Reflections

I have so much to catch up on, and I plan to blog a (mostly) day-by-day account of my trip to Holland. But first, some reflections upon being home. 

I don't know how much of an impact mine and Michelle's visit had on the students and church family of Cross Culture Calvary Chapel, but I know it had a great deal of influence on me. It was like spending two weeks in the life of new missionaries and joining in their work, not exactly sure what we were going to do each day, but more sure each day of our purpose there. Every day we went out and spent time with people and praying for the country, then came home and talked about the best way to share Jesus with them. 

I got to see firsthand, for instance, how much the community of the Body of Christ can affect a non-believer. That made me rethink the idea that real evangelism means finding strangers and talking to them about Jesus. How are they supposed to see the saving work of Jesus in my life and in the life of the Body if they don't know us?

And the church- we talked a lot about the church and how we are to be visible to our communities, how we are different from the rest of the world. That really struck me one of the first days we were there: we sat at lunch with several members of the church talking about Dutch people and one of the boys said, "Well, not us. We're different." And it's true. 

Now I must learn how to be a missionary in my own town and my own school. It's harder for me, this daily sacrifice of laying down my life for my brothers, than one big and adventurous sacrifice to go overseas. But I know this is the next step.