by this all men will know…

We are three less than before now. Our teammates, Justin and Tiffany Hanes, and Justin Gibson, have gone back to the States. They flew out of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania on August 7th leaving Josh and I to continue on our journey to Sudan.

The experience of saying goodbye meshed several emotions together. I was sad to see them go, happy for them getting to return to family, friends and loved ones, thankful for such a life changing trip, excited to hear about the new ways they see the world (as we usually only begin to understand the changes that have taken place when we return), and honestly a big part of me wished I was returning with them.

Our trip (over three months now) has been amazing, life changing, exciting, and educational; but it has also been challenging, tiring, stressful, and breaking in many ways. We’ve been going and going and going and traveling A LOT! We’ve been rung through many very stressful situations; having to adjust to culture, deal with barriers like language, and simply deal with the repeating unfamiliarity of the people we are visiting.

But one of the most difficult and life changing things we’ve had to deal with is each other. I love every one of these guys! But it doesn’t change the fact that living with 4 other people who are not family members for 3 months, everyday, sharing rooms, food, over packed matatus (van taxi), money, and everything else, gets really difficult sometimes! We couldn’t just hop in our own individually owned cars and get away from each other, we couldn’t leave after a long days work to go to our own apartments – we were forced to deal with (and sometimes try to ignore for a while) the difficulties of being WITH each other.

We didn’t do everything right. We didn’t always have our happy missionary faces on displaying the pure love of Christ. But through it all God taught us a little bit about community and about loving each other. We learned that loving people while at a distance is usually fairly easy, but loving those who are closest to us, on an everyday basis, is definitely the hardest task God has given humankind!

Most of the time when traveling around to different places this summer no one knew if there were conflicts within our group. We could serve others and love strangers while, sometimes, we had moments when serving and loving each other was the last thing we felt like doing. We would tell others about Jesus and the great love that he has. We would go to the street children in Nairobi and tell them that, even though God might not instantly bring you off the street or make you rich, if he is present he can transform life through loving community. But we ourselves sometimes struggled to invite his presence into our smaller community by loving each other.

Don’t get me wrong, we had a great trip, and we really do love each other and try our best to love each other. I’m just talking about the reality of community – IT IS HARD! It is. For anyone who really risks, I mean really steps out and risks, being in community, they will find that it is definitely the hard stuff of life!

But I’m so glad for it! It’s so hard, but it’s so good! In community we see others junk clearly, but we also see our own very clearly! Any great picture of ourselves undergoes serious scrutinization! But through it God shows us where we need work, how we lack in loving others, and occasionally when we allow him he shows us how to really choose to love others when it’s hard. And that, my friends, is the really, really good stuff of life! That is the time when we and sometimes others get to really see Jesus – we look and see something that so closely resembles Jesus! Following so radically in the way of Jesus that WE actually look like him! Community is the tool God uses to refine us into the image of his Son.

“By THIS all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” (John 13:35)

 David Augsburger in ‘Dissident Discipleship’ says, “Spirituality is not free-floating; it has location, and that location is community.”

The gospel we are trying to share here, in America, and every place on this earth is not only found in a story or on a page, but it is found most profoundly when it is seen in a loving community of believers. We made mistakes on our journey and we will make more, but we learn from them, and I think we have all learned a little bit more about Jesus and how to really invite his presence into the world - through community.

Thanks, I love you guys!

The following are some quotes about community:

 ”Nothing reveals a person more fully than the person’s relation to those who are close and response to those who are opposed and closed” – David Augsburger, “Dissident Discipleship”

“We might define true community as that place where the person you least want to live with always lives.” Parker Palmer, ‘A Place Called Community”

“True community exists when the person you dislike the most dies or moves away and someone worse takes that place.” Quaker Proverb

“Discipleship usually is not a grand calling or a spectacular act of martyrdom. Rather, it is a set of Christlike instincts and reflexive responses of love that gradually take shape in our lives over a period of years. We immerse ourselves in Scripture and in awareness of his presence. Then, when we have to respond quickly to a life situation, we are more likely to act in a way that is a credit to our Lord.” Donald Kraybill, “The Riddle of Amish Culture”

“How can you go and say to people, “that which we would like to know – that declare we to you. That which is not a reality among us, we declare unto you – a brotherhood which we cannot practice.” How dare we preach, how dare we evangelize, from any standpoint except that of incarnation.” Clarence Jordan, Sermon of the Mount

“Love of God is made visible in love of neighbor, and love of neighbor is the means by which love of God is expressed.” David Augsburger, ‘Dissident Discipleship’