Philippines presentation
Ministering the gospel especially to the poor is more than what we say, it is what we do
One morning as I got out of bed and the mosquito net in my 18 square foot room, I sat on a dining room chair just outside my room. I opened to Isaiah and started reading some of the chapters to give me a good jump start to my day. Usually I would read while the kids watched morning Filipino TV and Ate Lina (the mother of the house washed clothes or prepared breakfast). This morning was different. The kids were still asleep, it was raining really hard so Ate Lina couldn’t go outside. She asked me what I was reading and started recommending passages to me. Then in our broken English conversation, she started sharing how her husband found God, her family history, and how she refused to gossip even when there was trouble. And then she started talking about her kids and began thanking me profusely for being around. She broke out in tears as she recounted her gratefulness for my presence and the positive influence I had on her eldest son. And though I was moved, I was wondering, “what in the world had I done to be on the receiving end of such thanksgiving?”
If anything all I knew was that my pride was completely put in check. Upon arriving to the Philippines, I was sitting on my experience. I already had gone to the Philippines in 2007. I knew the sights, the smells, the sounds, and just the flow of life over there. Nothing could surprise me, disgust me, cause me delight. In fact I “already knew” the old mantras people kept telling me. It’s not to serve, but be served. Or it’s not what you do, but the relationships you build. It’s the fact that you are going there that counts and not the material wealth you bring. And I was going to master these sayings. And all this was going great until I was hit with a double whammy. I developed a cough right before I moved into my community home the first week. I had a high grade fever. These two things (turns out to be the flu and a bacterial infection) knocked me out for a week, living away from the community so I could recover. And because I got sick relatively early, I was left really fatigued for the rest of the time.
I was dreaming “big” in terms of what I would do there. I would encourage bible studies, play basketball, meet the community, and invest in relationships that would help the community long-term. I was going to tell people about Jesus. I would become a champion for the poor. And once I got sick, immediately, I could barely walk outside for fifteen minutes before feeling tired. It was depressing. I was handicapped. And all my dreams were pretty much dashed.
In this sickness I became weak and understood a deeper meaning of what Paul teaches in the second letter to the Corinthians. God’s power was made perfect in my weakness. For when I am weak, I am strong. I was weak and I needed help, and I couldn’t do anything in my own strength. All I could do was watch morning TV, play chess and card games, go on walks to help pick up and drop off the kids to school, invite them to what I was doing, and sometimes go shopping. These everyday tasks seemed miniscule. I can do these things at home! But that is all I could do in the Philippines.
And so reflecting on Ate Lina’s words, at first I could not understand the extent of her gratefulness. I really had done nothing special! If anything, I gave into the fact that the family is poor so what seems little to me might be a lot to them. But how unsatisfactory! And then I ran into the words in Isaiah on true fasting (the whole chapter, but here’s a glimpse):
==========
Isaiah 58:5-6
5 Is this the kind of fast I have chosen,
only a day for a man to humble himself?
Is it only for bowing one's head like a reed
and for lying on sackcloth and ashes?
Is that what you call a fast,
a day acceptable to the LORD ?
6 "Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice
and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free
and break every yoke?
==========
In a society that tells the poor that they are only worthy of exploitation, drunkeness, gambling, and oppression, the question points to me. I am there, so what am I doing? It was never about how much or how large my plans were. The challenge was never about that. God was asking me directly, “will you love the poor? Will you love your neighbor?”
And the only thing I can ask is how? Upon reflection, I experienced living a life of love is communicated two ways. The first is just by being in community. That is to practice being blessed and being a blessing. People see the Gospel by how we live everyday. Though they are intently watching us, everyone sees our life. We are truly the aroma of Christ. In this situation what am I going to do here or there? If children are pesky, how will I respond? If the food is unsightly to me, what will I say? If the experience is shocking, how will I react? Simply by living with the hope that people will connect to God in the Philippines, people get to see what Jesus was like. That was the first turnaround, I saw that Jesus exists within the miniscule habits and lifestyle I live everyday.
And what’s great is that we actually had a lot of fun doing this. Being blessed means allowing people to serve us in the way we know best. Karaoke, late night conversations, parties, silly tv shows, food, getting tours, translators, and teachers are all part of people welcoming us into their homes. We got to do all of this. And on the other hand, we were able to give them a taste of the US, how we spend time, what we do for fun, and places we like to go to. They invited us everywhere, and we invited them everywhere. And we invited God to participate with us in all these things. The actions in themselves were not fall-out-of-your-seat amazing. Yet, all of us saw God at work. That’s truly amazing.
The second thing I saw was that the Gospel is further expressed by becoming an active disciplemaker. At least for me, I used to picture discipleship as the wise, man teacher Jesus spouting wisdom to his disciples. But upon further investigation, the power of Christ words is not affirmed by what he said, but also what he actually did. People know how to follow God more when another person shows what this means. It is more than just bible study techniques and knowledge. Those are good, but the key is showing another what it means to be a godly man or woman. Christ did not just sit on a hill, he did what he was teaching. This holistic form of teaching, discipling the whole person, means life-on-life. It means participating in their life and inviting them into yours. And this happens naturally, being affirmed by the friendship that develops.
I was privileged to the fact that Ronnel, the son of Ate Lina, respected me as an older person and welcomed my insights. I invited him to spend time in the word with me. I was curious to see how Filipinos connect with the word and tried different methods. I think cultural and communication barriers made it difficult for us to go deeper into scriptures. We connected with God through these times, but the words we were looking into was affirmed by the time we shared with each other. God’s words should not merely challenge our brains with right thought. The word, Logos, must penetrate our hearts. It is only when we are motivated by the very words of Jesus, that our actions can take place. And our actions testify not only of our words, but our whole self. Every part of us becomes infiltrated to live like Christ. And in this same way, we make disciples. We speak to the whole person.
When Ate Lina told me in tears how grateful she was in inspiring her son to read the word, and Ronnel continued to tell me how grateful he was for teaching him how to spend time with God, what the three of us had done became clearer. Did I really teach him anything? Not really, my strategies may have stunk. But it is the fact that I was inviting Ronnel into my entire life and made it a priority to spend time with God. Praise God! I don’t think I really did anything intentional, but he connected with God because of experience and not because of knowledge.
I was thoroughly beat down physically on this trip. Everything that I thought I could do was pretty much dampered. Yet, I was introduced to two lessons. We preach the Gospel by what we do, preaching the Gospel to the whole person. Yet, though we may be back from the Philippines, God continually challenges us with the same question. “Do you love the poor? Do you love your neighbor?” The Gospel is readily available to everyone around us.
And it is this encouragement that has sustained me the past few months that I would like to close on.
==========
Hebrews 12:1-2
“Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”
good to read this.
ReplyDeleteHi, Joel, I really appreciated your sharing this.
ReplyDelete