A Month Away

This morning we are waking to a hot day - at least here in Memphis. The predicted high temp in Memphis is 97 and I gotta tell you, that isn't a dry heat! 97 degrees in Memphis, TN is as hot as you ever want to be. I'm just happy that I'm able to adjust the a/c setting down to 72 and stay comfortable - because comfort is what it's all about isn't it? Well.....isn't it?
I guess it really depends on how you choose to look at it. If making others comfortable is what you are thinking - then you are on the right track.
As we spend this last month preparing our hearts to serve the people of Honduras, I'd like to tell you a story of what happened a few years ago. A story that still makes me tear up every time that I think about it.......
My first experience with TORCH was in 2001. My group was about 17 and we joined another 21 or 22 people from Florida and the experience was awesome. The next year, my group had grown to about 45 and that was the first year I really led a TORCH team. If you have been with me from the beginning, you all know that I place a very heavy emphasis on raising money for benevolence - my experience in 2002 is the reason why.
In 2002, we were not any different than any other TORCH team, we built houses, packed food, taught VBS, worked in hospitals & orphanages, and took the good news of Jesus to people on the mountain. One thing that was different though was the fact that we used all of our house building money in about 6 days. Our little team had built a record number of houses but, that didn't change the fact that we had no mas dinero por nuevo casas (no more money for new houses). Well, it seems that everybody on our team wanted to go back into an area where we had built a lot of houses that year - to say good-by to the friends that they had made on the mountain. While we were on the mountain, a young woman came to me and she was holding her 8 or 10 day old baby. She asked me to help her buy milk for the baby - I agreed and we walked together to the pulperia (a neighborhood market). I bought milk and some food for her and told her that I would help her carry the load to her house. When we arrived at her house, I saw that it was built on the slope of the mountain - because of that, there was an open space under the house. I noticed a mattress and other things in the area under the house and that is when this young woman told me that her home was the space under the house. She lived there with her 10 day old baby and her 2 year old.
I cried. There was nothing that I could do because I was out of money for a house. I left the mountain that day haunted by the fact that a mother and her 10 day old baby and her 2 year old were left to live in conditions that we wouldn't allow a dog to live in. I made a promise to myself that I would never be on the mountain without the resources to build a house.
We have remained true to that promise!
Remember, this mission isn't about you. It isn't about making yourself feel good - because you went out to help somebody. It is about serving Jesus through serving others. It is about being his hands and his feet. It is about bringing glory to the God we serve.
Get ready for a great day in Honduras!