Here’s the situation: you have 5,000 marbles rolling around on the floor, and 500 people sitting along the wall. You could ask 25 people to pick up 200 marbles each. Or you could ask each person in the room to pick up ten. Which makes more sense?

I want to see a church that works like the latter. I want to see a body where every single person steps up and has a role, and that role is never overwhelming because everybody else is carrying their weight at the same time.

I want to see a people who are not afraid to love, to give of themselves, if only in small, everyday ways. That is ministry.

I think the American Christian culture has turned “ministry” into a chore. “Ministry” is never easy anymore. You can’t just spend time with a few folks and have meaningful conversation, you have to spend ten hours preparing for a Bible study, and go to a weekends seminar on discipleship, and not miss church or the evening worship service or the wednesday morning prayer meeting. Why does church feel like a replica of the coorporate world where you have to fill in every waking moment with “ministry.”

I just spent two weeks in a country where time does not matter. In Venezuela, church begins whenever all the people arrive, and the bulk of the “ministry” I did was just sitting around talking with brothers and sisters about life and love and why. And God used it to accomplish something great; the weight was on his shoulders, not mine.

I tried last year to bring that back up with me, and completely lost track of it in a matter of weeks. This year, I want to live in that place where my Savior’s yoke is easy, his burden light.

It’s funny… as soon as camp finished in Venezuela, my mind and heart began switching gears. As much as I loved it down there, I hit a point last weekend where I was ready to come home. Now I’m here, and things are moving — and much faster than I really expected.

I got a phone call last night from my friend Dan who lives over in Issaquah (just east of Seattle). “I heard you’re thinking of moving over here… Are you going to be looking for a roommate?” Turns out his rent just went up, and he’s decided his best bet is to buy a condo and rent out to a roommate. Not only that, but he’s got a couple job leads for me. I didn’t think I’d be thrown into this so immediately after returning, but I am excited and eager to see what God might do there.

One job is a softare company that Microsoft contracts out to, the other is Boeing. So I now have two or three connections at Boeing (my cousin works in their HR department). I guess it’s time for me to get busy here and see what’s around the next bend.

How do you sum up a trip like that? I’ve been on six overseas mission trips, and every time, I come home with absolutely no clue what to say when people ask. You just can’t possibly sum it all up. And just picking snapshot moments doesn’t seem adequate enough.

It happened. What more can I say? I hope to write more as I process bits and pieces of the trip im my mind, and I’ll certainly post some photos once I get the time to process them. Until then, this post is just to acknowledge it happened, that I’m home safe, that many hearts were softened to the gospel, and many relationships were built for the church in Guatire to follow up with.