"His Little Missionary"

THIRST FOR CHANGE

hislittlemissionary — Sat, 25 Sep 2010 01:25:56 +0000

As the Global Life Night THRIST FOR CHANGE, (http://www.lifeteen.com/community/) quickly approaches it got me thinking about how amazing it is that just about everywhere we go in America, in every public place, we have FREE drinkable water available to us. Whether it is out of a faucet or a drinking fountain, the fact of the matter is we can drink it if we were thirsty and we never really have to worry about getting sick. Not only that, but we have a variety of other beverages at our fingertips, the difference though is that the other beverages cost money. Imagine living in a place where your only water source looked like this picture below.

This picture was taken on our mission trip to Ghana last year. A majority of the people in these remote villages do not have access to any source of beverage to quench their thirst, so they are forced to drink this contaminated water. The reality is children are dying because of it. While I was in Haiti and in Ghana, it crushed me to see these children begging for something to drink. I have never personally experienced the thirst that I saw in these children’s faces.

We have clean water virtually at our finger tips, from the twist of a knob or a push of a button, FREE clean water flows and yet we choose to purchase bottled water or other beverages. Imagine if we only drank water that came out of the faucet how much money we would save. Suppose you drank a Starbucks coffee once a week, to make the math easy let’s average that to $5 a coffee, for 52 weeks, that’s $260! Or maybe it’s an energy drink, a Gatorade or a Pop (that’s right I said Pop, shout out to the Great North West), imagine how much money we could put towards a village having clean water to drink. I am making a commitment to fast from all beverages other than free water sources to support our global life Night Thirst for Change. Will you join me in this? Maybe it’s for a week, a month, or even a year and use the money that you would have spent on Starbucks, Gatorade, or Pepsi to go towards this project in providing clean water for our brothers and sisters in Ghana. I pray that the Lord convicts you as much as He has convicted me!

“And all who believed were together and had all things in common; and they sold their possessions and goods and distributed them to all, as any had need.” - Acts 2: 44-45

LIFE TEEN GHANA MISSION 2010

hislittlemissionary — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 20:27:35 +0000

THE FACE OF CHRIST

Our Life Teen Mission trip back to Ghana this year was incredibly blessed. We took 12 missionaries, 3 of which were with Family Missions Company (http://fmcmissions.com/). The greatest blessing this year for me was seeing all the people we built relationships with last year, and having the opportunity to go deeper with them, from all the young adults we worked with, to the people and the children in the village, to Rose Mary and all the children that lived around the house where we stayed. I was also greatly impacted by the formation we received prior to our departure. One of the speakers shared how we are not Americans who are Catholic, but we are Catholics who happen to be American. Because of this statement I had a different perspective on our Catholic brothers and sisters who were African. It was beautiful to see and take part in their different styles of worship and participate in the Mass which could last up to three hours, where the people would dance up to the altar to give their offering. The American Church holds only a sliver of the face of Christ. This is one of the many graces of missions. I have had the blessing to travel and see different cultures and how they worship, from Jamaica, to Nicaragua, to Haiti, to Mexico, to Ghana and how they all make up a portion of the face of Christ. With each culture we encounter, we obtain a fuller image of the body and face of Christ.

HUNGRY FOR LOVE

Another strong message that I was able to take away from this mission is how hungry Christ is for our love. This came to me through all the children we encountered. Every day when we would arrive at the village for our work project, the children would come running, waving and smiling. Every day upon our return back to the town where we were staying, the children would be waiting for our arrival. As soon as we got out of the car they would literally leap into our arms, hungry for love and affection. So many of them just wanted to be held. One day I was praying about this in the chapel, and I came to the realization that Christ is just as hungry and thirsty for our love. Each day He waits for us, He runs to us wanting to throw his arms around us. When we go to work, He is there dwelling in our fellow employees. When we go to school, He is there in our teachers and in our classmates. When we come home, He is there in our families, hungry for our love. It’s easy to love Jesus in the cute little Ghanaian kid who jumps into our arms. For many of us though the least of these where Jesus dwells is in our family, our fellow employees, our teachers and our classmates. Mother Teresa would always say the greatest poverty are those hungry for love, and we don’t have to go to India to go to serve the slums of Calcutta. There are Calcutta’s in our own homes. I pray that we all can feed the Jesus who is starving for love in the world closest to us. Matthew 25:35-46. Below are some pictures from the mission. All glory to God!

Last year we built a house for this woman, her name is Ama. She is blind and is 102 years old. Last year she was taking care of her son who was paralyzed from the waist down. Unfortunately, we found out that he passed away about about a month after we left. My blessing came when we went to visit and pray with her this year and she remembered my voice and with a big smile on her face, called me by name.

We had the opportunity to go through the village and do home visits, like this one with Francis. During this time we would see if there is any way we could meet their physical needs and pray with them.

In the village we had the blessing to pray with this gentlemen named John who was struggling with alcoholism.

Singing and praising with the children in the village. “On the lips of infants and children you have found perfect praise” Psalm 8:2

Playing with Thomas, one of the children that attends the Little Flower Pre-school. The missionary family that we stay with, Paul and Bernice, operate a free pre-school on their front porch for children in their neighborhood who cannot afford to go to school.

Little Flower students and their teacher.

This is Rose Mary and Broda. They live across the street from Paul and Bernice, and are very close to my heart. Rose Mary is the most beautiful young girl you will ever meet. She would take us on guided tours around their little town. She is also in need of a laptop for her school work, if anyone has an older one they would like to donate she would greatly appreciate it. Her brother Broda, is the cutest kid ever. These pictures do not do them justice.

Rose Mary carrying mud at the work project.

Rose Mary had one of her big end of the year tests the next day, after the soccer game we prayed with her that God would grant her wisdom and peace. She ended up doing well on all her tests!

We had the opportunity to play soccer with some of the young adults in the town where we were staying. The obroni’s (white people) pulled off a narrow victory over the locals. After the match we gathered together for a time of prayer.

One of the great blessings this year was going back and following up with the people we helped last year. This is Cecilia, in the background is the house we helped renovate last year. She was so happy to see us back!

Walking through the village to our work site.

The first phase of our work project, putting up the frame.

Attaching bamboo to the rest of the frame.

Loca, one of our amazing foremen!

All the bamboo is up, ready for mud!

Our missionaries made a trip down to the water hole with all our little helpers to make some mud.

The girls mixing and making mud.

All our little helpers carrying mud to the house that we were building.

More little helpers making mud bricks

Missionaries building the walls by placing mud bricks in between the bamboo.

Working on the roof.

Finishing up the roof.

One of the two houses we built.

Cleaning up from the work project in the village with all our little helpers.

Praying with the children in the village.

Walking through the village, we were able to jump into this pick-up game of soccer.

We went and visited a children’s hospital and brought them some donations. We had an amazing time praying and singing with the children.

Loving more kids in the Children’s Hospital.

Walking through the town we came upon this woman, whose name is Patience. After speaking with her for a little while, and hearing the struggles of her family, we asked if we could pray with her. With an excited look on her face, she literally threw down the objects in her arms that she was holding, threw her arms in the air and with a huge smile she welcomed us to pray with her. This was probably one of the most memorable moments in the mission for me. This woman in the moment dropped everything to pray. I hope that in my busiest hour, when asked to pray with or for someone, I can drop everything and do it.

Our mission team!

Mission Haiti – The Beautiful Children

hislittlemissionary — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 02:33:08 +0000

Landfills of Managua, Nicaragua

hislittlemissionary — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 04:15:56 +0000

"Sympathy is no substitute for action." -- David Livingstone, missionary to Africa

“If I preach the gospel, this is no reason for me to boast, for an obligation has been imposed on me, and woe to me if I do not preach it!” 1 Corinthians 9:16

“The concern for world evangelization is not something tacked on to a man’s personal Christianity, which he may take or leave as he chooses. It is rooted in the character of the God who has come to us in Christ Jesus. Thus, it can never be the province of a few enthusiasts, a sideline or a specialty of those who happen to have a bent that way. It is the distinctive mark of being a Christian.” — James S. Stewart

“People who don’t believe in missions have not read the New Testament. Right from the beginning Jesus said the field is the world. The early church took Him at His word and went East, West, North and South.” — J. Howard Edington

“Not, how much of my money will I give to God, but how much of God’s money will I keep for myself.” – John Wesley

“The best remedy for a sick church is to put it on a missionary diet.” – David Livingston

“Never pity missionaries; envy them. They are where the real action is — where life and death, sin and grace, Heaven and Hell converge.” — Robert C. Shannon, Christian Standard, January 1983

“The mark of a great church is not its seating capacity, but its sending capacity.” — Mike Stachura

“The church that does not evangelize will fossilize.” – Oswald J. Smith

“Only as the church fulfills her missionary obligation does she justify her existence.” – Unknown

“I believe that in each generation God has called enough men and women to evangelize all the yet unreached tribes of the earth. It is not God who does not call. It is man who will not respond!” — Isobel Kuhn, missionary to China and Thailand

“No reserves. No retreats. No regrets” — William Borden

“I have but one passion: It is He, it is He alone. The world is the field and the field is the world; and henceforth that country shall be my home where I can be most used in winning souls for Christ.” — Count Nicolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf

Big Country

hislittlemissionary — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 20:39:16 +0000

Recently we just got back from an amazing trip at The March for Life in Washington DC. God was very present throughout our journey there and touched us each uniquely. It was humbling to see the ways in which God would work through us as we applied some of the things we have learned this month studying Pope John Paul II’s call for a new evangelization and what that means in each of our lives. John Paul II stated, “To be Christians means to be missionaries, to be apostles. It is not enough to discover Christ – you must bring him to others.” This has weighed heavily on our hearts, it is the duty of every Christian to go forth and make disciples of every nation. I always felt that I was doing this because of my involvement in youth ministry, but what we have discovered is that with every encounter lies the opportunity to share Christ with others. So as we began our journey we really prayed that God would open our eyes to opportunities and that he would bring people into our paths to share with them the Gospel and the reason for our hope. One day before the march we were walking to visit some of the museums when John-Paul saw this beggar. The day before we left on the march we were studying about evangelizing to the poor, and I think the words of Matthew 25 and “he who shuts his ear to the cry of the poor will himself also call and not be heard” (Prov 21:13) were still burning in our hearts. So we felt the need to try and help this man and possibly share with him the reason for our hope. We quickly learned that the man’s name was Country and that his biggest need at the time was hunger. We offered to walk with him around the corner to this restaurant and buy him some food and he accepted our offer. As we walked with him we learned his struggles and he shared with us the reason he was in this predicament was because there just wasn’t enough jobs in DC. We asked if this was something he had been praying about and he quickly shared with us he believed in God but didn’t believe in Jesus Christ and didn’t believe in heaven or hell. As we continued to talk with him we found ourselves at the beginning of the line so we purchased our food and looked for a seat. We hoped that we could sit down and share with him more but all the seats were taken and he just wanted to take it to go so we just walked outside and felt the strong need to pray with him. We asked if we could pray for him before we left and he humbly accepted. Through our studies this year we have learned that it is not our words that bring about conversion but the Spirit of the Lord. So we prayed a loud for that Spirit to come upon our new friend that he too would come to know the love and peace of Christ that truly satisfies our hunger and all our needs. We concluded our prayer and went on our way and the whole time up to that point my focus was how can we evangelize to this man, but what I didn’t see is how God through this man was evangelizing us. He was bringing to life what we were learning, He was answering our prayers to bring people to us to share the Good news with, and most of all he was driving home the sense of emergency in Pope John Paul II’s words, “The moment has come to commit all of the Church’s energies to a new evangelization and to the mission ad gentes*. No believer in Christ, no institution of the Church can avoid this supreme duty: to proclaim Christ to all peoples”. It is my prayer that our eyes will be opened to the spiritually and materially poor around us, and that we may constantly feel a strong sense of urgency to go forth and proclaim Christ to the nations.

* Ad gentes is the Second Vatican Council’s Decree on the Missionary Activity of the Church, it is Latin for “to the nations”

General Cepeda, Mexico 07

hislittlemissionary — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 20:24:04 +0000

After spending about a week in General Cepeda, Mexico, my life has been changed forever. While serving and praying for these beautiful people, who many are suffering from poverty and illness, I was overwhelmed by the number of opportunities to share God’s love and the Gospel with these people. People would constantly come to the mission house asking for help or prayers, we were only able to go to a few of the Rancho’s or outer lying neighborhoods to pray for the people and there were so many work projects that could be done. It just seemed like there was so much work to be done, so many people that needed prayers and so many people that were hungry for the Gospel, but just not enough hands and voices to go around. To think that this is one small town in a fairly small country, how many more places around the world are in desperate need of God’s love.
For me, this really brought to life the Gospel reading that “The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few; so ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest” (Matt 9:37-38). There is a sense of urgency in this scripture reading for me now. After experiencing this mission trip and feeling the need for missionaries all over the world, I have a greater understanding and appreciation of the words of Saint Paul, “for an obligation has been imposed on me and woe to me if I do not preach it.” (1 Cor 9:16) It was such a blessing to see families there with their children, it opened my eyes to see that families could be full time missionaries and what a beautiful thing it is to watch children sharing God’s love to those in need. So it is my prayer that everyone can experience at least a week of missionary work and for there to be an increase in full time missionaries because it will change your life forever!

Breadth, Length, Height and Depth…

hislittlemissionary — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 20:34:34 +0000

“…to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inner self, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the holy ones what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” — Ephesians 3:16-19

This is my desire and my focus for this year, with the power of His spirit to come to know the breadth, length, height and depth of the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge. I also find this verse appealing because for the majority of my life I’ve tried to be a strong person, physically, mentally and emotionally, but spiritually I have neglected. Up until this year, my priorities were backwards. I could easily find two hours in my day to work out, but struggle to find 10 minutes to pray or read my bible. The beauty of being an intern and a part of the mission’s school is our lives are centered around prayer and formation, and where we have room in our schedules we squeeze in work and leisure. In the month and a half I have been here, there has been a common message that God has spoken to me. My pride and desire for self love have prevented me from fully receiving God’s love and from completely loving those around me. So it has become my desire and my prayer to empty myself of all that is not of him, and to become a person of the beatitudes, poor in spirit and meek. For he has told me, “’my grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.’ I will rather boast most gladly of my weaknesses, in order that the power of Christ may dwell with me. Therefore, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and constraints, for the sake of Christ; for when I am weak, then I am strong.” (2 Corin12:9-10)
We are currently studying St Therese, the Little Flower, and I so much desire to be little like her, but I also have such a strong desire to be as faithful and as knowledgeable of God’s love as her. Immediately my first instinct is that I must read and study and learn and pray more about all these aspects of God that I feel I’m lacking in. So the intellectual side of me starts running through this checklist of subjects I must read about, “I need to study more about the Eucharist because I don’t feel I have the same hunger for it as St Therese” and on and on it goes. So I shared this with a friend of mine and he quickly brought me back down to earth and back to the simple truth that God is love. Studying more about the Church and it’s teachings is not a bad thing, but if we desire to know the breadth, length, height and depth of God’s love, which oh by the way surpasses all knowledge, we must humble ourselves and realize that it is not something we must do with our own strength or intellect. Again let’s look at St Therese, here is a girl who at the age of 24 became a Saint, a Doctor of the Church and the Patroness of Missionaries without ever leaving her Carmelite community and without spending years studying Theology. We must be docile, be weak and humble and be strengthened with the power of the Spirit, that through this we may comprehend how much God loves us. So much in this Martha world we try and do things to become more holy, we try to do things to learn who God is and how much He loves us. Yet he tells us in Psalm 46:10, “Be still and know that I am God” who is love. (1 John 4:16) So in this Martha world, let us be like Mary and St Therese and be still, humble ourselves, sit at the feet of Jesus and allow God’s spirit to strengthen us and reveal to us how much we are truly loved and how to live out our common vocation to love.

Where is the love?

hislittlemissionary — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 20:29:49 +0000

Over the last three weeks here at Covecrest living as an intern, God has spoken to me in many ways, but there are a few that have been most prevalent. The strongest message I have felt is that God is Love, and how much he desires for us to know how much he truly loves us. This concept has overflowed into other areas in which he has revealed to me, such as an increased desire for humility and weakness. It has been in these two concepts that I am beginning to understand what prayer is and its vitality to our spiritual life, but everything must begin from the understanding that God is Love.
God is Love, it sounds simple enough, we hear it all the time, but what does it truly mean? Slowly he is beginning to reveal this to me a sliver at a time. His strongest desire is for us to know how much he loves us, to understand what it means to be called the Beloved. My joy and my happiness must come from that fact and that fact alone. Many times he brings people into our lives to demonstrate a sliver of that love to us, whether that be family, friends, girlfriend/boyfriend, spouse, children. What we must never forget is where the source of that love comes from, God is Love. When that sliver of love is moved, changed, stripped from us, such as breaking up of a girlfriend or boyfriend, parents separating, losing a loved one, even though that love may feel removed, we must remember that the source of that which helped us to feel a sliver of that love is constant and unchanging, “you are my Beloved”. So our happiness must come from that.
Recently my girlfriend and I broke up so that I could discern where God was calling me, either to become a Catholic Priest or to marriage. We had been dating for a year and a half, and during that time she was a major source of my happiness, she was a major sliver of how I felt loved. Now that we are apart, God is trying to tell me that because He is the source of love, and He shared some of that love for me through that relationship, even though I can not feel that love directly through the relationship with her any more, His love for me is ever present and just as strong, and that is what the source of my happiness must be, knowing that I am the Beloved.
The more we understand this truth that God is Love and is The source of all love, the more we will be able to receive that love. As I mentioned earlier, God desires for us to know how much we are loved, and his love is desired to be given away. The more we go to that source and learn about that source the more that love is poured into our hearts and we receive that love. Once that love is in our hearts, it begs to be given away. And so we pour that love out to all we come in contact with, and we go back to the one true source of Perfect Love to be filled again. It is in understanding that God is Love and the source of all happiness that we are able to be free to receive love and to truly pour that love out to our friends, our families, our girlfriends or boyfriends, husbands or wives, sons or daughters the way God has intended us to love. Regardless of where God is calling me, I will have a better understanding of how to love my spouse, whether that is the Church or my wife, knowing how much I am loved, knowing the source of that love, and constantly returning to that source to be filled again with that perfect love.