Returning to a harvest

Doro refugee camp (photo credit: Khambawi Ngaihte)

Things aren’t always as they seem.  To be sure, there has been terrible loss in the recent set of conflicts in both Sudan and South Sudan but if you ask us what we’re going back to, it’s more than just refugee camps and paralyzing needs, it’s a harvest. 

God willing, after our remaining time at home, we hope to return to Nairobi, Kenya in this coming term.  The combination of having lost our things in South Sudan after the fighting went through our town and being needed in the administrative office in Nairobi to help with leadership has cemented this decision.

A recent baptism in the refugee camp (photo credit: Cathy Hoelzer)

Despite the numerous challenges our team has undergone in 2014, there have been some incredible stories of God’s work.  People are hearing the Gospel and coming to faith and being baptized.  People from the Fulani tribe who pass through seasonally have been able to hear the Gospel.  One such lady cried every time she heard the Word in her own language.  A Uduk man trusting in amulets chose rather to trust in Jesus when pastor Bulus, the clinic chaplain, shared the Good News.  Women from the Nuba community learning how to share their faith go and do the same.  Whether through a life renewed in faith or a healing from illness at the hands of devoted caregivers, God is doing his harvest work.

Nuba women sharing their faith (photo credit: Cathy Hoelzer)

Pray for:

1. The word of God to continue to move in the camp and for people to be able to hear;

2. For hearts that are ready to accept the Word;

3. The churches that meet among the various
    tribes in the refugee camps;

4. A spirit of unity among all in difficult times.

Just a vapour...

When even a vapour can point to something more.

Water vapours in the sky above our former home make us look up.

Why is it that time moves by so quickly?  You anticipate an interminable chunk of time, which, when you look back was just a vapour.  Just a little while ago I was starting my studies at seminary and now I’m done.  We must also feel like a vapour to those we have gotten to know during our time here.  New friendships made, seemingly dissipating so quickly...

But, even vapours matter.  As short as the time was in Calgary, as short as our time to connect seemed to be, as short as the time spent with new friends, indeed, just like vapour, yet they have left an indelible and permanent impression on us. 

The Scriptures talk of fleeting things counting for eternity.  Maybe this fleeting essence is more akin to a fragrance; one that conjures the  unseen. 

Paul writes, “For we are the aroma of Christ to God...” (2 Corinthians 2: 15a). 

An aroma, which, much like a vapour is only present temporarily, has the ability to conjure something amazing and point to something beyond what is there. 

We are that perfume poured out, able to conjure what is invisible but real.  A fragrance of what can be seen through minds and hearts which is invisible to our eyes.  This invisible fragrance fills us as we breathe in and out and it fills the whole space.

Remember when Jesus was anointed by Mary with pure nard?  “The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume” (John 12:3b). 

Whatever our fleeting time in the field, whatever your fleeting time in the world around you there is enough time to leave a sweet fragrance.  Time enough to point to something else.