Folks – thought you might like to know that Steve arrived in Peru okay. I just found out that the Director of the Mission himself (Seth Barnes) is part of the team! Apparently he has long had a dream to make a ‘reality show’ out of the World Race so that others could see what they do, and chose this team to make it happen. A former TV anchor from ESPN is the leader of the team and they will be documenting the work that Steve and his team will be doing over the next year – how exciting! They have a camera crew along and will be making some kind of program.
His first ministry is working in an earthquake disaster zone. A severe 8.0 earthquake devastated an area south of Lima (Chichua) in August, and not much has been done to help the people. Steve’s team will be heading down there this morning as I write this email.
I came across a journal entry from a current World Racer that’s been on serving for the last several months. I thought you might like to hear a little bit of what Steve is in for…
“I'm sweating/freezing, tired, cramped, bored/too busy to see straight, eating poorly, showering seldomly, sleeping sporadically, suppressed in worship/not allowed to worship the Lord at all, surrounded by beggars and children with no clothes or mothers, living amongst a population that is 94% Buddhist/100% non-religious/etc, stared at (gawked at, actually), talked about, honked at, pointed at, ripped off, completely ignored, followed for crying out loud, sometimes lost (yes, only sometimes), allowed ~$8 a day to live on, communicating poorly in half a dozen different languages, slammed sardine-style into a train bunk for 30 hours, living in constant and disturbing proximity to lice, ticks, and mosquitoes, traveling without the comfort and security of my friends or family (save the WRs, of course), often living in a tent and cooking over a wood fire, carving down everything I own to under 45 pounds, and loving nearly every minute of it.
Why do I love it? What is this? This is the World Race.
This is me getting over myself; getting my walls and biases crushed. This is me getting my perspectives wrecked and my worldview eviscerated. This is me being obedient to the Father who sometimes forces His way into my soul and grabs my heart with His hands to balance perfect love and peace with the notion that you've got to be really left of center. This is me being totally transparent because it's pretty hard to lie to 25 accountability partners, but what I manage to sneak by them will come to light the next time I go to the secret and quiet place with my Dad.
All this so that I can spread a scandalous idea about Life and the Afterlife; to bring light to darkness, order to chaos, sight to the blind, hope to the lost, truth to all, a purpose to those seeking, and glory to an embarrassingly extravagant God. What a notion(!) that there is a Christ, a Savior, that breaks all chains and religion and governments; that restores hope and sheds grace and mercy to all who ask.”
Thanks for praying!
Pastor Bob
P.S. Keep up with Steve at www.stevewright.theworldrace.org
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