moving and leaving

Yesterday, my mom moved out of the house where I grew up. My family lived there for 40 years. I was able to go back in March to help sort through a lot of the house. I cleaned out my own bookshelves and anything that was still mine. I left for the last time.

Leaving something like this is one of those landmarks in life that reminds me of who I am, where I have come from and where I am going. I thank God for my family and for using my family to show me faith in Jesus. I thank God that with each move I have made in life, the ties to my maker and creator have strengthened.

I never thought of it this way. It is almost as if God has given each of us certain things to leave. These may be a job, a dream, a loved one, a family, a country. A lot of times these things are our hardship, trials and suffering. With each leaving, we are one step closer to arriving. This is the reward of leaving.

Virginia Tech

I went to Virginia Tech. I graduated from there in 1985. I came this close to transferring, but two things kept me from doing that. One was my church community and the other was the simple beauty of the Virginia mountains.

True, the idyllic and pastoral setting have been horribly scarred. However, the christian community in Blacksburg promises to hold me and all those affected once again close to the promises of God.

I looked back through my photos for a recent one of the area. This is all I could find -not far from the campus, early one morning last summer .

motivation for ministry: to get or to keep

The error we make when we draw our box too tightly in refugee ministry is that we require others to meet a certain standard before we extend them our fellowship and love.

We should think again about what it means for us to obey and serve the Lord. I am indebted to Dr. Scott Hafemann for challenging me to consider this truth,

We do not obey to get a promise we do not have. We obey to keep a promise we already have.

I think this is the key to our ministry. Remember the promise. Show the promise. Move towards the promise. Refugees are people of promise. We are as well. The connection is relationship. We have this in Christ. We are the crucial link then for the refugee's promise in Christ.

It is a mistatke to think of our own or another's obedience -effort to love and please God- first as a means to some end. In this instance we will forever be in legalistic, indebted relationships to one another. I want myself and others to get away from this.

Instead, I want to obey -or keep a standard- because of the promise found inside the relationship which we have. Our obedience, standard and moral -our ethic- therefore is relationship driven and not works driven.

I think it is revolutionary and crucial for our ministry to refugees to think of our service as relationship centered and promise driven.