HAYDEN HILL
Serving short term in East Africa with Mission to the World (MTW)
Destination: Kenya, East Africa
Purpose: To learn and practice micro-economic development tools as a means of preaching the gospel in word and deed.
Needs:
1. Financial and Prayer Support: That I would be able to raise 100% of my funds by the June 2007.
2. Prayer:
-Pray for my spiritual growth and preparation in terms of my love for God and for those around me.
-Pray that God would provide a complete prayer and financial support team by June 2007.
-Pray that God would deepen and solidify my relationships with friends and family during my last months in the US. -Language and cultural adjustment: Swahili is the national language. Pray for my quick adjustment and learning.
Monday, February 26, 2007
Monday, February 19, 2007
What does love look like?
By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk, but in deed and truth.
~1 John 3:16-18
I remember first reading these verses in high school and being profoundly convicted by them. As I read them today I continue to feel conviction for my failure to sacrifice, my failure to imitate Christ, and ultimately my failure to love. For years my wise and godly mother has asked “what does love look like in this situation?” That question rings in my mind as I walk through the daily frustrations of relationships and also as I look at the suffering of the world around me. What does love look like?
I am convinced that, for now, God has called me to love my brothers by traveling to East Africa to work with the poor. God created men and women in His image and by doing so gave them inherent worth, dignity and value. He also told man to work and He has chosen to provide food for His people through their work. Part of the effect of the fall is that there are times when, even though people work, they are unable to sustain themselves.
But the gospel is that Christ brought life and healing. We, being made in the image of God, are to imitate Christ and to be agents of healing in our broken world today. By preaching the gospel and loving our neighbors, we are to point others to the perfect, healing, and life-giving love of Christ.
My prayer is that by using micro-finance and micro-enterprise development I can help to enable those that I work with in East Africa to work and to sustain themselves and their families through their work and thus to fulfill their God-given roles. I hope to leave in August, 2007 to join MTW missionary Lois Ooms in Kenya. For the first 6 months of my 2-year term I will learn from the community health and economic development work that Lois has been doing for the past 20 years. After 6 months I will work together with the Chalmers Center for Economic Development at Covenant College and Lois to evaluate how my next year and a half should be spent in East Africa. It is possible that I will assist with community development training, replicate some of Lois’ projects in other areas, or remain in Kenya to continue working with Lois and her network of practitioners.
I would ask you to pray about your role in this. I am asking you to join me in loving our brothers in action and in truth. Love looks differently for different people. God has called me to love by going to East Africa. Perhaps God has called you to love through prayer or through giving. Please join me in asking “What does it look like for me to love?” I ask that when you see need you not close your heart against it but love in action and in truth.
~1 John 3:16-18
I remember first reading these verses in high school and being profoundly convicted by them. As I read them today I continue to feel conviction for my failure to sacrifice, my failure to imitate Christ, and ultimately my failure to love. For years my wise and godly mother has asked “what does love look like in this situation?” That question rings in my mind as I walk through the daily frustrations of relationships and also as I look at the suffering of the world around me. What does love look like?
I am convinced that, for now, God has called me to love my brothers by traveling to East Africa to work with the poor. God created men and women in His image and by doing so gave them inherent worth, dignity and value. He also told man to work and He has chosen to provide food for His people through their work. Part of the effect of the fall is that there are times when, even though people work, they are unable to sustain themselves.
But the gospel is that Christ brought life and healing. We, being made in the image of God, are to imitate Christ and to be agents of healing in our broken world today. By preaching the gospel and loving our neighbors, we are to point others to the perfect, healing, and life-giving love of Christ.
My prayer is that by using micro-finance and micro-enterprise development I can help to enable those that I work with in East Africa to work and to sustain themselves and their families through their work and thus to fulfill their God-given roles. I hope to leave in August, 2007 to join MTW missionary Lois Ooms in Kenya. For the first 6 months of my 2-year term I will learn from the community health and economic development work that Lois has been doing for the past 20 years. After 6 months I will work together with the Chalmers Center for Economic Development at Covenant College and Lois to evaluate how my next year and a half should be spent in East Africa. It is possible that I will assist with community development training, replicate some of Lois’ projects in other areas, or remain in Kenya to continue working with Lois and her network of practitioners.
I would ask you to pray about your role in this. I am asking you to join me in loving our brothers in action and in truth. Love looks differently for different people. God has called me to love by going to East Africa. Perhaps God has called you to love through prayer or through giving. Please join me in asking “What does it look like for me to love?” I ask that when you see need you not close your heart against it but love in action and in truth.
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