Saturday, October 27, 2012

Growing Community and Passing it on . . .


As we start our second year of ministry at Redeemer’s House International, we are seeing God do some major work on growing our ministry team and our community. He has added two amazing families as full-time workers and three young adults who will be serving for one year. We are so excited to be building a community of Christ followers who desire to serve the least and the last. 

The Lord recognized a need for more hands, feet, minds and hearts in order to grow this burgeoning dream of fighting for single moms and their families. In his kindness, he also recognized our personal need for community. He sees his people, he hears their cries and he is sending help.

The Everswicks, Radfords, Lexie, Redmans, Ericksons & Angel


So we find ourselves in a season of passing on what knowledge, experience, vision and passion the Lord has given us. What we have been given is not ours to keep. It isn’t always easy, but it’s a joy to share with others how the Lord is working here in Guatemala. As we work hard to integrate our new team and pass on vision, pray that God's kingdom on earth will reflect his kingdom in heaven.

We had an opportunity to "pass it on" last summer with our “accidental” intern, Kristina. She was anything but accidental - she was divinely appointed to live with us and share in the work that God has called us to do. She loved on our kids (and our dog), she served our teams and our ministry families, she is completely smitten with a little guy named Mario, she loves food (especially piecaken and fried oreos), she is hilarious, a rebellious rule-breaker and totally 100% in love with Jesus. I asked her to write a little bit about her summer here in Guate. These are her thoughts:

Kristina & Mario

“The first thing you should know is I am a bit of a know it all and coincidentally I have a bad habit of assuming that I know what is best for those around me.  Prior to coming to Guatemala I had already solved all the issues of poverty, in my head of course, and would neatly move everyone I encountered from the “impoverished” category into the “middle class.” Ha! Instead, I wound up having my world wrecked by a huge God working in the midst of a problem much more complicated than I ever anticipated. 

This summer I served as an “accidental” intern with Redeemer’s House International(RHI); the two months I spent with the Radford family completely shifted my paradigm on helping those in poverty.  RHI helped me see that the needs of the poor are not just physical, they are emotional and spiritual as well.  RHI does in fact address the physical needs: providing food deliveries, water filters, supplementing rent for safe housing, taking clinic trips to address health needs etc., but the impact of what they do is so much greater.  RHI interacts with these families inside their homes, often sitting on plastic stools, and offers the one thing they are truly in need of: Jesus Christ.  In Christ, RHI gets to place value on families that society has deemed worthless.  They get to tell them that the God of the universe hears them, sees them, and loves them exactly as they are.  RHI serves as a holistic ministry that sees the poor for what they are, people.  People with basic needs who need to be known and loved in the way that only Christ can. 

RHI taught me what it means to see the people instead of the poverty.  They taught me that I am no better than these friends of mine simply because I have running water.  My biggest take away from RHI is that All people stand on the same level ground of God’s grace and mercy, regardless of their social standing, their physical comforts (or discomforts), their education (or lack of education)… each of us are in need of the slow work of God’s grace and mercy in our lives, equally, essentially, eternally.”
Kristina Fleming, Stillwater, OK

The power of the gospel is not meant to be hoarded or guarded - it is meant to be shared, to be passed on to the current and next generations. As the Lord pours out his grace and mercy on us, it spills over onto those around us. Who are you passing it on to today?

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