First Blog

*This is post #1 of a blog that I intend to update at least once a week (maybe more). Comments, remarks, criticisms, and any other input is always welcome. Also, I am archiving some writings from the past that you're welcome to check out. Thanks for venturing here!


I sit here, my mind rambling, at my new desk at New Mission Systems International. Behind me is a world map dotted with thumb tacks representing the locations of our affiliates. These red tacks are in places like East Timor, Malawi, and Estonia. I'd say each of us could speak to someone today who is unaware that any of these places exist.

The diversity of this world can overwhelm...especially when you feel called to relate to those in the most remote/dire places. I speak often of a moment when these differences pierced my heart. In the spring of 2005, I walked in to a Haitian village in the Dominican Republic (if you're unaware of the prejudicial issues between the Dominicans and the Haitians look it up...the way the Haitians are treated is tragic). I meandered past homes and shops that were constructed with materials that I would throw in the recycle bin or take to the scrapyard. About 10 of us were there, and we could not help but be spectacles, seeing as how we were white, educated, and relatively wealthy. Essentially, I was the socioeconomic antithesis of everyone I met. Bothered and embarrassed as I was by that fact, I was met with something beautiful...the warm, loving, and sincere welcome of the Hatian people. At that moment I realized that these differences were entirely irrelevant.

I'm reminded of Paul's writing in Colossians 3:11: "Here there is no Greek of Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian (a barbaric group considered by others as a step above wild beasts), slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all."

Paul is speaking of a life in Christ, and in this passage reminds of the inclusiveness of the Gospel. No longer was a life with God limited to the Jews. So as I think of far off places and different cultures like East Timor, Gabon, or Andorra, I realize that those differences are entirely irrelevant regarding the Gospel. As Paul writes, Christ is all and in all. So I celebrate the love that he gives me that is extended to the reaches of this world.

That is why I am at this missions sending organization today...to share that truth...and to love people...wherever they're from, whatever they look like, whatever they think, and whatever they do. As Christ modeled.