Love Your Neighbor Consultation

In late June Dan and I had the opportunity to attend a YWAM workshop at the beautiful, San Diego/Baja campus just south of Tijuana, Mexico.  The focus of the workshop was “Love Your Neighbor” but our main purpose was to connect with other YWAMers that are doing aquaponics and other related forms of mercy ministry.

The first speaker was Sean Lambert, the director of the San Diego/Baja base.  He said that YWAM can be like the super collider in Geneva.  We can have evangelism going in one direction and mercy ministry and training going in the other direction.  The “explosion” that happens when they collide is what it looks like to love our neighbor.

Christine Colby was another speaker and she shared about when Jesus fed the 5,000.  She said that while Jesus was praying, the disciples were doing the physical work.  Sometimes we can feel like overworked disciples and miss Jesus’ miracle!  What keeps us fresh is understanding who God is and remembering that we serve Him not just the multitudes.  ‘Value’ in western culture generally comes from success and producing.  ‘Value’ in eastern culture comes from sacrifice.  We need to find our value in God.  We serve others not because they are poor or have needs but because they are created in God’s image and they have value.  When we help build a home for a family (Homes of Hope) the main project isn’t just building a house but it’s loving the people and the transformation that takes place in their lives.  We want to do things with people not just for them.

We attended a workshop about a disaster relief organization called RescueNet.  They talked about how important it is to know what disasters are possible in our area so that we can always be prepared.  If we can’t take care of ourselves we can’t take care of others.  Dan and I would love to work with this organization, maybe after the kids are grown, maybe sooner.

One speaker, Dr. Lindy Backues, shared how “love must be defined by our picture of Jesus as he walked to the cross.”  He shared the story of Mary and Martha and said that our love for our neighbor springs out of our love for and from our Father.  “Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.”  I John 4:8

My favorite part was attending the workshop by Terry Keith, the director of the base in Heredia, Costa Rica.  He shared a number of stats about food, water and sanitation.  Here are some examples:

18,000 people die of starvation daily

852 million people in the world are malnourished

1.3 billion lack clean water

in Latin America only 2% of sewage is treated

hand washing reduces diarrhea cases by 50%

there are 35 million without health care just around Lake Victoria in Africa

1.1  billion live in extreme poverty (less than $1 a day)

Hosea 4:6 “My people perish for lack of knowledge.”  God has created a sustainable kingdom with nitrogen, carbon and water cycles.  We need to build the soil, use organic pesticides and fertilizers and let nothing go to waste.  We learned about sand water filters, composting toilets and appropriate tech aquaponics systems.

            I love how God seems to be refining and focusing the ministry call for our family.  5 years ago we knew he was calling us into missions but didn’t know where or when.  Then we did CDTS with YWAM and felt him calling us to staff in Chico.  We’ve always known we are more equipped for mercy ministries rather than training and evangelism and now he is giving us specific tools and showing us more what our mercy ministries will look like.  We are very close to having our aquaponics system running here and then we’d like to do more with gardening, composting, vermiculture (raising worms), and water purification.  I used to think my like for these things was just personal preference.  Now I know that God has given me these skills and passions to further his kingdom! 

            We can’t stop with just giving aid or we’d be no different than humanitarian groups.  I like to remember something that Sean Lambert shared about ‘Flipping the Switch’ when ministering to the poor.  When we give food or teach how to better grow food we share that Jesus is the bread of life.  When we give the gift of clean water we share that Jesus gives living water.  When we help build shelter we say that Jesus goes to prepare a place for us.  When we provide basic healthcare we tell them that Jesus is their healer.  And when we pass out clothing we teach them that God clothes us in righteousness. This is how we truly love our neighbors.

Intercession for the nations on a giant map.