Lessons From the Mission Field

In the short time that I have been living here in Vanguard, I've learned a lot about missional work, spiritual warfare, and the body of Christ. What anybody in the mission field needs to be aware of is the fact that Satan despises it when people draw close to God, or when people go around encouraging others to give their lives to Christ. Jesus warned the disciples about the persecution they would face for the sake of the Gospel. In Matthew 10:16, Jesus states directly, "'Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.'" This persecution can be subtle or blatantly obvious, and we have encountered both forms here in Vanguard. The subtle persecution involves the voiced frustrations and skepticism about why certain people are getting helped before them, which stems from the pride Satan is trying to promote. The more obvious persecution came yesterday when Jeni and I were wiping snow off of car windshields. It was going smoothly until one man came out of his house yelling for us to stop touching his vehicle. At the time, I wasn't sure how to take his reaction and I spent part of the morning processing it. Thankfully Jeni and I had a discussion and following that discussion it became apparent to me that Satan was trying to strike fear in my heart to cause me to hesitate to serve the Lord and I refuse to let him win.
Another concept that has been talked over and lived out in the course of the past week comes from John 21:15-17. In this passage, Jesus is talking to Simon Peter and asking him if he loves the Lord. Upon his response of "yes," Jesus tells him that he must feed his sheep. This is repeated three times, highlighting the importance of feeding Jesus' sheep if we love the Lord. I believe that this feeding of sheep is both physical and spiritual. We all feel we were provided an opportunity to return to and live in Vanguard in order to help spiritually nourish the sheep who came to Christ back in November. At the same time, we must not forget that we are also sheep in need of nourishment, which is why it has been a blessing to encounter a handful of strong believers already living within this community who have blessed us with kind words and strengthened our faith through their teaching.
Also, as we have provided spiritually for this community, we have literally fed some of Jesus' sheep by inviting people over for dinner on particular evenings. But, again, as we have provided for others through our service to the Lord, others have literally fed us. Just last night we were presented with a delicious Puerto Rican meal from Jasmine. We have been working on her trailer and she is definitely strong in her faith, so now she has nourished us both physically and spiritually. I believe it's important for all of us to realize the importance of accepting this nourishment from others because we are not beyond help. We are all part of God's family and equal in His eyes.
Speaking of us all being a part of God's family, I've come to realize that each person holds a unique role and position in that family. In the Bible, Paul outlines the dispersion of spiritual gifts to individuals within 1 Corinthians 12:1-25 and describes how each person holds a specific role within the body of Christ, even if it doesn't seem significant. As Paul wrote, we can't all be ears or eyes, but instead must have a variety and combination of parts to create the whole. That's the beauty of the body of Christ; we are all different, but share the same Spirit.
This concept of specific roles was very apparent the past couple of days while we were reinsulating trailers. I felt like I was stuck with the menial tasks of cutting strapping, measuring insulation sections, and passing them to everybody else under the trailer while they did the grunt work of installing the insulation. What I came to realize, though, after talking to a friend of mine on the phone is that the crew as a whole would not function without someone willing to perform the menial tasks. It was a good reminder going into today because my essential function was to just hold up corners of plastic while Jim stapled the plastic to the joists. I wasn't discouraged with this role, though, in light of last night's discussion since I was aware that this simple task was my best way of contributing to the process.
Missional work is definitely a learning experience. Each day is different and presents its own blessings and issues. The best thing to do is absorb information from particular situations and remember them for the future. My hope is that I will keep these lessons open in my memory bank as I work in Vanguard and on future deployments so that I remain aware of what I'm up against and can prevent discouragement or discontent.