March 7th Friday
7:30 Breakfast and dishes
8:30 Devotional (Dan and Cindy – your Gifts)
9:30 On the road for fun day
12:00 Lunch
5:30 Dinner
6:30 Communion and debriefing
8:30 pack for trip
9:00 Lights out
I woke up Friday morning, physically refreshed, but somehow mentally exhausted. This was the first day since we got there that I began to think of going home. Sure, I missed my family, but that gap felt much greater all of a sudden. I knew we were scheduled for a trip to the rainforest. Somehow a trip through the woods didn’t seem like it could really meet my needs. Once again, I was surprised.
Like all the other days, this day started with a devotional. This time though it was Dan and Cindy’s turn. We all shared the part of the trip that had been meaningful to us, and we each had a different story. Dan remembered the night at Sixola and the lady that DJ prayed for. Katy talked about that too, when she hugged a woman who was stiff as a board, and how she felt God’s heart for the woman, to love the unloved, a woman who said she didn’t want to live anymore. I thought that’s when Christians are at their best, expressing that father-heart of God and participating in the rescue, the redemption of a soul. That’s what we had done for others….together. Lisa talked about the prayer time and the devotionals. Bill came back to the theme of helping the hopeless.
Dan warned us that the mind was still processing all this. Emotions may not be able to process. We should not come home and begin to judge others as self-centered and materialistic, but focus on what God was calling us to do…to send or to go to the mission field. We can make a difference. (This turned out to be true as we all returned, and had sort of “post-partum” blues as we realized the gap between life in “the River” and our ordinary lives.)
At the end of the devotional we took a few minutes to do something far to rare--to appreciate the unique gifts and contributions of each other. I hope each of the team kept what was written on the sheet of paper about them. We circulated a sheet of paper for each person, describing how we felt God had used and gifted them on the trip. It was a great way to be thankful to God and each other.
Here is a list we used to encourage each other and help people see themselves as God does. Clearly there are other gifts, but this helped us begin to be thankful for the people we had spent the last week with in a deeper way.
- Pure in Heart- your life is marked with integrity before God and other people
- Peacemaker- you have a gift from God to help people overcome their differences
- Transparent- you can be yourself without any pretenses and let the light of Christ shine through you
- Faithful- you are faithful to uphold God’s morality even under pressure
- Merciful/Compassionate- you have the ability to feel what others feel- to be happy or hurt with them
- Meek/Gentle- you can be outwardly tender because you are inwardly strong
- Spiritually hungry- I admire the ongoing in your heart for a growing, genuine relationship with God
- Always loving- you have a Christ-like capacity to love others unconditionally- no matter what
- Community Builder- God uses you as a bond to bring people together in unity
- Humble- I admire the quiet way you demonstrate what humility is all about
- Generous-you give freely, not for attention or praise but for the simple joy of giving
- Contented- you know that your worth is based on who you are rather than on what you have
- Joyful-regardless of the circumstances you have a smile on your face and a positive outlook about life
- Patient- you never seem to be in a hurry or to get irritated by others
We closed communion with a simple song of praise to God...one word...Alleluia. The word in Hebrew means "praise Yahweh".
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