don't send them back

I was running today, something I like to do most of the time.  And for a while, I was crying.  Crying and running don't usually go together.  I wasn't even listening to a touching sermon.  I was listening to This American Life, a story about someone telling someone to go back to where they came from, and someone else that stood up to that bully and said "leave her alone."  

I probably can't put it into words...but it just hit me hard, that when we are mistreated, when we feel threatened, scared, or somehow wronged, we want people to pay, or to leave, or to suffer.  But that is not the example we have in Christ...collectively we have offended Him in the most grievous, heinous, terrible ways.  We cursed Him, we spit on Him...we killed Him.  We deserve hell, justly so.  And yet...He lived and died not to send us there...but to glorify God and save us.  

And so I cried.  I thought I understood...but then I understood a little more, a little better, and it humbled me.  I was, and sometimes still am, that guy screaming "GO BACK WHERE YOU CAME FROM!"  And yet I can see it so clearly...Christ smiling, loving me all the while.  I know not what I do.  Wow, that hurts...and then is so comforting as well.  

Recently we had some trouble in Sampedrana...the Milk Project director reported that the pastor was turning off the water valve to the building.  (like most of us...we need to work on some interpersonal communication tools there.)  

Turns out, that was not the case, the pastor was not fiddling with the water control valves.

Instead, they had been stolen.  

That's right, someone found the right spot, turned off the water, and made off with the key, so to speak, to prevent the entire campus from having water. 

Why?  There is no material gain here in this "theft" but rather just the opportunity to be a nuisance.  

Go back where you came from, that sort of thing.  Being a Christian in Sampedrana certainly does not make you popular, and sometimes, there are even consequences to that.  

We pray for safety, we pray for encouragement...but we also pray for those that would rather us leave, for Christ to touch their hearts.  

In Talanga, Manuel has had some help the last month.  Alexis finished his training up North, and while they are formulating a plan for him to help maybe in Cantarranas, him spending a few months in Talanga to help evangelize and visit families.  

Working in Talanga also isn't easy sometimes.   Knocking on more doors though and getting a no means you are just that much closer to someone who will say yes.  But after years of that...it can be hard to keep going, and having someone else to help you can be very powerful, and encouraging.  

The Milk Project is trying to take advantage of the new finished garden behind the clinic and fresh dirt to plant some vegetables.  They are going to try eggplant, cherry tomatoes, carrots, cilantro and others.  

They are excited.  I am excited.  It won't be easy, that is the way of good things.  But they are not alone, and they have help.  

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I have been told before to go back where I came from.  Not agreeing with someone, what I believe perhaps not being tolerated, or just appearing threatening to someone's normalcy sometimes can produce that reaction.  

I am instead looking forward to where I will go, and how many people we can help go there as well, not by forcing, hating, or convincing.

Plant some seeds, have some conversations...with others, and most importantly, with God.  It is amazing where it will take you...sometimes the journey being within your own mind.

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