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TableTalk is a growing archive of snippets and stories from the heart of our fellowship. Now…let’s get going! July 1, 2008
Posted by Lindquist in : Editorial , trackbackThis month, now at midsummer, let’s get going. There is very much work to do!
Sometimes, of course, we should be slowing down. We must measure our pace along the road to Jericho, for example – as the Good Samaritan did – if we are to see the wounded ones that wait for us there.
But sometimes we should get going, too. Some “Jericho” does indeed await us. We do indeed have somewhere to go.
I am writing this month during the middle days of our annual missionary candidates’ Briefing Course. Fifteen candidates and serious inquirers have joined us for three weeks of intensive dialogue, fellowship and preparation. Each one has a “Jericho” awaiting them.
Several are on their way to Africa. Kathleen is feeling called to the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Kenya and service to “children at risk” in Nairobi. Dave and Miriam have received a call to a two-year assignment at Meru Christian University in Tanzania.
Several more are on their way to Asia. Doug and Tarisa are called to Tansen Hospital in the mountains of Nepal. Steve and Debby are called to a creative partnership in East Asia. Kirsten is hearing a call to invest her gifts in the Kingdom’s cause – maybe in Pakistan.
Some are on their way to Latin America. Stan and Diane are feeling called to disciple-making with the Lutheran Apostolic Alliance in Mexico. So are Justin and Krista.
And a handful are called to remain in the US or Canada, for the time being. Elycia has begun her calling in our Business Office in Minneapolis; Jamus, her fiancé, is feeling called to Elycia. Catherine is completing a short-term internship assignment in our offices in Canada – and feeling called to a lifetime of Kingdom involvement to follow.
There is work to do! It is time to be on our way!
Yet it is not only these fifteen friends, of course, who are called and on their way into the world. You are called, too.
Our Mission Handbook explains, “We believe that God has called all Christians everywhere to involvement in his mission in the world. Each one has a role to play” (¶55). Most of us, the Handbook explains, “will discover [our] place of participation at home, in [our] own neighborhoods, and in [our] regular occupations.” Some of us “will discover [our] place of participation in extraordinary service elsewhere in the world” – as have fifteen participants in Briefing Course 2008. All of us may expect “that God will commission [us] to a wide and wonderful variety of participations in his mission of love around the world” (¶56).
So this month, now at midsummer, let’s get going. Let’s aim to turn the world right upside down. Let’s bathe its peoples in prayer. Let’s watch for our point of “maximum participation” – as advised in our Handbook – in the mission of God around the world. Let’s invest ourselves… in our own neighborhoods, in our regular occupations, and in missionary partnership and outreach to the very ends of the earth.
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