Sitting down to write these Newsletters I sometimes worry about over-romanticizing what our experience is like. With regard to what has taken place this Spring, I don't see this as an issue. In truth I won’t be able to do it justice. Part of the problem lays in Spring still being very much of a blur in my mind. I see glimpses of it in my memory...but even these are more dreamlike than real. The easy way out is to focus on the numbers. 500 homes were built by about 10,000 participants in a 5 week span in 4 cities in Mexico. That is a pretty impressive tag line and I am fairly certain I could stop there and leave a lasting impression of the impact we and our participants have made.
However, I cannot reduce our endeavors, especially our Spring season, to numbers without running the risk of cheapening it. Even if I were to try I would have to include those thousands more from the churches, schools, and communities of our participants who enabled them to come to Mexico through financial support. I would have to mention the thousands who were praying for our ministry and our participants during this busiest of times. To this I would need to add our staff at Amor Ministries and the hundreds of supporters who make it possible for each of us to be here. Aside from this I would mention the host of volunteers who help us coordinate our groups during our peak season. Of course, I could not forget to point out our teams of Mexican Pastors and their families who work tirelessly to bring the love of Christ into their communities everyday. Still there are more. For I must mention that 500 homes means thousands of people now have a sturdy, water-tight house to call their own. I could go on.
But again I must stress focusing on even these limits the potential effects our ministry can have. Because: I cannot measure the impact God has on the life of each participant. Multiply that by 10,000. I cannot determine what the reaction of a teenager returning home from a trip with us will have on their family, their friends, their future. Furthermore, I have no idea how to put a figure on the difference those participants will have on their respective communities. Multiply that by 10,000. Indeed, I certainly cannot calculate the generational effect a new home will have on a Mexican family. Whatever it is, multiply it by 500 in a season, or 1,300 a year, or more than 10,000 and counting in total. Here one begins to get the picture that we can never see the whole picture.
For me, therein lies the rub. I am the type of person who likes to see the lasting impact—the full fruit, if you will—of our labor. But I cannot begin to understand how God works within the infinite variables of each of our lives at the same time to bring us closer to him. Honestly, it blows my mind. At the same time, however, I am eternally thankful that God’s willingness to extend his saving grace to me (us) is not dependent on my (our) ability to quantify the works of his hand.
I do know that in the last five weeks lives were changed, hearts were changed, a difference was made. We fought through hot days, frigid nights, ankle deep mud in our camps, rain saturating our tents, and our campsites being destroyed by wind storms in order to serve God and bring hope to our neighbor. And if in a few years this Spring remains a blur in my mind, I will be content in simply remembering that. I love my job.
However, I cannot reduce our endeavors, especially our Spring season, to numbers without running the risk of cheapening it. Even if I were to try I would have to include those thousands more from the churches, schools, and communities of our participants who enabled them to come to Mexico through financial support. I would have to mention the thousands who were praying for our ministry and our participants during this busiest of times. To this I would need to add our staff at Amor Ministries and the hundreds of supporters who make it possible for each of us to be here. Aside from this I would mention the host of volunteers who help us coordinate our groups during our peak season. Of course, I could not forget to point out our teams of Mexican Pastors and their families who work tirelessly to bring the love of Christ into their communities everyday. Still there are more. For I must mention that 500 homes means thousands of people now have a sturdy, water-tight house to call their own. I could go on.
But again I must stress focusing on even these limits the potential effects our ministry can have. Because: I cannot measure the impact God has on the life of each participant. Multiply that by 10,000. I cannot determine what the reaction of a teenager returning home from a trip with us will have on their family, their friends, their future. Furthermore, I have no idea how to put a figure on the difference those participants will have on their respective communities. Multiply that by 10,000. Indeed, I certainly cannot calculate the generational effect a new home will have on a Mexican family. Whatever it is, multiply it by 500 in a season, or 1,300 a year, or more than 10,000 and counting in total. Here one begins to get the picture that we can never see the whole picture.
For me, therein lies the rub. I am the type of person who likes to see the lasting impact—the full fruit, if you will—of our labor. But I cannot begin to understand how God works within the infinite variables of each of our lives at the same time to bring us closer to him. Honestly, it blows my mind. At the same time, however, I am eternally thankful that God’s willingness to extend his saving grace to me (us) is not dependent on my (our) ability to quantify the works of his hand.
I do know that in the last five weeks lives were changed, hearts were changed, a difference was made. We fought through hot days, frigid nights, ankle deep mud in our camps, rain saturating our tents, and our campsites being destroyed by wind storms in order to serve God and bring hope to our neighbor. And if in a few years this Spring remains a blur in my mind, I will be content in simply remembering that. I love my job.
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