As some of you already know, I will be flying off on Friday night to the Abode of Peace, or so they call it, for some peace in the lush jungle. Well, not really, but it will certainly be an exotic getaway, and it will be during the time of the year I usually spend with you guys making preparations for Christmas and youth camp. So I suppose it is only natural that I leave you all with a few words before I see everyone again next month. At least that way I don't actually disappear entirely.
First, as some of you may be oblivious to what it is I will actually be doing, let me attempt to describe the terrors that await me on this perilous journey. In fact, this Sunday, while all of you are nodding your heads toward the speaker for more reasons than one, I will be swimming across this exact river at least three times wearing something similar to this. In the coming weeks, I will also be traversing this, eating this, avoiding this and killing this amongst other life-threatening feats in hopes of getting this, and it's all because of this. Awesome huh. You bet. And I deeply regret that you cannot join me. But honestly speaking, I am both excited and apprehensive about this trip. It has been said that this exercise will be duly unforgettable, and I suspect that that will come to be in both painful and comic ways, the difference between the two chiefly being a matter of time. Well, I will find out soon enough, and you will know when I get back. Otherwise, I'd be grateful to be kept in your prayers.
To Dom7th, I must say that I am envious that you guys are finally going for a mission trip, after much procrastination over the years, and that I can't be there to join you in one voice. To those who are going, I've seen much effort being put in during the rehearsals on Sunday afternoons. But I urge you to also commit more soul into prayer. When hiccups occur, it's the heart and faith you will need to persevere in your ministering to the unevangelised to make God look great. Remember that it is He who empowers you to perform what He commands, and it is He who promised to be with you to the end of the age when He commissioned your outreach. Pray, friends.
On a more practical note, I gather that communication will definitely be a big issue. The language stuff. What to do? Or rather, what is there left to do with so little time? Let love speak. Let actions converse. Let your servanthood to their community articulate the gospel of the servant Christ. Know that their souls, like yours, matter in the eyes of God, so they should to you too.
To the youth committee, I know preparations for youth camp are underway. I'm not sure how many you have attended previous camps, but all four I've been a part of over the last eight years has each been a miracle to me, and I believe to the lives of others as well. So treasure the miracle that God is using you to materialise. Plan and execute with heart and hope so that when the heartbreak comes, you know God is using it to strengthen your hope in Him. And trust me, it always comes.
I'm also ecstatic that you guys have chosen the Gospel to be the theme for this year, and thus equally regretful that I won't be there on all three days. If you realise how foundational and far-reaching your choice of theme is, then you must also know to be as meticulous as possible with the delivery of your material, and also the preparations that precede to ensure that. By nature of its theme, this camp has the potential to set in stone a bible saturated and gospel-centred infrastructure for the fellowship and its years to come. Let that be your long term vision, to make us a Bride who knows, loves and honours her Groom.
Lastly, for the many of you who are enjoying your holidays now, have as much fun as you can before you grow older, really. But I want you to be very aware that idle time is a fecund swamp for the proliferation and infestation of sin. And I say that with gravity. Someone once said to me very wisely, "Sin will take you further than you ever wanted to go, keep you longer than you ever wanted to stay and cost you more than you ever wanted to pay." I guess I'll just leave you with that.
Well, now that all is said and done, I will be able to eat my ferns in peace. My prayers will be with all of you even as bloodsuckers of all species besiege me at night.
Till 17th December, adieu!
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