Thoughts of a thousand nights
Tuesday, July 26, 2005
Hello... I think I've avoided this site long enough.
There has been much that's happened since my last post:
NAVAJO:
I went to Leupp, Arizona for a full day with my brother. We were joining our missions team out there. My brother has become some-what of a celebrity to the population there. As this was his first year, in the past 8 years, of not joining the missions team to the Navajo reservation... the kids were sad. But as rumor got around that we were going to visit on Thursday, some kids were heard saying that they'd DEFINITELY come to Thursday's VBS even if they couldn't go the rest of the days.
My affection for the Navajo people came a while back when I visited a previous year to put on a concert for them. With my brother as one of the leaders of the team, it's kinda hard not have some passion about the mission. It just so turns out my fiance is also a leader on the Navajo missions team. So visiting this year was also a real blessing for me as I got to see her in the middle of the 2 weeks she was gone.
You know, funny things happen when you go on missions. I am convinced that the mission is more for the missionary than for the people they go to be with. So many people come back changed... how could you not? I see the starving people on the TV screen and watch them with compassion as I eat my steak dinner. I watch the History Channel specials on how the UN did nothing to stop the genocide in Rwanda... and I eat my dinner. I am moved for a moment... but how would one forget if a victim latched on to your arm, begging for you to help her, as she gets dragged away to be doomed? It's not easy to forget when there's a personal connection. And in each mission, there is a varying degree of that kind of connection. You see it in the children's eyes... their cry for help... their love for life and appreciation of what's beyond them. It teaches you (a missionary) a lesson. Hopefully it'll last longer than the time it takes to lift your steak and dip it in your sauce.
Do good.
There has been much that's happened since my last post:
NAVAJO:
I went to Leupp, Arizona for a full day with my brother. We were joining our missions team out there. My brother has become some-what of a celebrity to the population there. As this was his first year, in the past 8 years, of not joining the missions team to the Navajo reservation... the kids were sad. But as rumor got around that we were going to visit on Thursday, some kids were heard saying that they'd DEFINITELY come to Thursday's VBS even if they couldn't go the rest of the days.
My affection for the Navajo people came a while back when I visited a previous year to put on a concert for them. With my brother as one of the leaders of the team, it's kinda hard not have some passion about the mission. It just so turns out my fiance is also a leader on the Navajo missions team. So visiting this year was also a real blessing for me as I got to see her in the middle of the 2 weeks she was gone.
You know, funny things happen when you go on missions. I am convinced that the mission is more for the missionary than for the people they go to be with. So many people come back changed... how could you not? I see the starving people on the TV screen and watch them with compassion as I eat my steak dinner. I watch the History Channel specials on how the UN did nothing to stop the genocide in Rwanda... and I eat my dinner. I am moved for a moment... but how would one forget if a victim latched on to your arm, begging for you to help her, as she gets dragged away to be doomed? It's not easy to forget when there's a personal connection. And in each mission, there is a varying degree of that kind of connection. You see it in the children's eyes... their cry for help... their love for life and appreciation of what's beyond them. It teaches you (a missionary) a lesson. Hopefully it'll last longer than the time it takes to lift your steak and dip it in your sauce.
Do good.