Recent Thoughts on Isaiah 58:10

I have been teaching a Bible Study on  When Helping Hurts, which is one of my favorites, and I have been tumbling Isaiah 58:10 around in my head for a month or so now. I like the NIV for this particular verse: If you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday. Through this verse, I wrote a short devotion for a group Edouard and I spoke to in Chicago. I did not get the chance to share it with them, so I thought I would share it with you. Thanks for reading!


Drive-thru Missions: God Calls Us to More than a Quick Fix

We Americans love a good drive-thru. We drive-thru to pick up meals, order the dry-cleaning, do our banking business, and complete all sorts of errands. For us, it is all about convenience. We want what we want, and we want it now. Because of our lifestyle, we have begun to make the same fast demands of God. Audaciously we ask God to respond quickly to our prayers and with a response that we want to hear. We forgot somewhere along the way that God’s motto is not “Have it Your Way.” As Christians, we believe that each person is called to spread the word of God through service and outreach locally and across the world. Unfortunately, Americans have inserted the drive-thru culture into the Christian theology of missions. We have drop-off bins for canned goods, clothes, shoes, and nearly any other used item we don’t want any longer. We can easily drop off a bag of non-perishables at the local food bank. Even worse, the local church may provide you with a bag to fill at home and to return to the church, both locations are incredibly comfortable. The similarity in all of these things is that each of them can be done quickly. It takes no time, no effort, and no contact with the person or community in need. How can we compare these examples to God’s word? In Isaiah 58:10 we read, “If you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday.” For me, the key words here are “spend yourselves,” and sadly, we do not know what that looks like. Notice that the verse does not read “spend your money in behalf of the hungry,” nor does it read “quickly feed the hungry and drop off some clothes to satisfy the needs of your own conscience.”  God is calling us to more than a quick fix. He even makes promises to those who truly spend themselves. “Your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday.” To truly spend ourselves, we must first understand what that means and what it looks like in our daily lives. It means to take time to be in relation with persons and communities who are hungry and oppressed. It means working towards right relationship with God, self, and others, both the one spending himself and one being satisfied. What comes of all of this is an up close and personal look at all of the things that make us uncomfortable. We do not want to get close to the poor. We do not want to spend our time and energy to bring those who hungry or oppressed out of a dark place. Instead, we want to use our drive-thru mentality to put a Band-Aid on the problem. I am thankful for a God who calls us to more than that, who calls us to be uncomfortable, and who demands that we “spend ourselves” on the least of these.  I am thankful for a God who is also my accountability partner, to ensure that I make decisions on a daily basis that will positively affect the poor in my community and across the world.

Prayer: Our Lord, we pray that you teach us daily to learn what it means to spend ourselves for the poor. Help us to make decisions that will break the cycle of oppression in our communities and ministries. We ask that you guide us in analyzing the ministries that we hold dear to know if we have applied a drive-thru mission’s service or if we have truly invested ourselves in the betterment of the people. Thank you for being patient with us as we try to do your will. Give us strength to stand back up after we fall. In the Holy and Most Precious Name of Jesus we pray, Amen.

Thiadiaye Tent Project

Back in October, HOPE Ministries delivered a tent to the United Methodist Church of Thiadiaye, Senegal. The purpose of this tent is to provide a place for the children's Sunday school class, which takes place during the Sunday service. A class for children was not possible at Thiadiaye before the placement of this tent, simply because the children would have to hold their class meetings outside. This video shows the installment of the tent and a short service blessing the tent to the service of the Lord.

Click here for the video.

Thank you so much for your prayers and support! Stay tuned for further information about the happenings in Senegal!

-Anna

October Newsletter

For information on what I have been up to since I arrived in Senegal, please check out my most recent newsletter, which highlights the events of the past month.

October Newsletter 2013

Keep us in your prayers,

Anna

God's Timing. Isn't it funny?

As I sit in the United States, in an air-conditioned office, I cannot help but chuckle about the timing of God. It was less than two months ago when I left Senegal, planning only a six week stay in the U.S. On a daily basis, I receive questions about when I am leaving, when I am coming back, or where I am going. And honestly, I cannot respond with a truthful answer, as much as I want to do so. I have been discerning God's call on my life for several years now, and I have to say that the process has not suddenly stopped because I have been working in Senegal. God's call and my listening ear do not stop functioning simply because I have fulfilled a call from God. This isn't a one stop shop. God calls everyday, and everyday requires that I listen and make a conscious effort to hear the will of God for my life.
Several months ago I was invited, along with my husband, to work at a Methodist camp in France. The director of the camp asked us to be there by the end of September. As it turns out, that is not the easiest thing to do. My husband cannot get his passport renewed, then I can't get an appointment at the consulate in Atlanta, then we are still waiting for Edouard's passport, then he cannot get in at the embassy until late October. All the while, my plans are bouncing up and down and all around like an aimless yo-yo. I have no balance, no place to rest and listen. Do I stay in the US? Do I go back to Senegal? Where does France fit in to the picture? Those are all relevant questions, and all of those questions are found wandering around inside my head. In a time like this, I know that I have mistakenly fogotten to put everything else aside and focus on God's small voice inside of me being drowned out by all of the noise. Discernment did not end when I moved to Senegal last September. Discernment is something to be done everyday. It is a process of listening and then asking questions. After prayer and deep consideration, I do believe that Edouard and I are supposed to be in France, at least for a short time. Maybe there is someone we need to meet, some experience we need to have. I don't know. What I do know is that if I did not spend most of my time waiting for the wind to blow (AKA God to move in my life) then I would be just as concerned as everyone else seems to be about the future. Funny how that works. The more unknown my plans are the more comfortable I am in believing that God is moving in my life. However, if I have everything planned out and nicely arranged in a row, then I should step back and pause. Those nicely arranged and typically comfortable plans must be plans of my own, plans that I've decided upon myself, plans that will answer everyone's questions.
All of that being said, here are my latest plans, which could change at any point in time, I will leave for Senegal the first week of October. Upon finishing Edouard's visa, we will go to France for three months, hopefully starting the first week of November. If everything goes as planned, which cannot be promised, I should hope to be a United Methodist Missionary within a year's time. Everything is unknown. God is the only known factor in my life. When God wants to reveal something, God will do that. I believe in that.

HOPE Presentation of Activities

On July 14, 2013, HOPE Ministries will hold a final presentation of all activities and programs held since October 2012, in order to close out my time as an Individual Volunteer in Senegal. We will have a slideshow of photos and a photo album to pass around. The children in the Sunday School class of the United Methodist Church in Dakar will receive school supplies for the upcoming school year at this event. Following the distribution of school supplies, light refreshments will be served.

All are welcome. Come and join us.

Here is the newest newsletter, highlighting our activities for the months of May and June. Also, you will see that I have some BIG NEWS to share! Check out the newsletter for more info!

Newsletter for May and June

Please excuse my absence of NINE MONTHS. I have been writing monthly newsletters in place of writing a blog. Below I have posted the links to the last two newsletters. If you are interested in the previous newsletters, please email me at annavgoode@gmail.com.

Meanwhile, enjoy this photo of me playing the kora, a traditional, West African instrument.

 

 

February Newsletter

March/April Newsletter