On The Other Side

I'm no stranger to participating in mission trip projects, nor am I a stranger at leading them, but today marks a new facet of the mission trip experience, being the recipient.

A little over a week ago, three of my best friends from Columbus and I moved from our precious, white suburb in Bexley to a home in a lower income neighborhood in Columbus. Why? Because all of us have a strong desire to be in the trenches with those we believe are the ones who are going to be the answer to the issues in their city. Isaiah 61 says that those who have seen the good and the bad times of a city are the ones who know what it needs to be restored, not those on the outside. Our desire and goal in living in our neighborhood is to empower and to capitalize on what the Lord is already doing here.

We are not their saviors, Jesus has already accomplished that.

So this brings us to this morning:

A small team of sweet, high school students from the Rosedale International Center swung by our house today to help clean up our yard. Nothing terribly taxing, but with a new house there is a continually growing list of things to do, fix, and unpack and there is just not time in all of our busy schedules to worry about something like weeding and hedge trimming.

I remember having a hard time "selling the mission" to students on LeaderTreks trips when it was "just yard work" or painting or cleaning up. But being on the other side of it I don't feel that I can adequately express how much it means for them to be here and to become a part of the story the Lord is writing about our neighborhood. A clean yard means less work and more time to get to know our new community of people. It means we value the land and people we live around. It means we're here to stay.