There is no one word to describe my month of missionary training. The words refreshing, jolting, challenging, inspiring and life-altering come to mind. I spent one week at Food for the
Hungry's home office in Phoenix and three weeks at Mission Training International in Palmer Lake, CO. Though a blog post is hardly enough space to share what I learned in those four weeks, I'd love to share some of the highlights.
God's Word as Truth and the Source of Development - Satan's strategy in the world is to deceive the nations. At the root of poverty are lies. Therefore in order to combat lies we must saturate communities with Truth. The root of lasting, sustainable development is Truth. The Truth is found in God's Word which should provide us with a Biblical worldview that will transform our lives. Our worldview determines what we see and how we live. As I go to Rwanda to share the Truth with Rwandan children I was challenged at my
FH training to keep the following in mind:
Worldview is like a tree: Beliefs are the root of our worldview tree, values are the trunk, behaviors are the branches and the fruit of this tree are consequences. Fruit comes from the branches in all trees and in our lives behavior comes from consequences. In order for communities to see a change in the consequences of their behavior (poverty, brokeness...etc....and I'm not just referring to materially poor communities overseas but our spiritually poor but materially rich communities here in the West!) bad fruit cannot simply be plucked. Rather there must be a change in the roots of our worldview tree. The heart of
FH's ministry and my ministry as a curriculum developer is to encourage Rwandan children to develop roots in the Truth - roots that are saturated in the water of God's Word.
The Great Commission is more than just "sharing the gospel" and planting churches. The Great Commission's end command is to "make disciples of all nations, teaching them to obey all that God has commanded." To simply share the Truth with Rwandan children, while valuable, is not enough. Rather, the ultimate goal of my ministry should be to make disciples, followers of Christ, not just converts. I hope to be able to share stories with all of you of children who are passionately following Christ and transforming their communities, not just the numbers of children being saved.
As I enter another culture, Rwanda and into my discomfort zone, I need to be desperate for God's help and His grace. As I minister in Rwanda and in a culture that is not my own, life will not be easy. We were challenged at
MTI to consider the possibility that conflict may hit us the moment we step off the plane. I will also be susceptible to huge amounts of stress. On a common stress scale of 150-300, new missionaries often score in the range of 1000+. My constant prayer needs to be, "God help me, God help me, God help me." Daily I must turn to God and his stores of grace for my life. It is only by daily turning to and relying on God, I will be effective in Rwanda for the long term.
In order to maintain spiritual vitality in the midst of culture stress, adversity, loneliness, hardship and societal suffering all around me I must remember the following: God is God - I cannot charge God with wrongdoing. He is perfect in all of His ways. He does all that he pleases and nothing that happens in this world happens outside his perfect will and His sovereignty.
God is faithful - It is because of the Lord's great love for His children that I am not consumed. He always keeps his promises. One of His promises to me is that, "I will never leave you or forsake you." Even when the going gets tough in Rwanda, I can rest in the fact that God will always be right there with me.
God is good - All that God does and is, is good. All that He does and allows into my life is done for my good. Even when I have a hard time believing it, God is good. Period!
My greatest tool in evangelism and discipleship in Rwanda will be how I interact with my teammates and colleagues. People in my community will be watching. What will have the greatest impact in my personal ministry is not my words or well crafted curriculum. Rather, it will be how I interact with those around me and how I model a Christlike attitude and spirit. Therefore, handling conflict appropriately and in a Godly attitude of humility and grace will be critical.
The most important thing will be the love I show for others.
I learned so much at this month-long training! Thank you to all of you who were praying for me while I was away. I missed you but am happy to report all that I learned! I look forward to being in Rwanda soon and sharing with you all that I learn there too!
