This past week I got to go to Panama with the Central group on a mission trip and experience something I will never forget. I could write on and on about my experiences from this past week, but I decided to try and sum it up with three thoughts.
1. Christian fellowship is key. One of the reasons I wanted to go on this trip was to get to know some of the Central members outside of the college group. What surprised me was their level of interest in getting to know me. Central is special in that everyone there genuinely loves the college kids, and I felt that on this trip. Spending nine days with the other 11 students from the college group was a blast, but meeting the other eight team members from our group makes me feel like a part of the Central church, and not justTide 4 Christ.
Christian fellowship is crucial. God knew the importance of relationships for us when he established the church. Weneed to meet every Sunday. Though it is not commanded in scripture, I feel we need to meet in the middle of the week. It does us good to get together with the other people that are all striving for the same things we are. It does us good to all worship our God together. God knows what we need and He knew it from the beginning. We can’t worship by ourselves because the Bible teaches that “Where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am in their midst.” We need each other more than we realize. To not appreciate other Christians and our relationships with them is to not appreciate a gift from God.
2. I lack thankfulness and have an abundance of selfishness. The overwhelming sight you see in Panama is how little they have compared to what we have in the States. Sometimes it crosses your mind, “How do they live?” We’ve become so accustomed to what we have on a daily basis that we may have actually tricked ourselves into thinking that we can’t do without. Paul tells us, “And having food and clothing, with these we shall be content,” (1 Timothy 6:8). It’s hard to understand this verse until you see what we saw this week. The people had food, clothing,and a hut, and that was about it. And yet they are some of the happiest people I’ve ever met.
I have way too many extra things (“wants” and not “needs”), and give too little to others. In Acts 2, the church got together and selflessly gave to anyone who had need. Paul tells us, “Let him who stole steal no longer, but rather let him labor, working with his hands what is good, that he may have something to give him who has need,” (Ephesians 4:28). The purpose for us to have is to give to him who has need. God never intended for us to be a reservoir, to hoard up money and possessions, but to be a conduit, to let the things God gives us flow freely from us,all for the glory of God. We’re tempted to put our trust into things. Everything we have is from God and is not ours; these things are only given to us by God to use for Him. We have a choice of what to do with it. And in the end, each choice has one of two results: reward or regret. When I stand before God and He asks me what I’ve done with what I’ve been given, will I be able to say that the choices I made had an eternal perspective in mind, or that I used His blessings to enjoy my time on Earth?
3. Investing in souls is the only worthwhile investment. I was told in a seventh grade Bible class that “You won’t go to Heaven or Hell alone.” That thought has stuck with me every step of the way. If when my time is gone there is not at least one person saved because of God’s using me, then my life was a waste. God has, in fact, equipped us all for that purpose, but it’s our choosing whether we put it to use or not. How much do I have to hate someone for me to not tell them about the gospel, for me to not urge them to obey God’s commands and be saved, and for them to spend an eternity separated from God? Providing medicine to those in need is good; providing food and clothes to those who have a need is good. We are supposed to do those things. But if all we do is those things, and never teach God’s salvation that is offered through Jesus Christ, then what is the point? God’s gift is too precious to keep to ourselves. It cannot be kept to ourselves. When we begin to see each person we meet as a soul, a soul in need of God more often than not, then we will inevitably begin to share the Gospel to more and more people. Each time the church gains a soul, as a brother from the Indian village told me, “Heaven’s throwing a party!”
If you have never been on a foreign mission trip, go. It will change your life. If you can’t go, support financially. If you can’t support, help prepare beforehand. And everyone can pray. Pray for God’s church and pray for the evangelism going on all over the world.
“For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth,” (1 Timothy 2:3-4).
Thomas Swinea
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