloved. This is the one I’ve told you about, the one that brings me great joy."
- That He would awaken this same kind of love in our hearts for the people in Guatemala.
- That we would learn flexibility.
- That we would know in deeper way, what it means to lead as servants.
- That God would provide an abundance of financial support.
- That God would establish in our hearts a permanent service mindset, one that goes with us continually, out of the country or not.
May God bless you and keep you.
Love!
"And as my very essence is a verb...I am more attuned to verbs than nouns. Verbs such as confessing, repenting, living, loving, responding, growing, reaping, changing, sowing, running, dancing, singing, and on and on. Humans, on the other hand, have a knack for taking a verb that is alive and full of grace and turning it into a dead noun or principle that reeks of rules: something growing and alive dies. Nouns exist because there is a created universe and physical reality, but if the universe is only a mass of nouns, it is dead. Unless "I am," there are no verbs, and verbs are what makes the universe alive."(God in The Shack)
And sometimes, we're just goofy kids. 
