Hey all! Long time no post, eh? Sorry about that - I hadn’t intended to be this quiet during our in-between times, but there you have it. You know what they say about good intentions… Anyway, I wanted to check in and update you all, however belatedly, on what we’ve been up to the last 6 months.
We have NOT:
Been writing blog posts (yeah, sorry about that again)
Been eating rice and beans… (just kidding, actually we are trying to keep them part of our diet)
Swatted one single mosquito! (Probably the only good thing about an Iowa winter)
We HAVE:
Produced a lovely little video from the Nicaragua footage (video embedded below)
Traveled domestically... by car… on interstates… We were especially blessed to see tons of family and friends over the holidays and into spring
Been loving time with our New Life family as we settle into our new church home
We’ve also been mentally and spiritually processing what God was teaching us in and through Nicaragua. I’m sure many lessons will be unfolding as continue this project (and indeed during the rest of our lives)! But one thing that has stuck with me is something one of the CEPAD leaders said. When I asked him how the organization handled the tension between the words vs deeds “dichotomy” that we so often set up for ourselves in the western church (i.e. traditional evangelism vs social justice projects.... Bible thumping vs soup serving…), do you know what he said?
“Jesus didn’t have that tension”
And he’s quite right, of course. He “taught in their synagogues” and he “laid his hands on every one of them and healed them” (see Luke 4). Jesus served and taught without having any kind of identity crisis.
Throughout this spring this theme has been recurring in my life. I’m learning to see that serving those around me is no substitute for telling them the good news of what Jesus did on the cross. Conversely, simply saying “Jesus loves you” without being prepared to be Jesus to that person is empty. How can we use our words and lives to the fullest extent possible to make our communities more like Jesus?
The missionaries in Nicaragua are doing this? Can we too?
Make sure the "CC" button is blue on the player, so you can see the translations!