If we stayed because it makes us feel good, then we would leave - we would run from what is hevi. Is that not the natural response to difficulties? In the midst of this time of hevis, I looked back at a post I had written before leaving home and while on my longest flight crossing the Pacific…. A common initial misconception is to think that ministry is more important if it is far away from home, and that exotic places and travel make us more spiritual. Both are false. I am not doing anything special, nor was I doing anything special in the ER. I am just a nurse accountable to God and by the reasons below serve here or there with the same purpose. Our current location does not change our eternal Commission. How much this past year has impressed upon my heart the need for Christians in healthcare. The brutalities of life and death bring many patients and providers alike to question the world around them and their inability to make sense of pain and suffering. So many are hurting that will never find their healing in a prescription nor peace from a temporary mind numbing substance. Medicine is great, and I love science and being a nurse. But it is clear in my mind that medicine is not everything nor the end all. Things that we cannot understand will always exist - things we cannot guarantee nor prove, or diseases of which we can only give prognosis not a promise. Therefore, may we use each of our fields whether they be finance, construction, teaching, or medicine and develop those skills to their highest potential, albeit insufficient in itself, to introduce those we get to walk alongside to the only One who is sufficient.
Why go? Why serve? Why live?
· Because of Love : He first loved us. {1 John 4:9-20, 2 Cor 5:14-15 }
· Because life is NOT about me {Galatians 2: 20, 6:14, Luke 9: 23-25}
· Because of stewardship {Matthew 28:19-20, 1 Peter 4:10-11, James 1:22, Luke 6:46}
· Because we ARE called - life is a mission. {1 Pet 2:9, 2 Tim 4:2-5}
· Because we do not have to fear. {1 John 4:4}
· That all may know Him. {1 Kings 8:41-43, 60}
The times of discouragement or being overwhelmed were fed from dwelling on visible, temporal things. As long as my eyes stayed on the problems, the answers were certainly not coming from me. It was a rebuke and refreshing time to realize yet again (I can be hard-headed) that as we say in Pisin, "Mi no inap, tasol Krais Em inap!" {I am not enough or able, but Christ is!}
With eyes turned upward again, we rejoiced together at how God continues to work abundantly and more than we can ask. He never stopped, but our view could be clouded. It was a true joy to witness our team member Judas's first son being born and watching their family blossom. {Judas, Lynn, Japheth - sidneote, also fun to sign a birth certificate for the first time as witness} We were thankful to see one of our young deaf patients recover from mastoiditis. {Manada} John and Lena Allen were eagerly anticipating their return this month and made it in to Kunai with a chopper and five loads of medicine and supplies. This provision was a huge answer to prayer as situations and weather can change daily here. The supplies also included a package from home - a special blessing :) We are excited for and continue to pray for one of our mama patients who has started visiting church. {Mesalin} Sharing Thanksgiving with the team and making PNG editions of favorite dishes from home was a fun treat! We saw another little girl recover and play again after being too sick to walk {Lana} The choir has enjoyed learning several newly translated songs including In Christ Alone in Tok Pisin {Long Krais Tasol} Singing with them has been such a blessing. The afternoons we can have girls over - Noni, Ellie, Selestin, Sila, Piaro, and Jessica - talking about life and God's goodness have been sweet fellowship. These girls have become special friends - whether it's in tears together or helping us translate in clinic, or in Bible Study - it is a treasure. A beautiful climax to this month was witnessing nineteen brothers and sisters in Christ this past Sunday follow the Lord in baptism. While the kids threw flower petals in the river upstream and the congregation sang, each gave testimony that their salvation was by grace alone in faith in Jesus the Son of God and His finished sacrifice in our place on the cross, not a work of man or by baptism. To see how God is working in all their hearts, from the youngest to the elderly, both beaming with smiles alike - it was incredible and a day full of thanksgiving!
Yet at the end of the month, it cannot be measured in peaks and valleys - but by the grace given by the One who created us and allows us to have needs. This lesson particularly stood out in Bible School last week. While our God is sovereign and all the mountains are His, He allows us have needs that His name may be seen and glorified. Not only are we truly dependent on His sustaining grace and salvation, but He wants to walk this journey of obedience and trust with us. This month I have been reminded time and time again, He is sufficient. He is enough.
His Word is sharp enough to pierce through superstition, rumors, and lies. He is present and all knowing. He is working even when we cannot see through the clouds, or when the airstrip is covered. He is providing when government corruptions fails its people. He is building families when culture has laid seeds of division and strife. His Spirit is producing forgiveness in His people instead of anger. This is our God. Some would say it is a sacrifice to come to a remote jungle without normal access to commodities once accustomed to being at our disposal. Yet, it is a starkly pale comparison to Jesus Christ, who left face to face fellowship with His Father the God of heaven, a God of holiness, justice, righteousness, whose glory is too much to behold, whose robes fill His house, in whose presence multitudes of angels worship, whose brightness is greater than the sun, whose knowledge is deeper than the ocean, whose presence is outside the realm of time or space, whose home can not be adequately described with our greatest and most valuable gems and precious stones - this is the God who came to earth. Jesus came. He came because of love. He came because He wanted to be our sacrifice. He came willingly. He came to a earth without glory, without fame, to be a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief; He came to be with us and lived among us. He came and ate, walked, got dirty, and sat with us sinners. He who is holy. This is love - He first loved us. {1 John 4:19}
And as I walk to market by the river where my family in Christ declared that they want to follow Jesus - my heart sings. The pain of sin on earth is present; hevis will continue to come. But "If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on this earth. For you have died, and your life is in Christ." Colossians 3:1-3 This is His doing. May God be praised