Yearning. I think if I had to choose one word to describe my entire life it would be that. Yearning. There are moments when I’ll feel unexplainable homesickness. Not for the house I share with my family, not for the town I grew up in, not for any place in this entire world – just simply an ache in my heart for home.
This past summer I went on the Great Adventure Tour. It wasn’t my first time on a mission trip. Not even my first time on a mission trip with ANCOP. But it had been a long time since I had given a part of myself up so that I could serve others in the way only a GAT could provide. It’s funny how easy it came to me: the comfort of breathing in the humid air, the rhythm of digging ditches, the longing for the hard work under the scorching sun (or torrential downpours). These are the sacrifices I will happily make to share even just a fraction of the love Christ gives me. And it is in those sacrifices that He truly made Himself known to me.
During the trip our group made a deal – no complaining. We would take the hardships as joy because it was our sacrifices for the people God had sent us to serve. It was our sacrifice to God. But the funny thing about shutting your mouth and sucking it up when times get hard is that somehow it’s not bad anymore. Letting go of everything that’s tough and lifting it up gives you such much more room to love.
And I have discovered that yearning is a part of me. It is a part of me that longs for my ultimate home, for heaven. My soul longs to be with the One who made me. As C.S. Lewis puts it, “if I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.” And though all the giggles of little children, and all the home cooked meals made with love from the titas (aunts), and all the patient explanations and demonstrations from the kuyas (older brothers) and titos (uncles) in Tarlac and Avanai can’t fill the heaven-shaped hole in my heart, it’s close. It is the feeling of true love and joy that gives me a glimpse of what heaven is like. And in the simple hardships I endured, God allowed me to momentarily quench my thirst for His home.
If I know one thing about the Great Adventure Tour, it’s this:
There is an undeniable, overwhelming, self-giving love that permeates every moment of every day. The love of Christ that gives without taking, that trusts without hesitation, and that has no bounds is everywhere you look, in every person you meet, and in every action that is ever taken. It is a taste of what my heart yearns for. And though the struggle is definitely real in the slums, love is not hard to find. And Christ is never far away.
[This reflection is written by Kaye Baylon, who went on a mission trip to the Philippines in August 2014.]
This past summer I went on the Great Adventure Tour. It wasn’t my first time on a mission trip. Not even my first time on a mission trip with ANCOP. But it had been a long time since I had given a part of myself up so that I could serve others in the way only a GAT could provide. It’s funny how easy it came to me: the comfort of breathing in the humid air, the rhythm of digging ditches, the longing for the hard work under the scorching sun (or torrential downpours). These are the sacrifices I will happily make to share even just a fraction of the love Christ gives me. And it is in those sacrifices that He truly made Himself known to me.
During the trip our group made a deal – no complaining. We would take the hardships as joy because it was our sacrifices for the people God had sent us to serve. It was our sacrifice to God. But the funny thing about shutting your mouth and sucking it up when times get hard is that somehow it’s not bad anymore. Letting go of everything that’s tough and lifting it up gives you such much more room to love.
And I have discovered that yearning is a part of me. It is a part of me that longs for my ultimate home, for heaven. My soul longs to be with the One who made me. As C.S. Lewis puts it, “if I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.” And though all the giggles of little children, and all the home cooked meals made with love from the titas (aunts), and all the patient explanations and demonstrations from the kuyas (older brothers) and titos (uncles) in Tarlac and Avanai can’t fill the heaven-shaped hole in my heart, it’s close. It is the feeling of true love and joy that gives me a glimpse of what heaven is like. And in the simple hardships I endured, God allowed me to momentarily quench my thirst for His home.
If I know one thing about the Great Adventure Tour, it’s this:
There is an undeniable, overwhelming, self-giving love that permeates every moment of every day. The love of Christ that gives without taking, that trusts without hesitation, and that has no bounds is everywhere you look, in every person you meet, and in every action that is ever taken. It is a taste of what my heart yearns for. And though the struggle is definitely real in the slums, love is not hard to find. And Christ is never far away.
[This reflection is written by Kaye Baylon, who went on a mission trip to the Philippines in August 2014.]