Servant Partners

So, you may have noticed that this blog post is a bit late… and by late I mean like 2 weeks late.  Sorry!  The first reason is that I was gone for an entire week at a conference, which I will share about more in a second.  The second reason is that I was really sick yesterday and writing was the last thing on my mind.  But fear not!  I have returned!

Guissell, Me, Mark, Adrianna

Last week, the Caminantes (those in the Cohort a.k.a. Adrianna, Guissell, and Mark) and I all went to a conference in Managua.  This conference was held by an organization called Servant Partners and the purpose of this conference was to train their new missionaries who are entering into the field.  Thankfully, the conference was also open to outsiders who’d like to join in on the learning.  Throughout the week we had a mini-retreat in which we were silent for 2 hours and pondered several questions, we had Bible studies every morning, and every afternoon we learned about various things from community development to spiritual warfare to Integral Mission and Theology.  I learned a lot this week and, on top of that, I met some really cool people.

Servant Partners began in 1993 and has since grown to include 81 members in 11 countries, working in 14 teams in 11 countries around the world.  Their mission is to plant churches that transform their urban poor communities.  Servant Partners’ members also live in those poor communities to live in solidarity with their brothers and sisters.  If you’d like to learn more about them, please check out their website: http://www.servantpartners.org/.

I want to briefly share with you some of the things that I learned this week at the conference, things that continue to weigh on my mind.  First: prayer is powerful.  I think that as Christians it’s easy to forget this point as we become so easily distracted by the great works we are accomplishing or saddened by the overwhelming amount of problems this world has.  In these moments, prayer seems very far off, hidden from our sight.  In reality, it should be the first thing we think of!  Prayer is a way to establish ourselves in the presence of God, of anchoring ourselves to his glory, and of remembering that our world belongs to Him.  The moment we forget prayer is the moment we forget to align ourselves with our Creator.  How are we supposed to be Christians if we don’t spend time with God?

The second thing that struck me this is week is how God’s Word is still alive.  During the conference we studied Luke, beginning with Jesus’ birth.  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve read those passages, memorized those passages, sung those passages, studied those passages.  But guess what?  I still learned something new each and every time.  Every morning we would look over a section of Scripture and follow three simple steps: Observation (What does the text tell us?), Interpretation (What is the meaning of the text?), and Application (What does the text mean for my life?).  We would do this personally, then in small groups, and then everyone together.  Each time, new questions would be asked, new observations would be made, and new insights would be shared.  That’s the beauty of the Bible: it speaks to us to this very day.

The final thing that has been on my mind is how big God’s kingdom is.  At the conference, we had members from Nicaragua, Honduras, Costa Rica, the United States, and Argentina, all of whom had spent some time serving in other countries around the world.  To sit in the presence of fellow brothers and sisters who come from very different places was such a joy and a bit mind-blowing.  We often think of the entire Church as the church we attend every Sunday but multiplied a few times.  Our minds can’t grasp how big the Church is worldwide, let alone fathom the many cultures and variations that God’s people represent.  And we all belong to Him.  Isn’t that such an amazing thing?  To know that each and every one of us has been made in His image, has been saved by his Son, and has been welcomed into his Kingdom to live with Him forever? That puts things into perspective, doesn’t it?

I would just like to end with a passage of Scripture, from the words of Jesus revealing his Mission:

“The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
    because he has anointed me
    to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
    and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” 

(Luke 4:18-19 NIV)

Let’s follow his lead.

Stay tuned!