Cole and I are leaving for North Africa in a week!!
Molly and I have been working hard this week on inventory, organizing, and packaging the medications for our trip. We received over 700 pounds!! If you can't imagine how much it is, I will just tell you that believe me, it is a lot!!
In order to take all of the medications to North Africa, each team member is packing about 30 pounds. Where are my personal things going?! Hello carry on backpack - be prepared to stretch!
Last night we had a lot of help from our team members to prepackage some of the medications. Hopefully, this will save us some time on the first day so that we can get everything set-up in an efficient and organized manner, and not to mention make things much less bulky for transport.
We had tasks for each person, and a few hours later, it was all done!! Thank you!!
Notice above the bags we are using. They have pictures instead of words. Hopefully this will somewhat eliminate the language barrier so that the patients will have written instructions on each medication they need.
Not only have I spent a lot of time preparing for the pharmacy, but I have also spent time spiritually preparing for our trip as well. One of my favorite things I have read is the chapter on Missions in John Piper's book "Desiring God". He describes missions as "the automatic outflow and overflow of love for Christ. We delight to enlarge our joy in Him by extending it to others. As Lottie Moon said, "Surely there can be no deeper joy than that of saving souls." He further describes a true believer as one who has "discovered a hundred times more joy and satisfaction in a life devoted to Christ and the gospel than in a life devoted to frivolous comforts and pleasures and worldly advancements."
He has instilled the desire in me to become what he calls a "World Missionary" - one that reorders their life around God's global cause. The Bible tells us in Revelation 7:9 that in the end, there is at least one person from every nation, tribes, peoples, and languages, standing before the throne and praising God. So, the mission goal is to establish a church in each "people group". No one knows exactly what "all nations" means but the best guess is each ethno-linguistic group. Of the 13,000 of these, 3500 are still without a church or mission endeavor. A great website that keeps current updates on this is joshuaproject.org. It has been really cool to look into the place we are going and see the statistics on church planting and missions. The people there definitely need Christ!! As you probably already realized, the task of missions can be completed, but the task of evangelism never will (Missions= unique task of crossing language barrier to penetrate a people group and establish a church movement. Evangelism= ongoing task of sharing the gospel among people within the same culture.)
I am reminded over and over again through this process that my purpose here on earth as a Christ-follower is solely to give glory to Christ. How often I fail! It is so easy to lose that eternal mindset and be caught up in my everyday doings. I should be living each day to further the gospel of Christ to those around me and to all nations (Acts 1:8). Hell is real, and people need to know Him! In the end, this is what matters. Not my clothes, my education, my house, my achievements, my body, not even my family...only God. Join me in striving to not only claim, but to also live as Christ is my number 1 priority.
It is also easy for me to forget that we are called to be witnesses wherever we are! Not just on a mission trip to North Africa! People need Christ here just as much as those across the world. A huge part of how people come to know Christ is by observing the lives of believers. We are relying on that for our trip as we cannot openly share the gospel. They stereotype Christianity as an American thing and think that people in Hollywood are the faces for Christianity. No wonder they shun it! So sad! We want to change that stereotype because those images are not of God.
"Most men are not satisfied with the permanent output of their lives. Nothing can wholly satisfy the life of Christ within his followers except the adoption of Christ's purpose toward the world he came to redeem. Fame, pleasure, and riches are but husks and ashes in contrast with the boundless and abiding joy of working with God for the fulfillment of his eternal pans. The men who are putting everything into Christ's undertaking are getting out of life its sweetest and most priceless rewards." - J. Campbell White
I have always admired Jim Elliot, missionary to the Auca Indians, who was killed in 1956 for attempting to share the gospel with them. (There is a touching movie on his story called "End of the Spear"). His credo stated "He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose." What a mindset!! He truly exemplified Phil. 1:21 "For me to live is Christ and to die is gain."
Acts 26:17-18 " I am sending you to them to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me."
Acts 4:12 "Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.”
Romans 1:16 "For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile."
Psalm 67 "May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face shine on us—so that your ways may be known on earth, your salvation among all nations. May the peoples praise you, God; may all the peoples praise you. May the nations be glad and sing for joy, for you rule the peoples with equity and guide the nations of the earth. May the peoples praise you, God; may all the peoples praise you. The land yields its harvest; God, our God, blesses us. May God bless us still, so that all the ends of the earth will fear him."
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