Heeding the Call

Linny and her daughter Emma from A Place Called Simplicity just got back from beautiful Uganda after a week of loving on orphans and street children, witnessing miracles and brokenness. Her post, titled Undone, (click on the underlined title to go read it. Please. It's short.), brought my mind back to days of Guatemala trips as I struggled with brokenness, emptiness, and an overwhelmed feeling of the pain in this world. I asked questions of why we spend money to go, be love in these children's lives for a week, and then leave. I loved her openness, and I liked her opinion on short-term missions.

I still haven't come to a conclusion on what I feel about short-term missions. If you remember my post HERE, on Rethinking Short-term Missions, I grappled with the question of what is the BEST way to minister to people. What is the BEST way to love on the orphan? I don't think I'll ever come up with a true solution, because it is a fallen world. But....I have had a few thoughts as my heart has gone back to memories of Guatemala and the orphan. (Just as a disclaimer, these thoughts are not applicable to all short-term missions, but only to those focused on orphans)

1. Ultimately, I believe that it is the Lord's will and plan for the orphan to be in a Christian family. However, that is obviously not possible. And in this fallen world, not all orphans can even be adopted. So someone needs to minister to them.

2. As Linny talked about, the Lord calls us to care for the orphan and widow. The Lord says that faith without works is dead. So, IF the trip has been done in an economic fashion, IF the time is being used in order to minister to the most amount of children, then it is not for us to say that we should not go and serve. This step requires trust that the Lord will bless our efforts instead of cause more heartache and feelings of abandonment in the children/people we minister to.

3. Also, if you're like me, then you're 19, unmarried, and in college. Not exactly the profile of an adoptive parent. So, if the Lord has given me a burden for the orphan, then I'm going to trust that He wants me to act and not be silent until I am old enough, ready, have the money, etc. to actually adopt.

4. SO. If the Lord is calling you to serve the orphan, DO IT. Trust that He will bless your efforts, that the orphan may know the love of the Father.

I think I probably just rambled. But I'm just going to go ahead and post it.

Blessings :)