Wherever you are

As I am here, I am more and more convinced that the way you live your life depends very little on your location. This is not to say whether you are hanging out at church or at the bar, don't get the wrong idea... but by location I mean the country and culture in which you are a part. If you are striving to glorify God, your spirituality or the way in which you live out your faith does not depend on whether you live in the city or in the country or in the US or Africa. On one hand, some individuals are called to a very specific purpose in life, or at least for a portion of their life, like you could be called to _________ location, but I believe that for the majority of Christians, we just need to focus on our personal relationship with Christ and also seek to develop real community, wherever we are. The church extends over any distance, as well an any culture.

A few great memories from the past week or so have been with the reality of the body of Christ. Last Sunday, the church service I mentioned with the hundreds of children... there was one girl who I sat with and was able to talk to throughout the service. She was 13 and a Christian, it was such a neat thing to tell her that she was my sister in Christ. In my Bible, I had a wordless book flip chart thing that was purdy cool; she liked it a lot, so I gave it to her. Of course, before I could give it away though, I wanted to make sure she knew what all the colors meant- so that was fun to share, although very very briefly, with the children around me. My ultimate hope is that she may even remember what they mean and use it to tell the story of the Gospel to others-maybe extremely hopeful, but still cool to dream of :)
The other time that the body of Christ was very evident was just a few days ago; one of the women who works in accounting lost her brother-in-law. The departments at Tenwek both mourn and rejoice in the happenings of others lives, so with working in the offices, I was invited to visit her home for a "service" of sorts. Lisa and I walked in a bit late, so chai had already been taken and much had already been said when we arrived. It was really awesome though to see this true form of community so evident; each person shared some thoughts and encouraged the family that he was a believer. Actually, all that was spoken showed such strong faith and such an eternal perspective, it was almost unreal to me that these people had just lost a loved one. I guess I am not really sure how to properly describe that whole experience without typing soo much, but just know that the body of Christ and NT-like church community was very evident in the people here. Just the fact that I was welcome, I believe, is a huge reality of the all-encompassing ties of trusting in the same Savior.

Anyway, back to the main point. The fact that I am living on a missions compound does not make my personal, spiritual life any easier or any harder than any other time in my life. If nothing else, this is a huge lesson that must be learned and truly experienced. Missionaries aren't super heroes; they are regular people and regular families trying to keep up with a million things that need to be done-just like anyone in full time ministry!

[this is a topic for another post, but the similarities of living on a missions compound and at a Christian camp are strikingly similar!]