team retreat.

Hello blog readers!

We made it safely home to Columbia Wednesday night, and then sort of hit a slump of jet lag and sickness. We’re recovering now and I’m happy to finish up the posts from our trip.

 

Vicky had dinner ready for us when we returned to their flat from the train station Thursday night, and she even did all our laundry while we went to bed early, exhausted with jet lag.

On Friday morning, our last day in the city, David and Phillip were up early talking and brain-storming about ministry. Vicky came and visited with me in the guest room while I drank hot tea and repacked all our bags, then the four of us set out for a different part of the city for a one-day team retreat. We’d expressed to them that one of our desires for coming was to get to know the agency’s team better. David loved his time with them on his trip here last year and promised that I’d love them too.

Phillip has never owned a car in this bustling city, because he uses public transportation as a means of sharing his faith. He encourages his team members to do the same thing, praying for open door to talk with taxi drivers or bus seatmates.

The retreat was held in a small church in a lovely, newer part of the city. There was so much more green, the roads were wider and quieter, and flowers draped over all the apartment complex homes.

One of the difficult things for me about living in a big city in India was how little natural beauty we saw on a day-to-day basis. I had that same feeling in this dry, bustling capital city . . . so much brown everywhere. So the newer part of town was a breath of fresh air. Some of the team members live here.

 

 

There were 22 people gathered for the retreat; some are full-time staff, a couple are volunteers with the agency, others are spouses. One family had their three adorable kids with them, and I wished Noah were with us as I later found the two little boys outside crouched over a bug they’d caught.

We were greeted with big hugs from everyone. I was delighted to finally put faces with names, to meet these people I’d heard so much about and been praying for since March, 2018, when David visited.

After everyone gathered with their tiny cups of hot tea and Nescafe, we had a time of worship, and David and I were asked to share through a translator (some speak English and others don’t). David read from Philippians 1, where the apostle Paul expresses his great affection for the Philippian believers, and rejoices over their faithful gospel work.

He shared with the group that the way Paul speaks to these believers expresses our family’s heart for them, as well as our church’s. Every time Phillip has shared an update with our church or spent time with us, we’ve felt such joy over the mighty work God’s doing in this part of the world, and the passion of these brothers and sisters, some of whom have been persecuted for their boldness.

We both said how incredibly humbled we are by their stories, that the American church is strengthened by them and wants to partner with them in any way we can. All believers are called to participate in God’s work of redeeming the lost, and we each have different roles to play.

We live in an amazing age in which more and more believers in other countries of the world are being mobilized for missions — not just Westerners.

 

 

Many of these people have access to places we don’t have access to, and have the respect of people in cultures like theirs. The other simple fact is that many of them are physically hardier than we are — they can live in remote, dusty, polluted, dirty places. It doesn’t mean it’s easy for them; it’s just more like the environment that they are from, so survival for them in these least reached places isn’t as difficult.

I still believe there’s a need for many American believers to move to other parts of the world, learn a new language, and share the gospel, just as there’s a need for people from other countries to come here, learn English, and share Christ with Americans.

The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Let’s pray for God to continue to raise up and send more workers.

But I also think this is an opportunity for us as the American church to be made lower, as our brothers and sisters in places like Asia and Africa are being raised up and honored for their kingdom work. It’s time for us to do behind-the-scenes work of giving our money sacrificially, getting on our knees in prayer every day, telling each other stories of how the gospel is going forward around the world, and humbling ourselves to become learners rather than assuming we have all the answers.

This is what I feel called to, and why I wanted to travel to North Africa.

I feel privileged to get to know these people, who I believe our the modern missionary heroes of the faith — one day we’ll be reading biographies about them. And I want to encourage them as much as I can.

During Friday’s retreat, they were so touched to learn of how deeply we love them and are influenced by their sacrifices and courage, how we thank the Lord for them and ask Him to bear fruit from their work.

We told Phillip that we wanted to share briefly in the morning, and then we wanted to spend the rest of the day hearing their stories, learning about the work God is doing on the front lines.

This is how Christ designed the Church to work.

Each of us has a different — but vital — role to play in spreading His kingdom. And as each of us, no matter where in the world we live or whether we’re in full-time ministry or not, discovers our particular passion and role, we come alive with purpose and we mutually build up one another.

The Spirit is able to do this across language and cultural barriers, I saw it firsthand.

I left my time in North Africa a different person, because of the body of Christ there.