snapshots from Trinidad #3: family . . . and Family

To say that it was amazing to take this trip with my entire family would be an understatement!  It was a privilege to be able to experience SMI together and serve alongside one another in different ways.  My parents, brother, and sister-in-law are involved with Medical Campus Outreach year-round (leading small groups and investing in students) and have been on a number of SMI trips.  So it was great to be able to see this part of their lives in person.  I am incredibly thankful & humbled to be part of a family who loves the Lord, loves each other, and who is seeking to be good stewards of the lives the Lord has given us.  So blessed.

I remember my first year at Wheaton and being shocked by something proposed in our Theology of Culture class: that our true family isn't biological.  For a first-semester freshman fourteen hours from home, I didn't like the idea ;-)  But after my homesick defensiveness wore off, I saw the truth of this claim.  And the reality of my true Family is one of the most encouraging to me on a daily basis: God designed us for community and to complement one another - thus making us stronger & more useful together than we are separately.  I truly cannot imagine "doing life" without the Body of Christ.

Outside of my family, I only knew a couple of other people on the trip.  But having Christ in common is such a quick connector!  It was a blessing to get to know others on the trip and to hear & see the ways the Spirit is at work in and through them: their desire to use their gifts in service to others, to care holistically for patients (spiritually & medically), to be open to the Lord's teaching & leading . . . I was encouraged on a deep (& much-needed) level to see the commitment that this group had to honoring the Lord with the whole of their lives.  (Truly living vocationally - one of my favorite topics!)

One of my favorite songs the past year has been Hosanna (by Hillsong - take a listen here).  Some of the lyrics really resonated with what I saw during SMI - one example being these:

I see a generation
Rising up to take the place
With selfless faith, with selfless faith

The team of med/nursing students and medical providers was a microcosm of the Body - and is certainly one of the ways God is at work in the here & now . . . it is exciting to think about how the Spirit will continue to work through the individuals in this group!  I continue to pray toward that end . . .