Humility - Melissa

“Maybe this isn’t the right ministry for you.”

I listened to the woman explain that perhaps the frustrations I was experiencing in this new ministry endeavor were because it wasn’t a good fit for my personality and giftings.  I was crushed.  I tried to keep the tears from rolling down my cheeks and nodded to show her that I was listening. 

 

I had been invited to this meeting to discuss how things were going and specifically whether or not the training I had received three months prior had equipped me for the task I was currently doing.  I had prepared for the meeting by going over my training notes and comparing what was written on paper with what actually had transpired.  There was so much more I wished I had been told before I plunged into this new world.  I had carefully created a list on my iPhone of things that the trainer might consider adding into the first few weeks with the next trainee.  I had prayed for a calm spirit to express how I felt because I knew that my feelings of frustration were super-charged with emotion as I felt this organization had “left me in the dust” so to speak. 

 

In the first few minutes of the meeting I had expressed my concerns with the way the organization had communicated (or rather, didn’t communicate) with me.  I spoke about how I felt lost in the whirlwind of policies, appointments, and paperwork because I had never been exposed to these things before.  I wished out loud that there would have been someone a bit more experienced who could have led me through the process to hold my hand and answer my questions.  And most importantly, I opened up to tell her that I didn’t feel like I had forged a good relationship with the people I had been “assigned to” because of the vast communication barriers.  

 

This ministry opportunity was supposed to be a wonderful cross-cultural experience in my own backyard, but it had turned into an inconvenient, confusing, drain on my time and emotions.  What had gone wrong?? 

 

I was sure my failure was due to an insufficient training process and a lack of support from the organization I was partnering with.  When the staff member had patiently listened to my frustrations, I was not encouraged by her answer.  Telling me that I was not cut out for the role was not what I was expecting.  In fact—I’ll be honest—I was mad. 

 

Shouldn’t she take at least some of the responsibility?  Didn’t she feel sorry for not supporting me when I asked for help a few weeks back? 

 

Telling me that the frustrations I was feeling were rooted in my own inadequacies was not helpful. 

 

Unfortunately, this is the third disappointing ministry experience I’ve had since I moved back to the US.  First it was volunteering at a local elementary school.  As a (former) classroom teacher, I fully expected to be given the most challenging volunteer tasks and the most difficult students to work with (after explaining my background and training to the teacher I was volunteering with).  But no.  Instead, she barely spoke to me all year and gave me jobs like putting stickers on art projects and monitoring the kids while she picked up her printing from the other room. 

 

Then it was the after school program with refugee kids.  I worked through part of a school year hoping things would “pan out” but in the end, I left feeling disappointed and frustrated that I could not make a difference like I had envisioned.  Definitely not what I had pictured.  And now this.  Another blow to the ego.

 

God, did I pray for humility?  Am I just not satisfied because my life in America is not like it was in Papua New Guinea?  There I had purpose.  Every day.  Now I feel like I am wandering through life, making mistakes and wasting time.  What do you want me to do with my life?

 

Then, of course, friends will ask how my week is going or “what I’m up to” and I get that failure feeling all over again because I don’t feel like I have any good stories to tell. 

 

This past weekend, I learned the phrase “failing forward” to describe how I don’t have to be afraid of messing up as long as I am learning from my mistakes.  Someone else described this idea as the action-reflection cycle.  She encouraged me to take a step in the direction I felt that God was leading me and then stop and reflect on how it went.  If something failed, that’s ok because I could learn from it and try something different. 

 

I suppose this is what grace is all about.  Have you been learning humility and grace lately?  What does it look like in your life?

New Friends!

There are butterflies in my stomach as I think about how our life will change in just less than two hours.  At approximately 9:57pm we will welcome a new Burmese refugee family of five to the Tri-Cities.  Keith and I will work alongside World Relief to provide for their needs as they settle into a whole new life here in America.  I can feel God stirring something great with the friendship He is developing even before we've met this family.  It's hard to put all our thoughts into words but I'm going to try.

“You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.  This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of the Lord’s people but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God.  Because of the service by which you have proved yourselves, others will praise God for the obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ, and for your generosity in sharing with them and with everyone else.”

2 Corinthians 9:11-13

Overwhelmed with Thankfulness:

Second Corinthians 9:11-12 speaks of the blessings of God being poured out on those who know Him so that they can turn and bless others, bringing thanksgiving to God.  Over the last month, so many of you have replied to our plea for donations to provide this refugee family (our new friends!) with the items they will need in their apartment.  We were overwhelmed by your response.  Some of you gave items that you had set aside for such a time as this.  Some of you gave items that were very dear to you, knowing that God would be able to bless someone through your sacrifice.  Others of you went out and spent LOTS of money on new items that this family would never be able to buy for themselves.

In our  Perspectives class we read an article that described another person like all of you who donated.  J. Hudson Taylor founded the China Inland Mission organization in the late 1800’s.  During his journey of preparation for service, the Lord led him to do something rather strange.  Read on…

“The effect of this blessed hope was a thoroughly practical one.  It led me to look carefully through my little library to see if there were any books that were not needed or likely to be of further service, and to examine my small wardrobe, to be quite sure that it contained nothing that I should be sorry to give an account of should the Master come at once.  The result was that the library was considerably diminished, to the benefit of some poor neighbors, and to the far greater benefit of my own soul, and that I found I had articles of clothing also which might be put to better advantage in other directions. 

                “It has been very helpful to me from time to time through life, as occasion has served, to act again in a similar way; and I have never gone through my house, from basement to attic, with this object in view, without receiving a great accession of spiritual joy and blessing.  I believe we are all in danger of accumulating—it may be from thoughtlessness, or from pressure of occupation—things which would be useful to others, which not needed by ourselves, and the retention of which entails loss of blessing.  If the whole resources of the Church of God were well utilized, how much more might be accomplished!  How many poor might be fed and naked clothed, and to how many of those as yet unreached the Gospel might be carried!” (Hudson Taylor, The Call to Service)

Embracing the Foreigner:

Early March, Pastor Jim Landymore preached about God’s compassion to the poor, the orphans, and the foreigner.  Throughout the Old Testament God asked His people to welcome, feed, and take care of these marginalized people that crossed their paths and lived among them. 

Deuteronomy 10:17-19

“For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality and accepts no bribes. 

He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves 

the foreigner residing among you, giving them food and clothing. 

And you are to love those who are foreigners,

for you yourselves were foreigners in Egypt.”

Here in the Tri-Cities, foreigners are constantly coming to “live among us.”  Since God loves and cares for them, we who call ourselves “children of God” must do likewise.

Confirmations:

If you are like us, you may often wonder if you are actually doing God’s will.  We take a step toward what we think God wants us to do.  Then we seek confirmations that we are onto something that pleases God. 

For us, this partnership with World Relief came very quickly.  Within one month we had applied, gone through orientation, background checks, gathered apartment donations, and now we are about to welcome our new refugee friends in less than an hour!  It all happened so fast that I felt a little timid about the whole idea. 

Before March, we knew next to nothing about World Relief and the people of Myanmar (formerly known as Burma).  We prayed for God to confirm our steps and He did!  Within days of starting the process, we heard sermons about God’s concern for the foreigner, watched movies about Myanmar, and then the best confirmation was this last Sunday night.  The guest speaker at our Perspectives class spent a large chunk of his time speaking about God’s work in Myanmar.  He told us of the redemptive story that He had planted in their folklore and how the Church is growing in that people group.  Then, after class we met a fellow student who had connections here in the Tri-Cities with the Burmese community.  He gave us the name and number of a Burmese pastor.  This will give them friends who can speak their language and an opportunity to hear the gospel!

For us, this partnership with World Relief happened so fast that I felt timid and unprepared.  But God has confirmed each step and within one month we had applied, gone through orientation, background checks, gathered apartment donations, and now we are about to welcome our new refugee friends in less than an hour!  Thank you for all your support prayers as we embark on this next step of sharing God’s glory among all nations.

 

A New Perpective

Perspectives is just what we needed.  

A new and broader "perspective" on life and mission for God.
Any Christian that is serious about their faith, whether planning for cross-cultural mission work or not, should take this class and rejoice in what God is doing in the world!

On the first day of class, we were handed the 700+ page book! It was rather intimidating at first, but the lessons are spread over 15 weeks, making it a bit more manageable.  
(PS: It also helps to quit your job!)
 
We have joined with 30 others and meet on Sunday evenings at Central church.  Brilliant instructors are flown in from all over the nation to share with our class and we feast upon their wisdom and experience.  Last week, our assignment was to recap what we've learned in class thus far.

Melissa's thoughts:

Many people have asked me what I have learned from Perspectives so far.  My most common "short answer" is that I used to view the Bible as a series of unconnected short stories, but now I see it as so much more.  The first five lessons of Perspectives has allowed me to see the larger, coherent Story of the broadening glory of God across the earth and throughout all generations.  The Bible is one story.  It is the story of God's glory reaching all peoples.  I can now see that He chose Israel, not to be a group that is more loved than the rest, but to be a conduit of God's blessing to the rest of the world.  God desires that those who know Him will spread the blessing of this relationship to the rest of the world while destroying the works of the Evil One and bringing praise to God.  No one is to be left out. 

My desire is to become so enraptured with the glory of God that I will stop at nothing to see Him worshiped in every nation.  I want my heart to be so focused on Christ that I will endure hardship and suffering with joy for His name's sake.  I desire to defy the Devil's schemes and destroy his works in my life and those around me.  And I eagerly accept the challenge and responsibility to become an active part of the Kingdom of God as His will advances in the world.

Keith's thoughts:

In this class I have enjoyed feasting on God's word along with the variety of articles compiled to form the overwhelming yet transforming Perspectives text book.  The teachings have been both practical and theoretical.

This is one new insight I have gained from a well-known Psalm. It fits perfect for our season of life.

"Your word is a lamp to guide my feet and a light for my path."  
                          - Psalm 119:105 (NLT)

The high-powered lamps we purchase today aren't particularly helpful to convey this message.  Rewind about 3,000 years and enter into David's life time.  He would have used a lamp by tying one end of a long string to it and holding the other end in his hand so the lamp hangs down directly in front of his feet.  It provided just enough light for the path ahead so he could take the next step in confidence.  It wasn't a strong beam of light that clearly lit the entire path, or even a large portion of it - just the next step.  The quote that I heard goes something like this: "It's not about how far you can see to go ahead; just go ahead as far as you can see."

That's where we are at and that is what we are doing.  God's word is life and direction and we are soaking in the richness.
 Join us in this journey as we walk one step at a time in the light of God's word.

Opportunities...they come and they go!

We'd been checking the website often,

...hoping...waiting...praying...

...hoping for information on the conference we've been telling everyone about: GCOMM (The Global Consultation On Music & Missions).    It happens every 4 years and this year the conference was to be held in the Philippines the end of May, 2014.

For six months, we have anticipated the opening registration for this conference.  This, we'd heard, is the best place to meet many of our world's ethnomusicologists and missionaries.

Today, the GCOMM website had an update.

"Due to a variety of circumstances, the Executive Committee of GCoMM has decided to cancel GCoMM 2014. We regret this cancellation and are grateful for the work done by the   Manila Planning Team, but in light of the recent tragedies in the Philippines (typhoon and earthquake) we feel this is the best course of action. Please join us in prayer for all those affected by these disasters and for those who are serving diligently to meet the great physical, emotional, and spiritual needs in that country. The Executive Committee has begun considering plans for a future event and will communicate those plans early in 2014."

 
Of course, this new development will change how we spend our time during the last week of May, but we are still looking forward to pursuing this direction for ministry.  For now we are excited to begin our missions class called "Perspectives."  And just before we learned the news of GCOMM's cancellation, we signed up to attend the Missions ConneXion Conference in Vancouver, WA this January 16-18.  Praise the Lord for this new opportunity!

Please pray that we will be daring and creative as we seek guidance in our pursuit towards music and teaching in a global missions capacity.  We will keep our eyes fixed on Christ - the God who blesses us with opportunities.

From our recent trip to Kenya & Tanzania (Oct. 2013)