My Favorite Summer Reading: Tales of LFC Tribe on the Missio Dei
Jesus gives us the power and command to “GO” make disciples and care for those in need. Therefore, Lake Forest Church joins the missio Dei (mission of God) by engaging in the lives of vulnerable people – homeless and homebound, orphans and widows, unreached and overlooked – sharing God’s love with our actions and words.
Another way we say it is that 'God calls his people to GO near and far, to serve people like us and not like us, people hungry for food and people hungry for God.'
We do so locally throughout the year through various partnerships, and each summer members of the LFC tribe go 'on mission' as teams to various spots around the globe. We never go on our own initiative with our own agenda, instead we go to serve under the leadership of some of our international partners in ministry, doing what they need done in the name and power of Christ.
We pursue multi-generational and family-based discipleship in our Missio Dei strategy by making most of our trips inclusive of children and teens, and by encouraging every parent of teenagers to take at least one trip with their son or daughter. The Lord has led us to emphasize orphan care in our international partnerships, in response to God's Word in
James 1:27 "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the Word."
Those who go on these teams report that, in addition to serving and "meeting Jesus in his distressing disguise as the poor" (Mother Teresa), the Lord often kicks their spiritual growth into hyper-speed that week. Most also report that they live more intentionally and meaningfully on-mission back at home afterward. Our stated goal is that 100% of LFC Ministry Partners will serve on a cross-cultural Missio Dei experience, locally or internationally.
Something I look forward to each summer is reading the blog each of our Missio Dei teams writes while they are gone. This week, our Honduras team is in the field, partnering with Children's Impact Network to serve the orphanages we've built with them, and the surrounding communities. Here's one of their blog entries. At the end, click into our Missio Dei blog, look at other entries from this and other trips, and subscribe, then you'll receive these as encouraging emails like I do:
Honduras Day 2 - Food, Fun, and Familia
Morning devotions today began with a quote from Oswald Chambers - "a missionary is someone in whom the Holy Spirit has brought about this realization: You are not your own." We sat in the reality that God has a purpose for our time in Honduras and we prayed that He would reveal to each of us how He wants to use our unique gifts this week to bring Him glory. We spent the morning distributing food sacks to local villagers (beans, rice, etc - enough for ~2 weeks). Our group broke into 2 teams in order visit as many homes as possible. The local pastor provided a list of needy families ahead of time and helped arrange our visits. We met each family in their home, and spent some time to get to know them with the help of our host team translators. The food we delivered helped address an immediate physical need, but we concluded each visit by placing our hands on the members of the family and lifting a heartfelt prayer for both their physical and spiritual well being. It seemed the experience was equally impacting for the Honduran families and our team, as we all shared in the work God designed for this day.
After eating lunch at Golmania we headed to the Honduras Life Center to spend a couple of hours with the children. The afternoon was equal parts laughter, chaos, and hugs. Pockets of fun formed organically through the house with soccer on the balcony, Spanish word bingo and UNO on the center tables, tours of the bedrooms, pictures, and general catching up with the kids for those who had been to the center before. It was an amazing afternoon getting to love on the children, but we eventually needed to leave and head back to the hotel where we completed a dry run of the vacation bible school play we will perform tomorrow. We grabbed a quick dinner and then jumped on the bus to catch a lively service at a local church in Pena Blanca. John Hernandez was the guest speaker and gave an inspiring sermon which challenged us to hear and respond to Jesus when He says "Follow me." It was a powerful end to a long, but Spirit-filled day as we look forward to the adventure God has planned for the team tomorrow.
Angie Moses: Flying Home My wife Angie published her first novel a few years ago. #1 I'm proud of her. #2 It's stinkin' good (tension between dreams and duty for a young mother). #3 This book will never be published and stocked in a 'Christian' bookstore with the picture of a beatific looking prairie woman on the front wearing a bonnet - there's grittiness of real life like happens to real people, and perhaps some grace. #4 This link is to the Kindle version, look below for paperback also. #5 Angie had in mind precisely the type of 'given up on church but not on God' folks we love so much to welcome at Lake Forest as she wrote.
