My kitties, Oreo and Pepa, during our last nap the day before we said goodbye.Tonight I was having dinner with a lovely family from my home church. The food was delicious: Greek spanakopita, Syrian lamb-stuffed grape leaves, and a salad dressed in the Syrian style (lemon juice, oil, and spearmint!). The conversation was highly varied, from how to make caramel/chocolate/nut/licorice spiders with Tiffani to ancient history with Justin to parasites with Bob and then to guinea pigs with the Weitrick family that stopped by. Margaret and I then adjourned for a little light after-dinner conversation: fun topics like blood diamonds, the Taliban, human trafficking, child prostitution, etc. But really, we were talking about how once you know about these things, you want to make a difference, even in just one person's life. And this is why I want or need to do mission work full-time, because I can't stop thinking about these things. Not in an obsessive way or anything, but being aware of these things leads me to want to do something. Some people are called to pray or to raise awareness or to give money to organizations that will do something, I think that I am called to go.
After dinner I had to stop by my house to work on something. I started to cry when I walked in there because I wanted it all back. I wanted the furniture, every piece of which had a story -- mostly being from relatives or gotten for free years and years ago. I wanted my two beloved cats back. I wanted my home.
And yet what do I really want? Margaret and I talked about the exciting adventure of being able to be a blessing in other people's lives and the amazing grace that we are given while we serve. We also talked about it as being a little crazy sometimes. Several people have mentioned to me in the past week that they are impressed that I would give up potentially lucrative career as a physician in the U.S. To me, that's not the crazy part. What is crazy is trusting that I will not receive any formal salary, but instead live on voluntary financial support. My home church, Epic Christian Church, has committed to supporting 70% of my financial needs on an ongoing basis (also crazy -- Epic has been a good place for me to learn more wacky, godly, trusting attitudes about money). We are having a "Great Global Giveaway" over this next week -- asking people to give as they are led and trusting God for Epic's portion needed for 2008, a mere $28,000. Yesterday was a day of fasting and prayer for me, the upcoming offering, and what God is doing around the world.
On the plus side, life isn't boring.
"By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God....These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one." Hebrews 11: 8 - 10, 13 - 16a
