On the Missio Dei

The Road Less Travelled

Dateline October 20, 2011
The Road Less Travelled
Sarah Southerland

(Blog Update on Village 1, Cheebo Coming Tomorrow)

Our second Village. Today we set out to village number two, Marebong Tea Plantation, all a little weary but still geared up for what we were told was to be an exciting jeep ride. I am sure when Pastor Nandu mentioned this to us he was unaware of what God had in store for us, or did he?!? The morning started off with some unexpected morning sickness from Charles  which progressed to vomiting out the window (5 times) while riding down the mountain from Kalimpong.  A stop at a beautiful overlook of two rivers converging, one coming out of China, the other coming off the glaciers (neither of which the patient or I saw) led to an impromptu IV on the way to the Marebong.  With IV fluid infusing, we continued on our journey, and much to our dismay, turned off onto a road that looked more like a wide hiking trail instead of road for three jeeps full of people.  I was told, “It is way better than last time”; and I was thankful for that. The rule is: As long as three wheels are touching the ground, we are good!

We were greeted in the village by smiling faces and proceeded to set up camp.  Immediately a 17-year-old girl was carried in by her father.  She had a fever of 102.8, headache and drifted in and out of consciousness. We quickly pulled out supplies, Dr. Rabin (a General Practitioner that was been gracious enough to partner with us for several of our villages) assessed the patient and directed her care. Thus started IV #2 of the day, which she received along with some much needed medications.  At the end of the day, with the help of Pastor Nandu, Charles and I checked on the girl who had been resting at her house. Her temperature was normal and she was feeling much better.

The villagers offered us customary hot tea and the women prepared a warm lunch. There were many men, women and children who were happy for the medical assistance and care they received through our hands, but that which only God had inspired. In each village we saw different conditions, from hypertension to diabetes, to female issues to joint pain. The overwhelming condition noted were primarily untreated skin infections on every child. Something so simple that started as a bite turned into an abscess.

Andy became our resident balloon and lollipop man. He has a real talent for blowing up rubber gloves and a real creative side that I am not sure that any one knew about when it comes to the crazy faces he draws on them. Charles did get a nap (he needed the rest) in between playing with the children and started to feel much better by the time we left (Yes, Phyllis we took care of him!). Kishia split her time multi tasking between wound care and developing her triage skills. Mike and Byron held down the triage post while I floated and helped an army nurse that had partnered with us on our pharmacy area.

We left Marebong, headed for Darjeeling - under the cover of darkness, mind you. The wide hiking trail, seemed more treacherous in the dark. But, you must remember the rule!, and that God is with us! We arrived safely in Darjeeling, enjoyed a restful night and a much needed continental meal (American). Sight seeing in Darjeeling is next!

  
Charles and Sarah Assisting With              Marebong Camp Shot
Setting Up the 17-year Old Girls IV               Kishia Wound Care

  
          Dr. Mike in Triage Bay 1                  Uncle B.Y. Holding Down
                                                                               Triage Bay 2

  
    Andy is responsible For All          Pastor Nandu Enjoying Lunch
These Blue Ballooned Like These              
            Floating Around!                         


      

 

Grace Children’s Home

 

Video of a Traditional Nepali Dance

LFC Medical Team Arrives in India

Destination India

  

  

 

 

In God's Economy

The world economy may not have been in good shape last Saturday, but God’s economy was alive and well in service as volunteers from Lake Forest-Davidson, St. Albans, and Davidson United Methodist came together at a Samaritan’s Feet shoe distribution project at Ada Jenkins Center in Davidson.

 

There were two doors, two lines, and two different sets of people waiting to share with one another. The line moving into the back door included over 100 volunteers waiting to sign in and get instructions to distribute shoes in love to kids who needed them to go to school.  The line moving into the front door area were those who had registered their needs to receive shoes. They didn’t know that they were also part of God’s economy.

 

Volunteers sat in rows of chairs facing an empty chair awaiting a child in need. But the volunteers had needs also.  They needed to serve their God by serving others.  In between these two needs, between each pair of chairs, was a basin of water used to wash the feet: need meeting need in touch and care.

©2011 DavidsonNews.net/Used with permission

©2011 DavidsonNews.net/Used with permission

 The delight of the morning was seeing the joy spill off the faces in both chairs as the serving volunteer worked to find a pair of sneakers that fit the size, gender, and personality of the students in need and the child offered back spontaneous thanks for the new shoes.

 

There were some great God stories.  A high school track star humbly waited to receive what was available, and looked down in delight at a sleek pair of zippered shoes that she could wear with pride at her new high school.  A grandmother, who had brought three small children to be fitted, watched as her grandchildren received sturdy pairs of black, white, and pink shoes with socks.  As each child squealed in delight, the tension in her shoulders lessened, and she leaned over and gave the volunteer a quick hug of thanks.  Her burdens of caring for these children must be heavy; she was giving thanks that others helped her carry this “shoe” part of the burden.

 

God’s economy is better than the world economy.  In the world, the rich tend to get richer and the poor get poorer.  In God’s economy, He always moves us toward sharing with one another.  Saturday morning was a visual demonstration of God’s economy 

©2011 DavidsonNews.net/Used with permission

Observations by Bobbi Campbell

Also check out DavidsonNews.net article "New shoes for school, thanks to Samaritan's Feet  http://davidsonnews.net/2011/08/20/a-new-pair-of-shoes-for-school-thanks-to-samaritans-feet/

 

Thin Places and Transparent Vessels

On Saturday, our decompression and reflection day, Courtney, our receiving missionary, arranged for us to travel down south to Glendalough, Ireland.  Glendalough, as he described it, is a "thin place," a place where spiritual and physical worlds live in very close communion, where the connections are quite easy to make.

 

Glendalough, Ireland

While we were there, we walked to the Upper Lake as a group, picnicked, and then took some time to wander individually and reflect on all aspects of the trip in order to be able to answer the question, "How was the trip?" when we arrived back in the States.

On Saturday evening, Joe and Sharon invited us to their house, where we munched on pizza (they have Dominoes!) and were free to ask questions, once again inviting Joe to share his heart and pieces of his testimony with the group - and on more individual levels.  Some of us heard some fun stories from Sharon on when she and Joe first got married (e.g. the time as a newly-wed that Joe got on the bus after work and wound up at his mother's house instead of their house, because he had "forgotten he was married"!).  Here, we also talked and planned what decisions faced LFC with the project of One More Neighborhood in Huntington Green, asking his experience to share wisdom with us.

While we sat around his living area in the Donnelly house, Joe shared that nowhere in the Bible do the writers describe someone as having great faith.  Faith is faith.  What matters, however, is the object of the faith.  Having faith in a great God will allow for unimaginable feats.  "We are all clay vessels," Joe reminded us. "The clay is gonna show on occasion, but the idea of a life of faith is to become as transparent as possible in our clay by pouring our faith into the big-ness of God." He encouraged us not to draw the conclusion of the experience of the trip as meeting someone or a mission that 'has great faith,' but to see the work that he and Sharon participate in to be an as-transparent-as-possible vessel to show off our great, great God.  

So, how was the trip?  In order to answer this, I will become no longer the spokesperson for the group, since everyone, though sharing experiences in the same realm, can have different perspectives on them. While at Glendalough- on a Saturday during the busy, holiday time in Europe- there were people everywhere.  Initially, I was disappointed by this, longing for solitude and quiet meditation in the wildest, beautiful place we had been (at least in the past day).  

 

And yet, as I sat on the shore of the lake, with the waves lapping into the cove and a French family of 3 eating lunch on a log about 5 meters from me, the Lord reminded me that His creation includes the sixth day - the day where He created man in His own image, where He designed that humankind be His clay vessels aiming for transparency.  

Day 1, Sunday, 8/7, as Joe shares with us the mission we will be working with and towards for the week.

In Glendalough, in the mission center, in Joe's house, in Ireland (and now that I'm home, here), the Lord reminded me of the thin places- the connection of spirit and physique - within the human creation, particularly in the blessing of relationships.

 
The Lord not only shows His beauty in the amazing wonders of His creation, but in the simple ability of humans to connect: to smile at each other and say a word of greeting in the grocery store, to share our burdens and joys with closer friends, or to serve a mission on the other side of the world through some cleaning up and loving on some beautifully-made children.

People mingling in Temple Bar area, Dublin.

The beauty of the flowers, and those who attack the weeds - Tracy and Elaine.

Earl's namesake, a very wonderful place to eat, which we found out on Saturday morning.

Our photographer in the wind.  I hear Hollywood calling...

The beauty of our Savior is that this is life, that He created us in His image, that He hand-paints the sky for us each morning and decorates our world with beauty in natural form.  It's messy sometimes, dirty most of the time, but He knows and invites us not just to relationship with others and with the world around us, but with Him, the artist and author of all of it.  We are not alone, and this is this is (one of) the message(s) of Ireland for Lake Forest Church.  

Might we be vessels that carry that truth so that all may see it, and, in seeing, share it with us, so that our joy might be complete.

 

The value of a child's smile

Our hearts sunk at 1pm on Friday as the children reconvened with their parents for the last time for the week. After a final two days of camp consisting of baking chocolate chunk cookies and planting flower baskets, these children had captured the hearts of not only the members of the team designated as children's camp workers, but of the whole team, as Mike made balloons into dogs and swords and Courtney, Earl, and Tracy participated in the final day of games to earn points for the children's teams.


Sharon, Joe's wife, reminded us a number of times that if we had not come this week, the children would not have had a club to go to; our presence made it possible for these children to come hang out at the project and to give their mums and grandmums a break from caring for them over the summer.


Bri has a shadow in the form of a child! :)

 
This is why Darrell was not the photographer this trip. :) 

 

Zack telling the story.

Not only that, but, as Joe said, they were able to hear from us- the crazy cool Cole and Zack, the fun and ball-throwing Caleb and Matt, the diligent and wonderful Darrell and Kat, and the sweet girl with the camera, or a child, around her neck, Brianna- that each of them are special to God and that He loves them and wants to have a relationship with them. And the relationships that began to form over the week were cut short on Friday at 1pm, so that we threw ourselves into cleaning to avoid the sadness that threatened to overwhelm us.

Here are just a few snapshots of the last days of camp, and the children that captured our hearts:

Baking



Mmmm, cookies



Snapshots:

 

This, in these faces and so many more, was camp.

P.S. The planting pictures didn't make it onto the thumb drive, so those will have to be postponed.

A Goodnight and See you soon

Wow. Time flies when you're not sure what time zone you'll be in tomorrow. As I mentioned briefly, Internet has been patchy
(I've found some in the hostel's public toilet beside the lobby here). We don't have a computer to upload pics... and we're getting up in less than six hours to walk to get on a bus to get on a plane. Don't worry, this blog isn't over yet, but the update for present time ascertains that the finishing of the blog will be occurring in the States. All is well, everyone is well, we are tired yet joyful and filled with a renewed sense of hope as we have been poured into by Joe's wisdom and vision here while we have served. Some of you we will see tomorrow, and the rest will hear from the blog in the next few days as we work out picture details. Oh yeah, and that thing called real life. God is blessing us in abundance- may it overflow to you! Next step, a 7ish-hour plane ride. Cheers.

Lights in the Darkness at Hell Fire Club

Thursday evening

There is a story that they tell in Ireland about the bad gambling problem that has plagued the country here for hundreds of years. Back in the 1800s, this building situated with the most beautiful panorama of the city was a hotel at which people would spend evenings gambling, drinking, and participating in other forms of debauchery, for lack of a better word. At the end of the century, the story goes that one night at the gambling table, a man looked under the table and saw that his neighbor at the table had the hairy feet and legs of an animal: Lucifer, at the gambling table. In fear for their lives, everyone ran out of the hotel as the hotel spontaneously burst into flames.

This 100-year burned-out building, now called Hell Fire Club, has thus had this amazing view to itself for a century- except that Joe shared with us that this building has now become a home for the power and practice of darkness, where Irish come and practice witchcraft even up to the present day.


In some of these pictures, you can see how the building soaks up what meager sunlight is at the top of the hill. And yet, we hiked up here to experience the panoramic views that cannot be captured on film in any way. We watched the rain drench the city below, testing the wind to see if it would hit us or not. As a mini miracle, it sprinkled on us but poured in the city down below.

 
The view from Hell Fire Club

Joe, his wife, two of their daughters, and a resident missionary named Jamie from Canada came on the hike with us that evening. This Thursday night, Joe taught us a lesson in faith. Again. As we watched the rain clouds, wondering where they would go, he encouraged us to consider that here are two possibilities in life: events that we can control and events that we have no control over. His lesson is that, no matter which situation we find ourselves in, we have a CHOICE. As he said through illustrations, "So much [of our lives] is written in that flashpoint, that moment of decision, in how you will react." 

The story (short version) he told was that of a situation about 12 years ago when his car was stolen and a ransom note was sent to his house asking for 500 Euro or his car would be destroyed. Through prayer and turmoil, as a family, Joe found himself showing up at the meeting place that the gang suggested with what he found to be more valuable than silver or gold. As the gang asked him for the requisite money, in his nerves, Joe found that God spoke the words of salvation through relationship that he personally treasured more than money or his car. Then he walked away from the gang, unscathed and unharmed. Four days later, after Joe had sent for the insurance claim papers, the police called to say they found his car. It was washed, waxed, and filled with petrol- not destroyed.

This is the faith that is lived out through decisions that have the opportunity not only to change lives around you, but to change your own heart. This is the faith that allows the Dublin mission to carry on and persevere, even in the small decisions and trials of each day.

As we gathered in this place that is used so often for works of darkness, we convened in prayer, laying hands on the Donnelly extended family and praying through the darkness that their light might shine ever brighter. We prayed for people: those that minister there, those who are ministered to, those who are being raised up as the next generation, and for those who strive to come against the project. In this way as well, we were able to minister and encourage the project and our family here in Dublin, to minister to very real and very human needs.

Johnnie Fox's from the outside.

The pub, inside.
After an evening on the mountain, we travelled to the most famous pub, just south of Dublin, near Hell Fire Club where we hiked, named Johnnie Fox's for a wonderful traditional Irish meal.  We fellowshipped with the Donnelly clan and ate, took pictures, laughed, and learned from each other.  One of Joe's friends, Ronan, has been our driver on the trip. On the trip home, he gave us a driving tour- from 10:30 to midnight!  We were a bit tired, but his stories and his hard-to-understand accent is fantastically worth the loss of sleep for the experience.

 

Prayer for the Land of Rainbows and Whirlwinds

Joe has done it again.  Last night (Wednesday night), after working with the children, painting, and the demolition of an entire building, we traveled about 15 minutes north of the city to Howth ("Howt").

 
Dock side of the city of Howth after dinner.

Howth is a small town surrounded essentially on three sides by water. Our first stop was not in the town, however, but along the perimeter on Howth Head trail.  

 

Joe sitting on the sign that sums up the trail.

We first took a hiking jaunt to one of the Martello towers in the spitting rain, where we were given the option to go for a hike to meet the driver at the next stop or to ride to the summit and hike down to the lighthouse (a different one).  

The group in the spitting rain near Martello tower, where one group hiked the perimeter and the other group hiked down from the summit.

The hike portion was "about 25 minutes," per Joe's estimation.  Mike, one of those who took the trail, timed the trip (as one of the faster walkers) at an hour and a half.  

Mike stands at the door and knocks along the perimeter of Howth Head Trail.

However, the views for all of us were worth it.  Along the trail, the hills dropped as cliffs into waters that collided on the rocks below.  At any turn of the trail, we didn't know what form of beauty would be around the bend.  We either walked up stone steps, travelled through a green 'gate' formed with hedges or trees... or thistles, along dirt paths that wound down towards the waterside, or beside rock walls and picturesque gates that led to houses of people who lived along the water.  

Once both groups arrived at the lighthouse, Joe introduced this as the "land of rainbows and whirlwinds," which was demonstrated to us in the sights and winds around us.

Rainbows

Whirlwinds (the effects, of course)

At the summit, which was quite a straight-up-the-mountain kind of hike, Joe sat us down on the wall to invite us to pray for the country of Ireland, the land of whirlwinds and rainbows. Rainbows symbolize promise, so we prayed the promises of God over this country that lives within the beautiful scenery and yet 99% of the people move without a knowledge of its Creator.  The gusts of wind along the coast were strong enough to hold us up as we leaned into them.  On Wednesday night, these winds held a symbolic reference to the Spirit of God moving among the people of Ireland.  We called on the Spirit to come, to move in this beautiful country among the people who in a spiritual sense live in darkness without a solid sense of hope.

 

After experiencing unique and spectacular sight of the Creator's work, there was something piercing about Joe's call to search our own hearts: how well do you really know the Creator?  For me, the beauty and wonder of the place was so amazing, I felt as if I was unable to take any more in without exploding, and it is just as hard to try to express it here.  So, this will do for now.