I’ve been pondering the following two verses for sometime now. "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no commandment greater than these.” - Mark 12:30-31 "Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.” - Philippians 2:3-4 How do we love our neighbors and put them above ourselves in the reality of COVID? I began to especially think about how do we do this when we travel on mission trips. Then I began to realize that we can do that by starting our mission trip two weeks early. For two weeks prior to departure we could be mindful of our exposure and limit our interactions with others in order to reduce our risk of bringing COVID to the population we are going to serve. Many people going on mission trips are traveling to countries where the population is vulnerable to disease and they have limited access to quality healthcare. We can use these two weeks to not only prepare our physical bodies before departure, but our spirit as well. We can use this time to worship the Lord and pray for the trip we are about to embark on. Might it be your act of worship to prepare in this way during this unique season?
We pray you are able to have a purposeful mission trip and the LORD uses this time to work in and through you to "Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous deeds among all peoples.” - Psalm 96:3