The trees. They know how to lift their arms to heaven and let go.
Autumn comes late to Florida. All the way in early December. I watch the old season as it turns gold, catches flame and surrenders to the wind. Our autumn comes in an instant and usually lasts less than a week. It reminds me how suddenly seasons can change.
A little over six years ago I showed up site unseen in the middle of a war zone in Central Africa. On Christmas day, I flung wide the rickety gates of my newly rented compound, welcomed home my first 12 children and served Christmas dinner for 1,000. It was a path paved in miracles and Jesus coming where I least expected Him.
Almost six years later, our base is established on 40 acres of our own land. One of my greatest joys was to turn the keys over to an integrated field team of indigenous leaders, missionaries, and some of my first children {who came a little older to our family}. They have grown up, been trained, and returned to serve. That brings tears to a mama’s eyes.
I initially came to my adopted nation with a hunger to find the hurting and the broken and to love them well…. To give away all I had so they could fly higher and farther than I could or would. I came with a job description to love and to learn, go low and slow and do only what I see my Papa in heaven doing.
In September I moved back to my childhood home in Florida. I continue to serve my precious family in South Sudan, raising awareness as a founder so often does. I look forward to when I next visit and can spend the long hot days hugging my babies.
The transition back to the USA was in many ways far harder than the one going the other way. Between my 18th bout of cerebral malaria soon upon arriving back and then a terrible dental mishap that electrified my mouth and blew out my trigeminal nerve, it has been quite a welcome back!
I returned with a longing to live out what I was learning there, here. Could the same simple faith and relentless love of Jesus work here too? Was it really just about stopping for the one person He set in front of me every day?
In the weeks since I relocated, we have a vibrant growing family here who wants to find out what missional community looks like here. Not a strategy session, not a project to fix people’s problems, or worse fix people themselves. Not complicated theory, but an intentional journey to the margins of our community.
I found out this weekend in our small county alone there are 900 children in our school system registered as homeless. There are multiple camps set up for the homeless. There is a growing problem with human trafficking. Suddenly my lessons of holding the broken and learning to be a friend to the outcast didn’t seem foreign at all.
All mission is local. All ministry is local. Your organization can be global and international in its scope and vision, but missions can only be lived out right where you are.
My heart is leaping this morning. I feel like my Papa in heaven has given me the best gift ever. In a season of looking for presents, He has extended an invitation to be present among the invisible and overlooked hurting ones right in my midst.
I am reminded. My address has changed. My job description has not.
So my friend, what have you considered your job description to be in missions? Look at your calendar and it will give you a pretty good idea. 😉 Take some time ask Jesus if He would like to speak to you about His heart for your daily purpose right where you are.
– Michele Perry: Artist, Author, Executive Coach & Founder of Iris Ministries work in South Sudan
blog: From the Unpaved Road | twitter: @micheleperry | work: Iris South Sudan | USA: Create 61, Edge Creative Consulting, LLC
