One of my mentors and friends once said, “just show up.” Today I got the opportunity to do that. I’m grateful for my friend Jake Jones, for over 15 years he has been traveling hundreds of miles to the corner of South Dakota to share the love of Christ to a group of people who have lost hope. At the rez life is different, beat up cars and trucks, old mobile homes that are dilapidated and weathered. Dirt roads with deep track marks from the rains and snow. The smell of peyote and alcohol. And children running around with little to do or hope for. Just show up, just make yourself available, stoop down and pick up a kid, and go swing on the playground. Sit and watch a 5 year old play Nintendo 64 and beat the Mario cart opponents, or crash into the barriers, either way, sit and be there for the ones who’ve been forgotten.
It’s not about getting numbers or results that can be measured. It’s about being cnsistent, about showing up, about doing what others would consider meaningless.
So yesterday at about 4:30pm I asked my boss what we were working on next week, and it seemed like we would be a little slow, so I asked off for the week. Went and did a load of laundry packed my clothes, and showed up.
I’m honored to be a part, even if it’s just a small part, in a bigger picture of what God’s love truly looks like.
Please keep the team in your prayers, there are about 20 of us going for a week to South Dakota. We left this morning.
reachthisworld.org 