We have a young guy, Eric, staying with us for a couple of days. He is travelling with the Wycliff drama team. Last night we were getting to know him a bit. Tonight at 7 they put on their presentation at Gateway Covenant, our church. I’ve been to their dramas before and they are good.
Our girls were a bit sceptical about having a house guest that we did not know. But Eric is young and “cool” enough, and only a year out of high school, that once they met him they were really OK with having him here. I am not sure if they get all his language. Oh they understand it in some ways when he uses phrases like “spreading the Gospel” when he describes what he has been doing. But we do not normally talk like that in our ordinary conversation. A fair number of “christianese” expressions were used in his speaking about his aims in life. I imagine in time that he will learn to express what his aims in life are without resorting to Christian phrases.
We were sharing with him some of our experiences as missionaries in the Congo. He asked if our work was mainly concerned with physical healing or if we also did spiritual work. Our reply, “How can you separate the two? You cannot disembody the souls of people.” This is a question asked fairly often of people involved in medical or other technical work in missions. I think it shows a lack of understanding of God’s creation. He created us as humans and breathed into us his spirit, and he said his creation was good. So I don’t think we should try and dissect out the spiritual from the lives we live or the work we do and try to grow just that part of our lives – like growing something in a lab petrie dish outside of the body.
I think he will learn; I hope so. He will need to use everything about himself for God if he really wants to serve him. And God has given him a heart for missions so I guess God will take care of his education. Maybe we are part of it.
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