sacrifices

“The call to full-time ministry will always involve some type of sacrifice,” someone once told me. Usually, the first thing people think of when we tell them that we’re going to Haiti are the sacrifices involved. The sacrifice of luxury, I believe, is what most have in mind. Inconvenient things such as shady electricity, bad plumbing, lack of drinkable water, mosquitoes, strange foods, the language barrier, unbearable heat, etc. are exchanged for some of the comforts that we have at home.

Another inconvenience we’ve encountered in getting to the mission field is a constantly pressed schedule, uncomfortably long hours spent in the car and hardly any “down time”. We spent our Spring Break visiting family and friends in different parts of the country. By the time we arrived back in Canada from Spring Break we had spent over 30 hours in the car over a seven day period. These are inconveniences, no doubt, but they do not qualify as “sacrifices”.

What is a sacrifice then? A sacrifice is not exchanging a luxury of for an uncomfortable inconvenience. A sacrifice is not giving up something that He has blessed us with, like time or money or our possessions for something or someone else. I believe that sacrifice is surrendering yourself for something or someone else. Our family and friends define who we are. Leaving family and friends for our call to is the sacrifice that burdens our hears. Our absence in the lives of those we love is not merely a worthy inconvenience. It is our act of sacrifice for the Lord. It is the hardest component of going to Haiti that we’ve dealt with and will ever deal with.

“These things I have spoken that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.” John 16:33

…because this world is not our home…

-Matt