On vacation,
I can wake up cheerfully just after dawn to go for a jog on the beach.
My family
and I can happily walk miles and miles from one end of Chicago to the other
just to see stuff.
We are fine
sweating ourselves to death in line at amusement parks, with nary a complaint.
But these
are not things we would do in Barboursville.
It’s rare for
me to take a jog, and if so, certainly not early and not with excitement.
Sometimes
when shopping, I will literally drive from the Dollar Tree to Target, in the same
shopping plaza.
And most of
the time we don’t even think about eating dinner on the patio unless it’s a
perfect 72 degrees.
It’s crazy
how some things make so much sense somewhere else, but not where we are from. We
look at it differently.
I noticed
this as well when we were in Ecuador for 2 weeks. Not just the food, where we
frequently ate chicken, beans and rice, or the walking, which we did a lot of.
But important things, that seemed so important there, and had never even
crossed my mind in my hometown.
I think a
lot of us noticed this during one of the prayer services, where from 8 a.m.
until 9 a.m. we prayed for the church of Ibarra, in a million different ways.
Praying for electricity, the neighbors, financial needs of the church, and
certainly people – people who go there, people who lead there, people who drive
by. After we finished, someone said what we all were surely thinking, “I was
wondering, ‘Why don’t we do this for our own churches?’”
Prayer services
was a big one, and one of my favorites, but there were so many others. Visiting
people at the hospital, at a disabled home, playing soccer using a Gatorade
bottle with some bored kids while they waited on their moms to get off work at
the bus station. Praying for and with strangers.
Bible
studies were held in homes of people who go or are interested in going to their
church. Then those being taught are trained to teach other. Discipleship at its
best.
We stopped
people in the park, and held signs at the bus station, just to ask if we could pray
for them in some way.
Would I do
that at home?
Do people
need prayer less in Barboursville? Nope.
We weren’t afraid
of looking silly there, standing in an intersection wearing wigs and crazy
hats, holding signs saying, “Jesus Te Ama,” letting people know Jesus loved
them.
Would I do
that across 3rd Avenue? (I’m not 100 percent sure that would be
legal here, but still, you get the point…)
A lady asked
if the short-term missionaries could visit her tiny business and have a Coke
with her while we prayed for her and her store. We did and we cried.
Would we do
that here if someone called the church and asked for 20 people to come pray for
their store?
I’m asking
these questions to have us, you and I, answer them. Would I do these things
here? Would I see it as equally important in Barboursville and Huntington as I
did in Ibarra and Ambato?
If you
already know and can answer yes, I am very proud of you. I mean that. I think a
lot of us forget the importance of things like stopping to help one person even
if it makes us late somewhere. Or having a conversation with a stranger, who
needs us to talk to them. Or praying for our friends, for random people, for
our pastors. For those of you who have already had this light-bulb moment and
can say yes, you do this, I want to be more like you.
For the rest
of us, let’s pray this prayer and ask God to open our eyes to see the things
around us in a new way.
Father, thank you for always leading
us to become more and more like You. We want more of that. Show us how You
would do it. Help us see the people around us the same way Y
ou see them. Give
us courage to speak, pray, love and do the kinds of things You would do. Give
us passion for this. We love You. In Jesus’ powerful name, Amen.
“Jesus replied: ‘Love
the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul and with all your mind.
This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: love
your neighbor as yourself.”
Matthew 22:37-39
Matthew 22:37-39
Shawn and Brian and their friends from the Adult Day Care :) |
Noah and his friends from the bus terminal :) |
Noah getting ready for our church promotion |
Church Promotion |
Church promotion |
Shawn and Noah taking lunch during church promotion |
Home Bible study :) |
A group enjoying a soft drink and prayer for this business and the family who runs it |