Ecclesia
What do you think of when you think of the word "church"?
Do you think of a big building with steeples and stained glass? Do you think of lots of lights and big production? Or do you think of 4 cement walls and a roof? Do you think of a group of people who gather together to bring a meal or move cement or dirt? What if they didn't all speak the same language? Is it still church?
I am a feeder. That's what I do and who I am. I am a feeder. I love to give people a meal or load their pantry, maybe it seems like such an insignificant thing but it has ALWAYS meant so much to me.
I served with a youth pastor and he would always say it, and my current pastor would say... "We have to make disciples who make disciples." So many times I have felt completely intimidated by that, I know the bible but do I know enough to teach it well enough to make a disciple who makes disciples. I'm this imperfect person who sucks at almost everything.
Every trip to Haiti is different for me. Sometimes God speaks to me in the middle of the trip, sometimes at the end. This trip it was the beginning of when the team came.
He said nothing is about how you feel and everything you do needs to be about me. If it's about you, don't do it. "Everything that matters is about Me"
So many times I have come to haiti and honestly it's been about me. It's been about God uses me... I have sung the meme song more than I care to admit, I have always known that it's about God and have tried to stay out of the limelight but people know me and they know what they see me do.
I have been so encouraged this week to have nothing be about me. It's all been about the church that we've helped to build. It's not about what I've purchased for anyone, it's been about the church, and a community of believers in Jesus Christ come together with the gifts that He has given them, women from the mountain cooking, masons, brick layers, translators, "machine" (truck) drivers carrying rocks and sand to build this church, so that the pastor of this church can pour into the people on this mountain and make disciples who make disciples.
In my heart, that is the perfect vision of "the church"
Ecclesia as God had intended.
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