No Greater Love

Sorry for no post last week, but I practically had no internet connection the entire week. So that made it rather hard to post anything. But with no post last week I can give you a full update of the trip this week.
We were in a little town called Many Farms in Arizona. You have never heard of it because it isn't important to the rest of the country. It is a dusty little reservation town a few hours down into Arizona. It is a very dark community where alcoholism, and drug use is rampant. Not to mention they hold very closely to their old spiritual beliefs such as medicine men and many different rituals. 

The organization we went with is called praying pelican. 

 This was mainly a work trip with some outreach opportunities. Now some would say how can you call it a "mission trip" if you aren't constantly out in the community evangelizing? Well the main reason we were there was to fix up the personage that was in disrepair. So that the church would have something to offer a pastor since they are searching for one. A thought I had for the week with some people not liking that it was mainly a work trip, is how this trip showed how the different parts of the body of Christ work together. This was our time to be the hands and feet to prepare a place for the eyes, ears, and mouth. That is something I think we often forget is that those who prepare a way are just as important as those who do all the spreading of the Gospel. Would it be great for us to stay there for a week and go out and talk to people about Jesus? Yes it would. But it is just as important that we were able to make a place where someone can live in the community for a far longer time than a week and have the chance of a greater impact than we ever could in a week. So with that being said I would like to take you through the week.

 

We left Timberline at 8a.m Thursday the 19th. After a little over a 9 hours of driving and an hour and a half or so of stop time we made it to Many Farms Baptist church about 7ish. Where we were greeted with fried chicken and sweet tea. Needles to say I was happy after the very long van ride.

 

Friday morning we took a short 10 min drive up to the mesa that overlooked the town to pray. We took a few minutes and prayed alone and then prayed together as a group for the town and that the Lord would bless our week there. When we got back to the church property we started work on the grounds. I ended up doing landscaping around the parsonage for most of the week. Which I was totally okay with.

 

 

Saturday we got up and worked in the morning. I somehow ended up kinda leading the landscaping crew, by way of "you know what you are doing, what should we do to make this look good"? So once the crew I was on finished up and the rest of the students we grabbed lunch and drove a short ways to the White House ruins. An old Navajo settlement. We got to take a short hike down into the canyon to check out the ruins, have lunch and then come back up.

 

Sunday we lead the church service. The missionary pastor of the church Tony Sessions baptized 3 members that morning, a mother and her 2 daughters. After some songs and testimonies we had lunch with some of the congregation. Then we had an afternoon of rest.

 

Monday morning work continued. Painting the house, cleaning out sheds on the property, and cleaning up trash on the grounds. After making some shelving for the sheds me and my friend nick got to work on dismantling some fencing.  Some of the students went door to door with cookies in hand and talked to people about the Gospel and the church. (Hey you gotta have some bait for the hook right?) That afternoon we went over to Monument valley and played around and had dinner there. 

 

 

 Tuesday me and Nick finished taking down the fence and the general cleanup of the grounds while the rest of the students either finished up painting or were out on cookie ministry again. This was an entire day of work as posts were cemented in and sun baked clay is not easy to dig through at all.

Wednesday we finished touch up work around the grounds and prepped for a spaghetti dinner at the church that night. Final touches on paint, any last little clean up that needed to be done outside, we cleaned the church building also, and any other touches to the house. That evening we had somewhere around 80 people from the community show up. I lead some music, my friend Jeremiah presented the Gospel through a magic show, and then our trip leader (and my family group leader) Rob Tracy shared a story he had written, we closed with a few songs.

Thursday morning and it was time to say goodbye. I was up early to load the vans with the tools we had brought and bags. We were on the road by about 9. We topped back in Moab Utah for lunch at Milts. It was a good break after a 3 and a half hour ride in the vans. After a few more hours we stopped again gassed up and had a debrief of the trip, where we just talked as a group about how we felt the trip went and anything special we saw or were involved in. We arrived back at Timberline a little after 10. 

 

 

Every night of the trip we had a time of worship and some testimonies together as a debrief time to talk about what had gone on that day and what would be happening tomorrow.

  

Now we have a week of spring break. Some of the students (myself included) are going to Ravencrest for a few days on Monday. There will be a basketball grudge match while there. They are hoping to avenge their very bad hockey game loss. We are hoping to bring home the "W".

So while I was in Many Farms this week the song "No Greater Love" was on my mind often. The song features a man by the name of "Mincaye". This man of the Huaorani tribe of Ecuador killed Steve Saint and Ed McCully. None of us had to die on this trip but we did have the opportunity to tell a very unreached group of people about someone who did die for them.

  

Men of courage with your message of peace
What is that look in your eyes?
Why have you come to this faraway place?
What is this story you would lay down your live to tell?
What kind of love can this be?

There is no greater love than this
There is no greater gift that can ever be given
To be willing to die so another might live
There is no greater love than this

Brokenhearted from all you have lost
How can you sing through your tears?
What is this music that can bear such a cost?
What is this fire that grows stronger against the wind?
What kind of flame can this be?

There is no greater love than this
There is no greater gift that can ever be given
To be willing to die so another might live
There is no greater love than this

This is the love God showed the world
When he gave us His Son
So we can know his love forever
Beyond the Gates of Splendor

There is no greater love than this
There is no greater gift that can ever be given
To be willing to die so another might live
There is no greater love than this

Till Next Time

Love Jared