We have been home for about a week and half. It took us about a week to recover from, 12 hour time difference, jet-lag. Which in my experience is a record. Matt and I experienced much ware fare coming home in our travels. Lets just say our booking agency forgot to finalize our last flight and we got to stay in New York City for night and a half. In the opportunity to despair I'd like to say "we didn't" while we were missing 2 nights of sleep but that wouldn't be true. Nevertheless we have had time to pray, recoup, and reflect so here I am.
FUTURE:
The plan for the last several months was and is that we would come home to raise awareness about missions. "How is God really moving across the globe?" and to build faith by encouraging others that Jesus taking prostitutes off the street and giving hope to street beggars in Africa is the same God that wants to move in the midst of his people our community here. That means a season of serving in our home community, and home church in practical and tangible ways also. Similarly we feel that this is a time to ask people to partner with us prayerfully and financially so that we can continue to serve in the nations. Our goal is to continue to partner Youth With A Mission, Perth, Australia and work in the 3rd world neighboring nations starting in next April (2010).
This week we were invited by the new pastor to a United Methodist Missions conference. Thankfully the focus so far has been challenging church (as a whole) in missions; not just a time for a denomination to pat themselves on the back. There have been several seminars about the 'poor' of the community and around the globe; and how the bible calls us to tangibly serve them.
I bawled to see extensive video about the suffering in Darfur, Sudan... If you do not know about the political-social-economical issues in Darfur
PLEEASE GOOGLE IT!As the rainy season gets under way in South Darfur, UMCOR has helped keep hope in the future alive by providing seeds and agricultural tools to displaced families. Here Adel Dut plants sorghum on land outside the camp.
Photo: Paul Jeffrey/UMCOR (United Methodist Commitee on Relief, from http://new.gbgm-umc.org/umcor/ )
We had met a few refugees from the Sudan while we were in Cape Town, so seeing the child soldiers on the screen immediately brought tears to my eyes; but impacted my heart to see that the global church (as a whole) is rising to the challenge in many ways and tangibly working to serve the people there.
We have gotten a few more ideas about what Matt and I can do while we home, ways we as YWAM can connect with the global relief efforts of the UMCOR, and thoughts to possibly inspire our church to become more active in in the community we are from.
Ohhh and a personal favorate.. Fair Trade Chocolate and Coffee!! AWARENESS-AWARENESS-AWARENESS!!" The U.S. imports 50% of its cocoa fromt the Ivory Coast in West Africa, where thousands of children, as young as 5 years have been trafficked into slavery to work on cocoa farms." www.equalexchange.coop/interfaith
If your interested>> two books I was encouraged to read to be more impactful as a church:
The Irresistible Revolution: Living as an Ordinary Radical by Shane Claiborne
unChristian: What a New Generation Really Thinks about Christianity... and Why It Matters by David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons
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