Before I get started, let it be known that this is a time that I really wish I were interested at all in photography, because this past week would have presented hundreds of opportunities to take pictures of stuff. But I will leave that up to my good friend (and very talented photographer) Sarah, and you can see pictures and stuff from our trip here.
So this past week I got to experience my first ever Mission Tour with Crossgates Baptist Church, and I have to say, it was a very frustrating, tiring, and at times downright annoying trip. Yet, at the same time, it was phenomenal. I mean really - even though I'm going to try, there's no way to sum this thing up with words. It was a comedy of errors in a lot of ways, but it was definitely proof that God has a sense of humor. And as I thought about what to title this post, (Plan B, The Comedy of Errors, Mission Tour 2010, The Notebook, The CBC Wrecking Crew, etc.) only one phrase from the entire week stuck with me: The Redemption Project. Technically we only helped out with that particular project on the last day, but looking back it sums up our trip perfectly.
First, though, a parable.
Luke 10:25-37:
[25] And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” [26] He said to him, “What is written in the Law? How do you read it?” [27] And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” [28] And he said to him, “You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live.”
[29] But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” [30] Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead. [31] Now by chance a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. [32] So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. [33] But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion. [34] He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him. [35] And the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.’ [36] Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?” [37] He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” And Jesus said to him, “You go, and do likewise.”
This is significant. I'm still unpacking the ins and outs of it in my mind, and it's like a new revelation every time I think about it, but this passage is the crux of any kind of mission work. And I don't mean the kind of mission work that sends you to some place to just yell really loud about the Bible and get some people to pray some prayers and then you leave them, because...well, I don't think that really does anything but feed your ego. I'm talking about real, tangible work - serving and proclaiming the gospel. And though there was no animosity from our group towards the people of Nashville, in this instance we were the Samaritans. At least in the sense of us observing some people in desperate need of help and offering it. And this parable is a story about who we are called to love and who is our neighbor, but just like every other one of Jesus' teachings, it also proclaims the gospel. Because while we saw people in need of help and Jesus allowed us to be a part of his plan and offer that help, we have to recognize ourselves as the helpless person beaten within an inch of our lives and Christ as our good Samaritan before we can be that to anyone else.
Simply put, our work this week was a tangible, physical, obvious representation of the Gospel. I found it interesting that most of our work depended on destruction, and I couldn't help but think about the houses we worked on as an example of our own lives and our own sanctification. In our own lives, before God can build anything, he has to tear down the junk we've built up in our lives. We try to bring our own accomplishments before God - our own righteousness - and he laughs. Isaiah says that our righteousness is but filthy rags before God. And so our righteousness must be torn down before God can start to instill his own into us. I told my room that. It's something that ran through my mind all week and the weight of it becomes heavier and heavier the more I think about it. It literally blows my mind.
But yeah. The trip was incredible. God showed up in a lot of ways - whether it was literally moving a storm around us so that we could perform in the park, keeping us safe from our really nice (but not always attentive) bus drivers, giving us stuff to do when the weather got rough, or just the grace of having around 100 people do manual labor that was somewhat dangerous and nobody being seriously injured, God showed up.
For me, though, the coolest part of the trip was what happened on Thursday. Driving back from Nashville, we passed through Madison, Alabama, and helped out with a church some former CBC members, (and dear friends) Mark and Staci Sellers. They helped plant a church a few years ago (and God help me but I'm blanking on the name) and they finally have acquired a building that they are renovating into their church. The project of converting the building into a church has been dubbed "The Redemption Project" because the building used to be a strip club. When I heard that, I almost broke down at the beauty of what was happening. A building that used to be the pinnacle of brokenness and despair is being turned into a literal light on a hill to serve that whole city.
And that, my friends, is what Christianity is all about. It's about redemption. And redemption is possible because Christ defeated death and all of the crap that goes along with it. And because of that, we, who were once dead, get to participate in His incredible plan. All because there's a tomb in the Middle East somewhere that's empty.
Beautiful, y'all. Just beautiful.
-chanchan
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