An Ordinary Calling

It is virtually impossible to capture and convey in words the people, the events, the emotions, and the ‘God moments’ that have occurred during this week of service on board FriendShips. So I won’t even try. Instead, I’ll make a very simple observation: God can use you.

FriendShips is a truly remarkable ministry which is staffed completely by volunteers. But these people, while wonderful, genuine, caring, and competent, are not remarkable. They are simply servants, serving a remarkable God. They are ordinary people—young, middle aged, senior citizens, men, women, and children—who are doing extraordinary things because they’ve followed God’s leading and are willing to serve.

The same can be said of Latreia. Of course as their parents we view these four as being engaged in an exceptional undertaking. But Kelly, Laura, Stephanie, and Jesse really don’t see what they’re doing as incredible at all. They are simply servants, serving an incredible God. They are living a life that reflects their faith. They are following the One they said they would follow when they accepted Him as Lord and Savior.

The week spent serving alongside the people of Latreia and FriendShips has taught me that the next time I start to think that it takes a special kind of person to do mission work, serve in a ministry, or do evangelism, I need to change my thinking. I need to look in the mirror and see a servant of God looking back at me. Then I need to ask Him to use me. And I need to be willing to step out in faith and trust Him. He may not call me to set sail for Haiti—but He might! In the meantime, what does He want me to do today, right where I am?

I believe that God has given me this perspective for a reason. Not to diminish the efforts of the people involved in FriendShips and Latreia, but to see that He’s not really looking for extraordinary people; He wants to use ordinary people willing to do extraordinary things for Him. He’s wants to use people like you and me.

--Randy Dotson

Happy Thanksgiving

I hope you all had a wonderful Thankgiving and ate plenty of turkey and pumpkin pie! To tell you the truth, I was not really looking forward for today because it was going to be the first day that I spent away from my family - or at least my biological family.

On tuesday, while I was working in the galley (the kitchen on the ship), I asked one of my co-workers if she was going to be able to go home for christmas. She replied, "No. This is my home. My family is here." Even though these are simple statements, they are profound thoughts. Her family is the Christian community that she lives in...the brothers and sisters in Christ that she works alongside day after day...the "special person" that is in her life.

Today, we enjoyed a wonderful, cajun-style Thanksgiving meal at a local resturant in New Orleans, LA. While we ate, we went around the table and shared what we are thankful for. I am extremely thankful for family back in Iowa (as we all mentioned). I am also grateful for the family that has formed over the past three months. I have gained two sisters named Kelly and Laura, and a brother, Jesse. I know this is cheesy, but at the same time it is so true. We have have spent basically all waking and sleeping hours together, sharing our joys and struggle. We have experienced a lot together and have grown stronger as a unit. We are finding it more difficult to separate our individual lives from the other three. God has blessed me with a family away from my family - and for that I am forever grateful.

Stephanie

Being washed by the toilet

What a week. I am so tired. Most of you know that I hate mornings…this week I saw a lot of the morning, but it was so good. I loved getting up on the ship. Walking outside and seeing the water, hearing the wind blow and being surrounded by an incredible community of faithful followers of Jesus.

From the beginning of the week I felt like this would be a different week for me. It was too! I was able to get to know people for real this week. I was blessed to be working in Domestics. My duties for the week were sweeping and mopping the floor in the mess hall, helping with laundry and washing the walls. I was able to be in conversation with a few of the girls, “laundry room talk” as the call it. I loved the fact that we could share with one another, our joys, our struggles and our dreams. All under Christmas lights in the laundry room, while folding the crews clothes.

I am continuing to learn what it means to be a servant…this week helped me to learn more. The tasks I was doing this week could have been done by anyone. I struggled at the beginning of the week with how meaningless cleaning the mess hall seemed. But as a wise friend on the ship told me about her struggles with the same thing she said “I am not just cleaning the toilets, the toilets are cleaning me”. How true. Once I started to let the work I was doing change me, I found that my attitude changed and I started to love what I was doing. Christ was at the forefront of my mind, and I was constantly aware of why I was doing what I was doing.

I am so blessed by the relationships that have been formed over the last few days. I am excited to pray for the ministry there and continue to let myself get washed by the “meaningless” tasks that I get to do. Leaving today was hard. I felt like I was just getting to know friends…and yet we were on the road again. FriendShips will forever be in my heart!

Laura

They do it all.

It’s late… actually it is pretty early on the morning that we will leave, completing our 14th week. As you may have read from the others comments it has been a great week. I am sitting in the dining hall of the ship, lights out and with a cup of tea while I finish journaling and ready myself to say goodnight for my final night on the Spirit. Dave Matthews sings sweet songs in my headphones while my neck is pinched now and then from my necklace string of 17 bobbers. The Spirit is one of two 338-foot cargo ships docked here in Lake Charles on the Calcasieu River. We live on the Spirit while we prepare the Grace for her voyage to Haiti.

Midnight Tuesday brought cool air from the north causing a wind and rain storm that blew tarps and other objects around the decks of the two ships. I happened to be awake to witness several members of the crew rise from slumber and take action scurrying through the cold rain on slick steel decks. I could not resist but to join in the fun. We tied down what looked to be loose and blowing around. Craig, the deck supervisor, sprinted the decks of the two ships to check for any weaknesses in the storm. For a moment I lost myself in what was going on and I imagined the dangers of the open sea where not only did the skies smash down but swells also rise from the ocean that could rock the ship to pieces.

Friendships is the real deal. The organization works hard to bring basic needs to people worldwide. They venture out to unstable countries over the dangerous open sea. They have also started a program which grows flowers and garden goods to give away to the local community. They do it all. Work has been carried out all week with smiles covering the faces of everyone here. This is a place where the captain walks the ships each day visiting with the crew and joining in water fights. This is a place that invites people of all ages to ready a ship for disaster relief to the poorest country in the western hemisphere. This is a place where Bill and I could wear the same slimy grease-covered clothes for 3 days in a row and still sit right beside the showered folks from the office in the mess hall at lunch time. I have found it easy to be here, work here, serve here and worship here… This has just been an awesome experience.

Jesse

Melting Pot

Living on a ship has been exciting. We have gotten to work with so many people with extraordinary faith. They have welcomed us into their community very graciously and quickly accepted us as ‘one of them.’ It has been interesting how many similar blessings and struggles Latreia and the FriendShip crew have in common. One of their biggest strengths is their amazing community of people. The flip side of that, just like us, is that they also struggle with finding alone time and personal space while remaining in that community. I was having a conversation with one of my shipmates last night about how learning to love everyone on the ship has changed her life. She said this place is amazing because it is a furnace for Christians. God brings you here, chips away at your hardness, melts you down and then finally begins to mold you into the person He wants you to be. It is a continual process. I liked her analogy because it is good to reflect on how important that first step is—without being melted down, God couldn’t rebuild us as His tools effectively. Though we may not understand it at the time, those long hard days may be our ‘melting’ days…how exciting to know that during those hard times we can look forward to the next step and how God will build us up even stronger!

Kelly

The Belly of the Whale (ship)

What an amazing surprise this week has been for me. I thought I would hang out a bit with the Latreia group, man was I wrong! I have never gotten so dirty and felt so good about it. I thought this week would be about Latreia, but it has been very much about much more. I am totally amazed by all the great things happening in Lake Charles, La. and Friendships. The ministry at Friendships is awesome! The people who are a part of Friendships are awesome! God is awesome. I talk all the time about trusting God, but I realize now that I had no idea what that meant. I talk about living faith, but never knew that living in Christ means trusting God completely. I have been honored by God to be working on this ship. Spirit of Grace is what it’s called. I’ve spent the first days in the belly of that ship. But the ministry isn’t about the ship, it’s about the joy that comes in serving with so many dedicated people willing to serve God. What originally caught my eye was the Haiti destination for the ship. What captured my heart was the faith of the crew. What moves my spirit is the power of Christ. Thanks Latreia for the opportunity to experience God like you experience God every week. May God continue to bless you every step of your journey. Latreia Guest….. Bill Nielsen

Motivation

Yesterday we worked with a traveling soup kitchen, Living Stones. We followed a group of 4 people who drive around the city of San Antonio three times a week in a truck filled with food, hygiene supplies, and clothing. All of the people who work for Living Stones are homeless themselves; their pay is free rent (a small trailer) and free food. The best part about this ministry is that those who are helping the homeless know exactly how it feels to be homeless—there isn’t that invisible wall of superiority that almost always exists in volunteering. This empathy was apparent in the way their ministry was run. Rather than trying to conserve as much as possible, they handed out as much as possible, always giving away as much as they could.

The homeless man who currently runs the program, Bill, has a bachelor’s degree and two masters degrees and yet has been homeless for the last eight years. He says his biggest problem is he can’t convince himself that he is worth it—worth getting out of bed to earn money to spend on himself. The only job he has ever been able to hold has been this job because he can “get up in the morning knowing that he will help feed 200 people and they are worth working for.”

I’ve been thinking about his struggle with motivation. He told us forthrightly that his homelessness basically comes down to the fact that he is too lazy to make money for himself. Initially, I felt sorry for him and his lack of personal drive. ‘What a waste of an education’ I thought. The more I think about it though the more I wonder if the world would be a much better place if we had more people like Bill… Can you imagine the social ramifications if the only way people could be motivated to be productive in society would be for them to spend their entire lives serving others? If no one wanted to earn money for themselves, people would be free to spend their time and their energy serving others and changing the world. Now I did take economics in college and I do understand that this theory would also create a multitude of its own complications but for whatever its worth, I think Bill may be on to something. Unlike Bill, we don’t have to see ourselves as unworthy of the fruits of our labor, but we can see others’ needs as more worthy than our own…something that would be a significant step in our country of ‘self before others’ mentality. It is a humbling reminder to learn lessons like these from a homeless man who gives everything he has to the poor.
Kelly

unfeigned humility

This weekend I finished the book "Life Together" by Dietrich Bonhoeffer. It is a pretty convicting book and opened my eyes to personal sin that I was not aware that I was committing - it is not an outward struggle, but one that I imagine many Christians deal with (or do not deal with!).

Dietrich talks a lot about how we are ALL sinners. We ALL fall short of God's glory. It is because of God's mercy and His son's death on the cross that our sins are forgiven and we, as brothers and sisters in Christ, are able to re-enter into communion with Him.

As a Christian, a forgiven individual, I often overlook the fact that by nature, I am still a sinner. On this journey, I have the opportunity to meet a wide variety of amazing individuals ranging from house wifes and pastors to homeless folk and alcoholics, but they all have one thing in common - sin. Many times I subconsiously rank individuals according to thier place in society, as I imagine most do. As I hand out food to individuals passing through the soup kitchen line, it is easy to feel a sense of pride (either consiously or unconsiously) because of "my rank in society".

Deitrich addresses this issue: "The Cross of Jesus Christ destoys all pride. If my sinfulness appears to me to be in any way smaller or less detestable in comparison with the sins of others, I am still not recongnizing my sinfulness at all. He who would serve his brother in the fellowship must sink all the way down to these depths of humility. How can I possibly serve another person in unfeigned humility if I seriously regard his sinfulness as worse than my own? Would I not be putting myself above him; could I have any hope for him? Such service would be hypocritical. 'Never think that thou hast make any progress till thou look upon thyslf as inferior to all.' (Thomas a Kempis)"

In the realm of salvation, every human being is on a level playing ground! It is only by God's grace that we can gain favor in His eyes - one no more than the other.

Stephanie

Solitude

Solitude is something rarely found while living in community. I seem to long for that more than anything on this adventure…more than family, more than phone calls, more than hugs and more than mail. Hours alone with God have to be time made in my day. I wonder how many of you struggle with this too. Why doesn’t the world just take a break at 2:00 everyday so we can have our solitude time?

Today we had a day of somewhat solitude. We found time away from one another; however we were still surrounded by a sea of people. What a refreshing afternoon. It is interesting that even though I need and long for the time of solitude; I would never survive in a world by myself. Community is a huge part of the Christian faith. We were created to live in community and have examples of Christians living that way all through history.

What a contradiction, we long for solitude, but are made for community. I think through solitude God reveals to us how to live in community, how to love and how to be loved. What an important piece of the community puzzle. I find that after I have spent time alone with God, time in solitude, it is easier for me to love those around me. In that time alone, I have spent time understanding more about the heart of God by intentionally “being” alone with Him, afterwards I can share what I have learned by loving those around me.

How amazing that what we learn form God is always applicable in the moment, we don’t have to wait and hope that our new knowledge will be relevant. I love that we have a relevant God!

Laura

Real conversation

We started our week of service on Monday where we helped with Los Pablanos Community Project by planting 20 donated trees. We also helped them repair their irrigation pipes. They use their 130-acre field to produce crops and plants which help feed people in the greater Albuquerque area. It was great to be outside working in the November sunshine!

Monday night we were invited to the home of Sandy, a woman who is a member at the church we spoke at this week. There we ate dinner with her and her former pastor Howard and his wife Freddi. It is always such a blessing to be invited into people’s homes, but for whatever reason this night stands out for me. I think it was the conversation of the evening that made the difference. Howard asked us deep and challenging questions: “Is this year living up to your expectations,?” “How are you processing what you learn,?” Do you realize how everything you do after this year will be measured up to this?” We couldn’t use our practiced responses about what Latreia is, why we do it, and where we’re headed—instead, he made us think. It makes such a difference when people ask real questions…I want to remember that and practice that because too often in life we take the easy road and never delve beyond small talk with people. It’s easy to say “how are you?” but it is more difficult to say “is there something you are struggling with right now?” We must seek and encourage stimulating conversations that truly let you glimpse who a person is and what they are about rather than being content with just learning their name. Jesus’ ministry was all relational and He set the example of sitting down with others and learning about them and who they really are. We, as Christians, are called to follow that example even though it may not be the norm.

Kelly

Discipleship

Returning from Mexico, I was/am convinced that adoption is a great ministry. I called a couple that I know quite well and inquired about the possibility of adoption for them. It blew me away to hear both husband and wife say they would consider it and actually have in the past.

A little history: I continue every day to get closer to this couple and thought I knew them pretty well. This is a couple with a large family already. Never would I have guessed this duo to consider the idea presented to them in jest… but half serious as well.

I am almost finished with a book by William Barker called Twelve Who Were Chosen that gives a brief account of each disciple chosen by Jesus. He talks about how Christ picks and uses disciples for what is inside of them and for what they are capable of.

I am not sure if this couple will actually adopt. I know there are many hoops to jump through, especially with an international adoption… but just to hear that they have been considering it; that it might be possible; to have been given a new insight and to discover discipleship in folks I thought I already knew. I am happy to be pleasantly surprised by people whom I love and respect.

Jesse

Español – La Lengua de mi Corazón

Esta semana en México reforzó el facto que yo amo la cultura mexicana. Yo amo el idioma, la gente, los niños, los muchachos y las muchachas, la comida, los abrazos, las sonrisas, las risas y la vida sencilla. Yo sintí como yo estaba en mi casa. Durante la semana, mientras que yo estaba jugando con niños, estaba charlando con las chicas, estaba interpretando por los otros, o estaba hiciendo tortillas del mano, me duele el corazón. Me realizó que mis deseos son con estos niños, la gente mexicana, y la lengua española. Algún día, voy a regresar.

Estefanía

Silence

My week in Mexico was quite different from the others…it was, in one word, humbling. As the sole member who has no Spanish background, the language barrier was a continual struggle for me all week. I loved being there and playing with the kids but it is so frustrating to only know a few phrases. Virtually no one at the orphanage spoke any English (there were only 2 people I met all week who spoke English!) so it was a very silent week for me…smiles and hugs were my primary means of communication. It was a good lesson on my inadequacy. Even the soccer games we played with the kids were humbling! Those five year olds got game, much more than me!

Still, the one time during the week when I didn’t mind not understanding words was when we were in the kitchen doing dishes and we started singing “Jesus Loves Me” and other worship songs along with a few of the older girls—they in Spanish and we in English. God bridges those gaps of inadequacy for us and fills in voids that are impossible for us to fill on our own, transcending even our earthly means of communication. This quote from “The Revolutionary Communicator” which describes the importance of seeking solitude says that “we long for words that call to us above the cyclone of trivial pursuits, noise, and technologies, wooing us toward something deeper, richer, higher. We ache for a calling deserving of our sacrifice, for pursuits worthy of passion. In a word, we hunger for vision.” During this week without virtually any communication, I was able to see the power of God’s love for His ‘least of these.’ The vision is truly to love one another regardless of dialect, race, economic status, etc. It is a calling that is preached often but easily overlooked in our daily lives which are inundated with the roar of mindless communication and distracting technology. In the midst of their poverty and their absence of an earthly parent to love them, joy was found on the face of every one of those children at the orphanage—a good reminder of the strength of our Father’s love for each of His children and our calling as Christians to continually display it.

Kelly

Super Val

Hello! We are back from Mexico and once again online. It was such an amazing week. First of all we got to leave all of our "stuff" behind in Arizona. We unloaded the contents of our van and each entered Mexico with only a small bag of clothes and a backpack. What a great thing to do. Tonight when we got back to Arizona and started loading all of our "stuff" back into the van I realized just how "unsimply" I am living. I am excited to dump most of my stuff at home during Christmas.

There are so many stories to tell about our time in Mexico. I fell in love with about 75 kids there and pray that I can visit again sometime soon! One of the events that I feel most changed by was something that wasn't in our plan for the week and even 20 minutes before it happened I had my mind set that I would not enjoy it.

The story starts in Super Val, the local grocery store in the little town we were staying. We had gone to the store to pick up a few things that they needed in the kitchen at the orphanage. Jesse and I were in the hot chocolate isle (yes it was cold in Mexico!) and a man walked through and said "God Bless you for visiting our country" then he asked if we were on our honeymoon...
We explained that we were not and that there were four of us working at Casa de Elizabeth for the week, he asked us if we could all come and share our testimonies with a drug rehab house. Without hesitation we both said yes, by then Kelly and Stephanie had found us and they agreed that on Thursday night we would be there, ready to share.

Thursday came and we were all preoccupied with other things, but we told the man that we would be there, so we started to ask if any of the older guys at the orphanage wanted to join us. Four of them came, including a teacher at the school who told us the night before that he wasn't a Christian. The 2 hours we spent there were amazing. Although I couldn't tell the story of Jesus in Spanish, I know that the Holy Spirit was able to get the message across. Not only did the four of us share our stories, some of the guys from the orphanage got to share their stories as well. God was present! How fun to share a story that I know so well, but rarely tell.

One of the coolest parts about last night was that the men at the rehab house are starting to volunteer at the orphanage. Four of the guys were working all day there today. It is amazing how God finds ways to help those in need...even if it takes a little encounter at the Super Val and four Iowa kids.

Laura