Last weekend, Labour Weekend, I went to Christchurch for a friend’s 21st birthday party. The whole weekend was a fun time, catching up with friends that I haven’t seen for 3 years, staying with my cousins, and just doing something quite different to my usual routine.
Strangely, my favourite part of the whole trip (and this is no reflection on the rest of the weekend) didn’t come until the journey home. As I was approaching the creatively named ‘Engineers Camp’ I began seeing signs. Not the Acts 2 type of signs, mind you, or the M. Night Shaymalan movie ‘Signs’, but more the “Free Coffee” type signs. It seemed like a good idea, so I pulled in at what turned out to be a ‘Driver Reviver’ set up by State Insurance to refresh tired drivers traveling during the long weekend.
Simply by pulling in, I found myself confronted by friendly smiling faces offering me free tea, coffee, mocha, phoenix organic juices, water, fruit, sausage sizzles, muffins, lollies… and I even had someone come and offer their services painting my face or making a balloon animal for me. The tables were scattered with newspapers, magazines, and competitions allowing me to win free ipods, and I was absolutely amazed.
I would imagine it is likely that these people were getting paid by State for being there, but at the same time, some of them had their children manning the desks, and it hit me that they had given up their holiday just to serve me. State probably did get a lot of publicity out of doing this, but it was such a nice gesture, that as I drove away, I found myself praying for God’s blessings on each one of the people represented there.
And then I was challenged by it. “God is love,” the Bible tells us in 1 John, and “whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in Him.” Whether or not the people at the Driver Reviver were Christians, they were showing the love of God to every person who came to call. Isn’t that what we as Christians are supposed to do?
The fact is, State are doing effective community outreach through their driver revivers (and good on them for doing so!). It wasn’t really a big thing - just a drink and some relaxation - but they were impacting peoples lives, and leaving a positive and lasting impression on some of us.
How can we be doing the same?
Thursday, October 26, 2006
Tuesday, October 10, 2006
Fiji II - Back to the Mission
For the second time in my life, I have just returned from a mission to Fiji. This was considerably larger than the first mission I went on (about 57 of us rather than last times 20), and we went expecting to bless the Fijian people, but in fact they blessed us far more.
We in the west seem to have it all together, with our money, cars, and happy lifestyles, and yet the Fijians, who have nothing, are forced to rely on God so much more.
The group we took over was made up of a number of smaller groups just working together, and in our group of 16, we had one evening during a prayer meeting when God showed up and worked a miracle in our midst. One of the girls we had taken over wore glasses, and because of the bad weather, hadn't been able to wear them for a few days. When she finally put them back on, she realised her eyes had changed and she couldn't see out of them anymore. This meant she was starting to get headaches etc. We had been receiving a lot of spiritual attack, and took this as another one, so we prayed: "Lord, we need her to be able to see, otherwise she can't serve here. If she can't use her glasses, then please heal her." After praying this, the girl picked up a book and began reading without glasses for the first time in 9 years: healed!
The bible says that if we have faith the size of a mustard seed, we can move mountains. It also says that it is often your faith that makes you well in terms of miracles. Our faith grew by being out of our comfort zone, and serving God, but what really got me is that the Fijians have more faith than that even in their home town. Yet they don't really do anything with their faith.
The bible is quite harsh on this: "Faith without works is dead" warns James, and the Fijians do work out their faith in some ways, but I wonder what could happen if these people, who are not tied down by a desire for stuff, but who have such a contentment in having nothing, could do if they began to use their faith more. To ask for God to more, and to seek His will. To knock and see the doors opened. I believe they could change the world.
Maybe that is one reason I also like the work that Gospel for Asia do. They are a missionary organisation that specialises in training up native missionaries to reach their fellow countrymen, with incredible results. I believe that the faith of these 3rd world Christians is stronger because they have less distractions and more persecution! There is no way for them to be half-hearted with their faith.
It is a real challenge for us in the West. We have everything in worldly terms, but where is our faith? Even though we may be tempted to 'reach out a helping hand' to other countries, we need to not overlook what they can give us in terms of spiritual growth.
Click here to read a post about my first Fiji mission
Click here for the Gospel for Asia Website
We in the west seem to have it all together, with our money, cars, and happy lifestyles, and yet the Fijians, who have nothing, are forced to rely on God so much more.
The group we took over was made up of a number of smaller groups just working together, and in our group of 16, we had one evening during a prayer meeting when God showed up and worked a miracle in our midst. One of the girls we had taken over wore glasses, and because of the bad weather, hadn't been able to wear them for a few days. When she finally put them back on, she realised her eyes had changed and she couldn't see out of them anymore. This meant she was starting to get headaches etc. We had been receiving a lot of spiritual attack, and took this as another one, so we prayed: "Lord, we need her to be able to see, otherwise she can't serve here. If she can't use her glasses, then please heal her." After praying this, the girl picked up a book and began reading without glasses for the first time in 9 years: healed!
The bible says that if we have faith the size of a mustard seed, we can move mountains. It also says that it is often your faith that makes you well in terms of miracles. Our faith grew by being out of our comfort zone, and serving God, but what really got me is that the Fijians have more faith than that even in their home town. Yet they don't really do anything with their faith.
The bible is quite harsh on this: "Faith without works is dead" warns James, and the Fijians do work out their faith in some ways, but I wonder what could happen if these people, who are not tied down by a desire for stuff, but who have such a contentment in having nothing, could do if they began to use their faith more. To ask for God to more, and to seek His will. To knock and see the doors opened. I believe they could change the world.
Maybe that is one reason I also like the work that Gospel for Asia do. They are a missionary organisation that specialises in training up native missionaries to reach their fellow countrymen, with incredible results. I believe that the faith of these 3rd world Christians is stronger because they have less distractions and more persecution! There is no way for them to be half-hearted with their faith.
It is a real challenge for us in the West. We have everything in worldly terms, but where is our faith? Even though we may be tempted to 'reach out a helping hand' to other countries, we need to not overlook what they can give us in terms of spiritual growth.
Click here to read a post about my first Fiji mission
Click here for the Gospel for Asia Website
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
