Wow, one month in and it has gone so very fast. So I have learned a few things in this time, and it may sound cliché, but they are true.
First, the world is much smaller than we think. I find myself thinking about and praying for nations and people I never really thought of before.
Secondly, what we share in common is much greater than what separates us. In our sweat yesterday I read from Acts 17:26-28:
‘From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. 'For in him we live and move and have our being.' As some of your own poets have said, 'We are his offspring.'
God Himself determines our times & our places.
Third, and perhaps most significant, I am discovering this is changing me perhaps more than the people I am ministering with. I understood the failings of the past and appreciate the efforts of the brothers and sisters here to not repeat those same mistakes.
We read about “relational evangelism” and “contextual ministry” and this is, in my understanding of the Gospel, the very method that the Master used in teaching the people about God. This particular phase in the journey is just beginning, but it has already taught me so much and for that I am grateful.
