I've never had a blog before, but I decided to
start one in order to keep everyone updated with my activities and whereabouts.
I accepted an offer from the General Board of Global Ministries, a part of The
United Methodist Church, to be a part of their 3 year mission intern program.
18 months will be spent in another country and 18 months will be spent in
America.
I received confirmation today that I will be
serving my international portion in South Africa with The Methodist Church of
Southern Africa! They are bringing me on to develop a model regarding the
protection of children. The problem presented to me was that of a migrating
population. Many people are moving to South Africa to find work and that raises
problems if something happens to the parents. If for some reason the parents of
a migrating family die, then the children are left vulnerable to human
trafficking. The proposed plan is to somehow have the local churches track who
is in their area. If churches are more present in the life of the community,
then they can better protect the people around them. I can’t wait to talk more
about this issue with my future colleagues and see how I can help them to bring
their plans to life.
When creating this blog, I chose to entitle it
“Missio Dei: Where Worlds Collide.” Missio Dei or “God’s Mission” is one of
grace and love. God is already working in the world to spread these qualities. Over
these three years (and over the rest of my lifetime) I will be humbly participating
in this mission that is already in progress. When including “Where Worlds
Collide” in the title, I was thinking about the many barriers that separate us today
as a global community, such as race, religion, gender, socio-economic status,
politics, and education. I believe that the acceptance of differences will get us all much
further towards accomplishing mission Dei. Through doing this program, I will
be entering into relationships with many people who are, on the outside, very
different from myself. My hope is that these differences can be lifted up and
diversity celebrated. I want to share my experiences with you all, so that your
eyes may be opened up, alongside mine, on this journey.
