Step of faith

A few more days and I will be facing what could be one of the most important events of my life…..Nah! No wedding bells within earshot… Not yet anyway….

For one week, my friends and I will stay in a place familiar to only one of us. It is a place you wouldn’t normally choose for R&R (though I am sure we will have that squeezed into our schedule). Well, we are not going there for R&R…We will be there for a week of cross cultural exposure, gift giving and medical/dental outreach. It will be a week of deep lessons on life.

Several days ago, we underwent an orientation of the culture, beliefs and social norm of the people we will visit.. We will have to remember a lot of DO’s and Don’ts… Suffice to say that I will have to wear the most unflattering outfits I could think of.

But it is okay. Because that week will not be about me. It will be about what I can do and what I can give to others. It will be about what God is calling me to do. It is about giving a little bit of the love that God allows me to experience each day. It is about sharing my life and how God has changed it in so many beautiful ways.

More than anything, it will be a great privilege to build relationships with brothers coming from a vastly different faith, a faith that its people embrace with so much intensity. It will be an opportunity for me to understand them more and derive lessons from their practices.

This one week will be seven days of adventure, challenge, courage and faith stretching activities… But it will also be seven days of fun.... Remember, I will be with my friends! All 16 of us!

We all have a lot of love to give to people around us. We needn't go far to do that. We are just too busy thinking about ourselves…our usual concerns would cover topics like…finding a company pays better, a mobile phone that has better features, planned drinking spree with friends, or the latest movie showing on GB3, or who is going out with whom, who has the better car, the bigger house…ad nauseum..

When I return from this experience, I am sure that I will be refreshed in ways no movie nor gimmick could ever do…Actually, a so-so movie or a Friday night out rarely refreshes me unless it is time spent talking with very good friends ....umm…. over dinner.. *lol*