October 25th always feels important. It also feels like it represents a different life I once lived, a life that very few people in my life can truly have access to.
I became a missionary with the IMB October 25, 1999 and –ironically and unplanned– it was exactly October 25th, 2000 that I came back home to Kentucky. I served in Mali, West Africa, in a village where my main goals were to learn the language, share the gospel in a variety of ways, and do basic first aid and any community help I could give.
I loved it. I felt like I was made for it!
I was really sick, however, and I didn’t have enough support from missionaries on the field to make it livable for any longer than that year, sadly.
I don’t write a blog today to say I have made total peace with that experience, but I do write to say I am glad I lived it. I will never forget Mamu’s face when she became a believer in Jesus. I will never forget the dugutigi’s laugh. I will never forget the dirty, beautiful, precious kids’ faces and fingers pressed through the metal shutters on my windows. I will never smell an outside fire without closing my eyes and being back in Dialakorobougou. It’s a memory no one can ever take away from me.
Twenty years ago! The children are grown men and women, with kids of their own. Many of them are likely not alive. I still randomly have dreams about flying back there spontaneously just to see how things have changed, and to see if my mud covered house is still there. I hope kids get to play in there. 🙂 I hope the gospel was passed down, and is still being passed down. I hope my friend Ane’s family is still living and happy.
I was just a little part of their lives for a little time. But it’s a part of my story. A chapter. And it’s neat to think I was a part of their stories, too. When I think of it this way, it’s really not all that complicated. I am happy I was there to share God’s love and mercy with anyone I could.
Jesus kept saying in the gospels to simply love God and love others. The NLT version I am reading right now says that Jesus said your neighbor is anyone who needs mercy. I look around and I see that everybody needs mercy. I need mercy, too.
We are all right now living out a chapter of our lives. I hope each of us are feeling mercy from others…and I hope each of us are carrying mercy to give. This chapter is all we have right now, and someday we will have the pleasure of seeing the whole book.
