I’ve been reading “The Magnolia Story” by Chip and Joanna Gaines. Here are some tidbits:
“We have since made a life out of expecting and working toward restoration at every turn.” – Chip Gaines
“Even back when we started, we know that one home being restored makes a real difference, just as investing in one person makes a real difference,” – Chip Gaines
Have we forgotten that investing in one person makes a difference??
Let’s apply this to mission/aide work (because that’s what this site is about). We don’t have any problem thinking in terms of the pastor/missionary investing in the souls around them. HOWEVER, we often forget that servant needs US to invest in THEM. We see the need of sending people to foreign lands to serve the underserved, but then we set those pastors and missionaries out on a limb and expect them to meet their own needs. AND we add a dimension of “Jesus should meet your needs” or “as someone in ministry, you shouldn’t have any needs”.
There are a few things we forget:
- Living on a limb is not comfortable. It not our natural habitat. Often, you have a real sense that there is nothing under you and you’re walking a fine line.
- You’re on a different level than most folks (not better or worse, just different) and most don’t understand what it’s like unless they’ve lived on a limb, too.
- A limb cannot sustain all your needs.You will eventually run out of food on your limb. There isn’t fruit in every season. Sometimes, there’s grey, cloudy, barren, snow and cold and you feel very alone out on that limb.
- You don’t rest well on a limb. How can you really ever relax?
- Jesus doesn’t meet our needs in a vacuum very often. Once in a while there’s an incredible miracle of manna, but most of the time He uses us to meet each other’s needs.
- If God doesn’t supply miraculous limb provision, we often jump to believing the lie that somehow the missionary is wrong, ineffective, “doesn’t have favor”, or “lost his calling” and maybe they shouldn’t be on the field anymore. But maybe, just maybe, Jesus actually called them to the limb so that WE will step up and help them,
- When the peanut gallery starts chattering about our situation – having never lived on a limb -this adds guilt to the soul weariness.
The vision of Villa Sollievo is to meet the physical, spiritual, and emotional needs of under-funded, soul-weary, dedicated world-changers. We know what living out on a limb means. We’ve lived it. We live it now.
Our mission is bringing sustenance in a limb-to-limb rescue operation to feed, fortify, and strengthen those beautiful souls who have given up homes, friends, family, and cultures to serve the underserved; to those who invest in each ONE they encounter.
We can’t serve them without YOU.
Investing in one person can make all the difference in the world. You can do that here. Find “Italy – Project 9” in the drop down and give generously!
Villa Sollievo 