the things that matter

There are about one-hundred and one things I could blog about. Internet connection hasn't been the best, so I haven't had much time to post. We did tons this past week and I am having trouble choosing just one topic to blog about. The good thing is, the ministries that we helped out with this week are those that we will be involved in all summer, so eventually the will all be written about. But right now I am trying to decide if I should write about the work we are doing at the Hope House with laying posts for a gate to be built, the way the Hope House children attach to your hip and want nothing but other than to simply be held (all afternoon), or the church that we are helping to build in a town just outside the city, where the children are the majority of the church and they come and watch and play when we work leaving little time for any work to actually get done. Or I could tell you what a humbling experience it is to work with the Mobile Medical Clinic and see people that are truly sick come for any simple ailment at all. Then there is the baptism that we were blessed to be able to watch as I have never seen the act of baptism be such a time of freedom and celebration.

I could go on and on about the details of all of those ministries and projects. But I choose not to waste both my time and yours, because the truth of it is that those details and projects have little importance when compared to the people behind them. It's all about people. Often, the Westernized view places great importance or finishing the project in the shortest amount of time possible. In Africa, it is just the opposite. Importance is always placed on people, regardless of the task at hand. When you truly live like this, it is freeing. Freeing as everything seems to slip away until the only thing clear is the person standing before you. And in that freedom, the Holy Spirit has more room to move as our own agenda is relinquished. So my summer won't be about work projects, and details that will never matter in the end, instead, my summer will be about relationships. Our investment in relationships is the only thing that is eternal. First, my relationship with Christ is eternal and will always prove to be my greatest investment. And the people I invest in are eternal. If I have the ability to impact a life for Christ by investing and simply interacting with someone, why on earth would it matter how many bricks need to get on the roof per day. Somehow, when people reign with importance in your life, the work will be accomplished. It may not be in your timing, or perfectly the way you need it to be, but it will be finished.

I've been taking pictures, and as much as I would love to show you all of the beautiful faces that I am blessed to be surrounded with this summer, uploading them isn't a fast process.

Today my team and I will spend the day at the beach before we head off to Bongolo tomorrow. The drive is about twelve hours long. The first six hours will be on paved roads, and the last six are on unpaved. We return Saturday as we will spend the week sort of as a prayer retreat and as time to do some team building and continued bonding. Prayer for safety as we travel, unity as we bond as a team, our van which is the biggest way we exercise faith every day, and for our heart, that Christ would continue to open them wide in order that we may have a clear picture of Him as our focus.