True North Missionaries Journal

Today I was blessed to have a 1-on-1 with an MV sister with whom I grew up with in the Community.  She was my camp leader, my program head at some point. Ten years of friendship later, here we both were, in our own ways, serving the Mission, journeying together in taking leaps of faith each day.

The love in Friendships like these is one of the true ways I experience Fellowship with God.  There is nothing more affirming of true friendship than one where each is building each other up to be holy, grow more in love with Him, and to serve His people.  Praying for each other.  Even though time and distance may eventually separate us to fulfill God’s greater plans, these fruits that will remain will only prepare us for a continuation of our friendship in heaven, with the heavenly Father who, in His desire to love us deeply, designed our meeting on earth in the first place. #graciousgod

 

You know how back in High School, when we would have a substitute teacher, we would say, “Oh yes! Today is going to be a easy class. It’s gonna be chill, laid back, and we wont have to do much work. Besides, we probably wont see this teacher again.”

Or when we go to confession and we say, “oh man, I hope I do not get the priest who strict and uptight. I want a more chill and laid back priest who cracks a lot of jokes.” Not to say anything is wrong with this but this week I realized through these people that happen to be “strict” or “uptight”, they are actually striving to stand firm in what they believe in.

We are currently living in a society where our faith gets easily COMPROMISED. Our faith gets distracted and tested by the evil one. On our path to Holiness from bad to better or good to better, it is tough to stand firm in our beliefs and focus on Christ.

Yes, it is not an objection that being chill is a “BAD” thing but we need to STAND FIRM. We need to be steadfast in Christ, our prayer time, serving others with love, being role models and exemplify what it means to be a Christian.

It is so easy to be laid back and let the evil one try to take control.

Let’s swim against the current. Lets be on guard and lets tell evil right in the face, that we trust God and stand firm in HIm.

Lord, praise You for giving me the opportunity to be strong in You. Continue helping me stand firm in faith and focus on you in this world. In the name of Jesus and through the intercession of Mother Mary, we give glory to You.

Deo Gloria.

Serve with a generous heart, not looking for how much you can get but rather looking for how much you can give.

This simple reminder is a way to give more of yourself to the ones we love. The more you give, the happier you’ll be. Simple acts of love and random acts of kindness are ways we can offer this love. The Lord has blessed us with so much that it’s impossible not to hold in this love and joy only for ourselves but to SHARE it with the whole world!

Pray for generous heart and the courage to share this love to the world.

As it is a quiet morning at work, I had time to mosey over some news articles and stories. I stumbled over a particular story that struck me regarding a hateful letter addressed to a mother of a child with autism. I almost willed myself to be angry, but instead I found quiet tears welling in my eyes.

Some of those closest to me know that I have a cousin named Katie who has autism. And although by blood and relation we are cousins, what we really are is sisters. We’ve lived together since she was born and for a wonderful 12 years I have been privileged, and oh-so-blessed, to have watched her grow into the beautiful young lady she is. Her happiness is such a wonderful thing to witness, and luckily for us, it’s not a rare occurrence. She is unable to verbally communicate, but she is bursting with great love that words are not really needed. (Oh man, I need to take a break, I’m starting to cry and my boss might walk by.)

The hate in the letter hit something within me. I had once watched an episode of What Would You Do which is a show that puts regular people in certain situations to see how they would react. The situations, unlike Candid Camera or other prank shows, puts people in highly relevant and difficult situations. What would you do if someone collapsed at a stop light? What would you do if an old lady at the pharmacy couldn’t afford her medication? I watched this show in shock as many turned away and pretended to see nothing. But this morning, I was reminded of the episode where a teenage boy with Down Syndrome was bagging groceries and a customer (an actor) began barking insults at him. I watched this episode in pain as many turned away, stood in deafening silence or worse yet, empathized with the verbally abusive customer. However, I also watched as others stood up for the boy, with one woman saying, “He’s a person, the same as you and I, with feelings. Everybody deserves an education. Everybody deserves a job, and everybody deserves a chance in this life. And you should be ashamed of yourself.” My heart was touched, and I can only pray that should I be faced with such a situation, I would have that amount of courage and eloquence. I’d like to think I would (except it’s highly likely that I would be a fumbling mess). Something I liked about the show was that after the situations, the host would interview the people; the ones who acted and the ones who didn’t. Although they seemed cold and uncaring, their responses to “Why did you do what you did?” (Which for the most part, was nothing.) They replied with worries such as, “I didn’t know what to do.” “I didn’t want to get involved.” “I was too scared.” Normal answers. Regular people. What scared me most about these responses was how relatable they are to all of us.

But brothers and sisters, something that separates us from all this… Something that we should do is to stand up and take action when we see wrongs like these being committed. Be and bring Christ wherever we are, right? Jesus never stood around and allowed hate or injustice to continue. Let us bring light and warmth to a cold and dark world.

“In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.” – Matt. 5:16

Lord, give us the courage to act with compassion and understanding the way you did, when we are faced with moments when we could just as easily act with indifference or cower with fear or intimidation. May our actions of love be gentle examples that emanate the greater love of our Father. Amen.

The article: http://lifestyle.ca.msn.com/family-parenting/family-life/an-open-letter-to-one-pissed-off-mother
The episode: http://www.i-tube.net/video/what-would-you-do-grocery

If someone asks me a personal question that I don’t feel inclined to answer I usually respond with, “that’s a good question.” What usually ends up happening is that we talk about how I didn’t really answer their question rather than focusing on their initial question itself.

This is a great way to deflect attention.
It’s also a great way to hurt personal accountability with friends and loved ones.

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My worship life has always had a heavy focus on asking for forgiveness and healing just so I can feel ready to come before the Lord in glory. Even when receiving communion I always hesitate on whether or not I’m spiritually worthy to receive Jesus. This is true even on the days where I’ve had the chance to participate in confession.

Over the years I’ve developed ways to selfishly build my life in a way where I only find myself accountable to God and God alone. While this is not necessarily a bad thing, I’m lucky enough to be surrounded by so many amazing people in my life who are genuinely concerned for me and my well being, and so, my low levels of accountability point to a lack of honouring towards those who care about me.

Lord, I want to be an open book so that my life may reflect Your greatness to those whom You have placed in my hands. Help me.

– Jesse R.
“I Am, and We are Missionaries”

Lately I’ve come to know a cute nickname for the Lord (aside from the usual “Saviour”, “Redeemer”, etc, haa).  More than ever do I believe He is a “God of Surprises”. Just today:

• “Surprise! You’re going to Montreal!”
• “Surprise! We’re doing this training… a completely different way.”
• “Surprise! You’re giving # sessions, yeah?”
• “Surprise! [says He through a sister] Hey, you free? I’m in Mississauga, can we talk…”

Yes, there are so many Surprises in Mission life itself…but how surprising is the initial call to Mission? Is it as off putting as the usual Surprises? Do we wake one day with the sudden conviction (you’re packing your bags for the Philippines at this point), that hey…”I AM called!”? I mean, for missionaries like Paul, the God of surprises made it so obvious. The Call was so surprising that he was literally knocked off his donkey.

The saying goes…“He calls us out of Love”. If I am loved every day, than as a Missionary, I am Called everyday. Deeply loved, deeply called.  The Call only becomes a Surprise when I start forgetting I am loved.  I firmly believe that surprises in Mission are just the creative ways He can love us, heal us and transform us. Saying “Yes” to Mission is a response to the simple realization that He has been doing this…all along.

 

 

The Lord gives not because of what we’ve done, what we’re doing, or what we will do. The Lord simply gives. The Lord provides because He is the ultimate Father who cannot deny the needs of his children. The Lord has really humbled me the past 2 months. As a mission volunteer discerning for full-time pastoral work, recently most of my attention has been focused on the things I’ve had to give up and still need to give up. I’ve focused on the weight of my “Yes” and have been so stuck on the burden. I lost sight somewhere along the way.

Then I realized, the mission doesn’t need me. God can use whoever He wants. I’m the one that needs the mission. Mission is a gift for me, where my healing and freedom lies. This epiphany completely changed the posture of my heart and the attitude I had towards my current service role as a GTA West Sector Head. I realized that my prayer for patience, love, understanding, forgiveness and compassion were answered through my sector household. In fact some of my strongest affirmations have come from them. And here I was, complaining about how hard sacrifice was on my end….when God made the ultimate sacrifice through His Son Jesus.

Three days ago, I received a call from my old director within the first hour of arriving back from an impromptu trip to Montreal. Long story short, in 5 hrs I was hired as one of the Early Childhood Educators for their preschool room. They contacted me and they arranged for my old files to be transferred. The job fell on my lap the same way it did last year. No fights, no fuss, no road blocks. Today was my first day.

God continues to shower me with blessings. By shower, I mean flood. The Noah’s Ark kind of flood. I’m always so dumbfounded by it. He’s so persistent, so consistent and so insistent on His love for me. I’ve had to learn to just be grateful, to stop questioning God’s motives.

“I give abundantly because my love in itself is from and all about abundance. Overflowing. Eternal. I give because I love. Just let me.”

“God says, gratitude is the elixir of life. If you want to experience the reality that God is love, and love is God, and the nature of your own pure presence is God, is love, then on that level of being human, on that level of your humanity, allow gratitude to be your great practice.” — Matthew from The Daily Wholeness Healings, 10-24-12