While Telling Them

The days slip past and I'm so good at blocking out being anywhere but here. My experience from leaving Cameroon has held me in good stead with my  Colombian memories as well (pushing it behind a wall in my head).

So it felt so good this morning to speak at the Elementary Chapel for their Missions Day today. We showed pictures, we talked about places, and it's amazing how fast facts and memories fade.

And to start off our presentation, we showed a slideshow about the lighter side of being in Colombia, the bonds that grow between a group of teens stuck in a foreign country, and all the fun we had together.

And as I watched the video (which can be found *here*, because YouTube won't load it), I teared up.

It's been so long since I've thought about the people and places over there, other than the lessons that I've learned and trying to implement them.

Once the video was done, we passed the mic from person to person and talked about the situations we had seen kids over there in, showing the kids that others miles away were just like them.

Then, at the end, we showed our "real" slideshow:

And it challenges me to my very core.

Because the changes that I experienced to my viewpoint and to my plans for the future need to stay the same.

I need to refuse to succumb to the pressures of time, tiredness, conveniency, and to instead stand strong, not in my own strength, but in His.

And that's something that I'm struggling with learning. I'm learning just how weak I am and how easily I procrastinate and then beat myself up later. But I'm also learning about how to lean on His strength... about the letting go.

One of the biggest things that I learned while over in Colombia was the reality of mission in my everyday life. Even I, having grown up in the middle of a jungle to Bible-translating parents, put missions work into a box.

But as I daily saw people over in Colombia giving their all, loving those around them and fulfilling needs that the Colombians had, I saw the reality.

The reality is... missions is every single one of our callings. For some it's destined overseas, and even though that's what I've longed to do ever since childhood, the reality of that happening in the next few years is exciting and scary. For some, it's to stay over here in Canada and use their realm of influence to tell others about Him.

And for right now, that's my place. It was so easy to serve over there and to go to bed feeling as if you had accomplished something. Everything was typed out on schedule, the leaders were fairly confident of what was going on and you worked together as a team.

Here, it's hard. It's hard to break out of the habits that I have built over the last three-ish years of hiding within my own life and my little circle of friends. And it was only after coming back that my eyes were opened to the big impact that I can have in simply saying hello, smiling, asking about others' days, spending time with Junior High kids, being a good example, and palpably reaching out and starting up a new friendship.

It's so easy to slip back into a rut, and for a long time the spring play has effectively eclipsed any school life beyond getting the day over in order to prepare for performing that night. And then, this past week, I've been going through play withdrawal and instead spending hours that could be used better to surf the internet and procrastinate.

But watching those videos this morning reminded me, as we were reminding the kids, that our place is to do something about what we have seen.

For me, it's stepping out, changing my  habits, my view on missions in my very near future and letting go of doing things on my strength.... and instead, doing it on His.