The apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthian church about the importance of the church being a fully functioning body. Every body part must do its work in order for the rest of the body to survive. God has been teaching me this truth first hand for the last month.
As I mentioned in my last blog we were blessed with a team from Colorado who came for a week to rebuid the roof on the Calvary Chapel Health Centre in Ogongora, Amuria District. They did a great job of witnessing the love of Christ to the residents of Ogongora and the patients in the health center. However they did face a bit of discouragement at the lack of participation in the project by the community.
Since their departure I have spent 13 days in Ogongora trying to move the project along. I too was a bit frustrated at the apparent lack of interest by the community in helping with the project. But this past week I learned some important lessons.
Lesson # 1: Let the body function in its proper way.
As we have worked to get the clinic back to running condition we have been doing some skilled work. Not me personally. I have no real constuction skills. My swinging a hammer 10 times produces three lost nails (two steelnails and one thumbnail), four dents in the iron sheet roof, two bent nails bent beyond use, and someone falling from a ladder. But even this is beyond the ability of the average villager. They do not have access to tools so they cannot do the work and are afraid to hinder the work. So they let the parts of the body that can do this work do it!
Lesson # 2: Let the body function in its proper time.
As we have toiled we have started early everyday trying to make the most progress and demonstrate a good work ethic. When no one would come join in, it was almost like a slap in the face. That was my pride reacting to no one telling me what a great job I was doing. The reason no one was coming was simple. In the village the a.m. hours are for digging. If you don't dig you have no crop. No crop means no food and that means starvation. When one family goes hungry it affects the whole village. So the proper function of the body is to show up when the digging is done. When the people would come in the afternoon and politly wait to be invited to work this Mzungu would miss the opportunity and they would wander away one by one. By not letting the body funtion in its time I was actually denying the body the right to help and build itself up.
Lesson # 3: We must know what body part we are.
This past week while in the village I was taken ill on Tuesday just after leaving on the 50 kilometer drive to Soroti to get cement and other supplies. I was so sick that after wandering aimlessly in town for two hours I returned having completely forgotten the cement. I was sick and useless for two days. But it didn't stop me from attempting to work and thus slowing down any progress. By Thursday night I was in emotional and spiritual meltdown mode. Nothing was going the way I had planned it. But a call from a dear brother in America, Neil, helped get things back together.
I'm not called here to be a construction guy but to be a spiritual leader. So the next morning we went to the clinic and prayed for every person there. Patients, attendants, staff, families, everybody. Suddenly what had been a very difficult week was now a blessing.
Lesson # 4: The members of the universal body of Christ work in the local body.
Having heard that I had fallen sick, Bev sent word to the greater unseen body (you) asking for prayer. God heard those prayers and got me home safe and well. But then Saturday I fell sick again. It was not malaria but some sort of infection. Receiving treatmet Sunday we then noticed that a scratch on my leg had become terribly infected. The body went to work again and I am happy to tell you that the infection is getting healed. Thank you for praying and seeking help for a body part that has been learning slowly what it means to be a part of the great body of Jesus Christ.
A special thanks to Rich Tedesco, Grady Colby, Mark Caldwell and Richie Tedesco for their sacrificing their time and resources to help expand God's kingdom in Ogongera.
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Pastor Jesse, thank you so much for this post, as this makes clear what we were dealing with. What a blessing to be a part of the body of Christ and to be able to be used by him in his time and in his way. Gods blessings to you and to your family and to all in Ongongera.
ReplyDeleteMark