Rope: when two or three

My Bible is full. Full like any other, with Truth and beauty, wisdom, guidance, encouragement, challenges and the living word of God. But full also with stuff, things of meaning – a documented journey of my love story with the Big G. Photos, a leaf, outlines of talks, sermon notes, letters, cards, and hand-scribbled bits of love and other pieces. As I was flipping through it this morning I found a little something I had prepared in Papua New Guinea. It would have been for one our ‘sharing sessions’; our mini church services which depending on the village, had consisted of anything from singing, to full sermon, to testimonies, to skits and on one memorable occasion – me falling into a human sized hole. I would have delivered it after great prayer and very little practice; a little message of encouragement to the village we were in.

told you.

it says 6.
apparently I can't count.

And anyway, something I had said struck out to me. You see, Yesu said (Matthew 18:20), “for when two or three come together in my name, there am I with them”. On my team in PNG was a Canadian, a New Zealander, a couple of Australians, an American, a Scott (is that the right word for someone from Scotland?) and a Swiss. And there we were in Papua New Guinea, the land of the unexpected. A total of 7 nations represented, and what I had said was, ‘if Jesus is present when two or three are gathered in His name, what happens when seven nations gather?’ and I went on, I’m sure, to make some profound point about purpose and meaning and the great will of our great God.

Home Based Care program.

& the village we visited.

walking from patient to patient.

& the greatest of these is love.

But I found myself sitting in a room, myself an Australian, with a couple of Malawians, a Brit, and a man from Ethiopia, discussing HIV, Hope for AIDS, Orange HOPE, culture and about a thousand different sub topics. And it made me think. I seem to find myself in lots of international situations, working with different people, from different places – all over the world. I’m in constant shock about how things can be so different, but equally also – how they can be so similar. How some things are completely universal. How people are people. I have best and dear and treasured friends all across this globe. I’ve always had a thing about accents.

But anyway, we got talking about missions, and one truth stood out to me. It is not about our abilities, as people or professionals, but our availability. Missions is a labour of trust, trust in a living, good, miraculous God.

There is so much need in this world. In each person, on each street, in each community. Let alone city, country, continent. My own included, plus here. Everywhere. The harvest is plentiful. And I really do think it comes down to availability, it’s a heart issue.