Seed of Hope

Saturday 17 February 2018

Ubuntu

Ubuntu is an African term that is used to describe many things including respect, kindness and generosity. It speaks of the importance of community and is sometimes summarized like this: "I am because you are." It is a simple phrase that speaks to our capacity to learn and grow in our strength, confidence and virtue, through the influence of participating in community.

On a short-term mission team, our first community is always the team, as an extension of our larger home community. One of the challenges, on a trip like this, is to not restrict learning to an individual perspective. When we open ourselves us to learn from the perspectives of others, together, we all benefit.  In particular, as followers of Jesus, the Spirit of God is at work in each of the team members. Therefore, by taking time to also listen to each team member, we are listening to what the Spirit of God is collectively teaching us, which in turn can serve to strength us each individually. It's one of the reasons that I love working with teams of people!

This morning at breakfast seemed like a good time to reflect on what we're learning so far. Here's a glimpse:

  • the way respect is shown; there is an intentional listening to each other no matter what their role on staff might be. Everyone has input. 
  • There’s more than one way to do the same job; communication develops trust and it gets completed
  • I like the way that Angela is able to interact with the ladies
  • There are many ways that we are different but there also some ways we are similar (as we laugh and share and talk we realize we are the same)
  • We don’t have to have everything planned out. I am learning to trust God with the details. 
  • I’m learning to have conversations. It seems easier here. 
  • It’s interesting to see how my learning in school is coming to life through this real life experience. 
  • I’m learning to not be focused on success rather to focus on faithfulness. Hearing the stories of people’s lives reminds me that we are all incomplete, we carry struggles and hurts, and some may never be completed on this side of heaven.  But God is faithful and we can trust him and therefore serve freely and faithfully. 
How about you? What are you learning as you follow these blog posts? Your comments will increase our learning...

Deve




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