Last night we got back from Mexico and a few extra days in CAli. It's tempting in a journal or letter or even my diary to report the mundane facts and details - this temptation pervades our lives as we look out each day through eyes that either focus on the material world of appearances or perceive with the eyes of faith the inner life.
I can't say I always fix my eyes on the Reality behind appearances . . . but lately Susi and I have been reminding each other: "It's not about the __________ (fill in the blank with whatever distracting circumstance presents itself in the natural.)
Fran (Schaeffer) says that Christians are living in two worlds and serve as signs in the natural to point to the supernatural. I wanna do that. I'd like to get beyond reporting facts:
26 people in 5 vans traveled 2500 miles round trip to build a 22' x 22' house for a family of 6 who live on $70 a week.
We slept in five churches on the way down and back and camped in 8 tents near Rosarito Beach while commuting about 10 miles each way to our worksite each day.
We spent about $15,000 - most of which was donated to us.
More significantly - there were middle schoolers, middle aged, high school and college, all working together to share gifts, abilities, talents and energy.
But what was really BUILT - not just a house (Psalm 127:1)
We built relationships, we built character, we built trust and faith.
What did I "see" & how did I feel about this trip?
Servants of Christ and Warriors of the Cross laid down parts of their lives, faced their fears, made friends and comrades out of strangers and thrived and were successful as they sojourned in a land not their own.
I was nervous about leading and being responsible for so many people. God led us and proved that He is quite capable of taking all the responsibility from off my shoulders. A woman (Maria Antoinette Rojo Rodriguez) who probably doesn't have enough to buy groceries for her own children fed hot lunch to 26 people 3 days in a row.
Truth was encountered, Lives were changed, God was there.
Some things just can't be the same now. We may have come back, but in some ways there is no going back, only moving ahead.
Down south there is a different climate, a different culture, a different pace. I try to bring a little bit back with me.
Peace,
Matt
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