​What and Why

For coming up on thirty years I have been hauling my carcass all over the world doing mission work of one kind or another.  I just love it. I have been on medical missions, construction missions, rescue missions, disaster response missions and disaster recovery missions and have been greatly blessed each and every time I have gone out. For me it’s just as natural as breathing, and I can think of no better way to spend my life than wandering the planet from time to time doing the Lord’s bidding; but I also understand that for many the allurement of mission work is more of a mystery than it is a miracle.

Someone asked me the other day what do you do when you are over there? That I can answer without so much as a moment’s hesitation. We work. We play. We worship. We live our lives with folks different and yet the same as we. We play in an expanded sand box with fellow Children of God. To the best of our ability, we fix it if it’s broken, sooth it if it hurts, bandage it if it’s bleeding, and pray over everything.  
  
Over the past couple of years, my team has been working in the Baltic country of Latvia.

 Specifically, in Latvia, we are working to help restore the Church which was devastated when the “Iron Curtain” fell upon it, crushing the institution, confiscating its wealth and property and outlawing its practice.  

Through building repair and restoration, we help to rebuild the tradition of the Latvian Methodist church. As the old buildings are brought back to life, traditions, dormant for seventy-five years, have space to grow and blossom once again. Practices outlawed and oppressed for decades are given expression. Institutional memories are revived as structures revered for generations are restored and repopulated with the memories of past matriarchs and patriarchs of the Latvian Church.

Through the simple acts of pouring a concrete slab, refinishing an ancient pine floor and refurbishing a long-neglected fellowship hall, the spiritual lifeblood of the Church is replenished. The fire is fed a bit more kindling, and the Kingdom of God here on earth and in Heaven is strengthened a bit.

Will the actions of a few good-hearted South Carolinians in Latvia be of any lasting value? I honestly have no idea. I do know that whatever we build in a physical sense does indeed have a life span and that in time the floor will need refinishing, the room will need refurbishing and the concrete will become stained and cracked with age. Such is the way of things.

I also know that Christian love has no half-life, for Christian love flows from Christ, and Christ will never tire. Christ and His love are eternal, so the love shared between our Latvian brothers and sisters and ourselves will remain in place to support, nourish and enliven us all forever.

As to why some are drawn by God to exotic places while others are drawn across the street to do the Lord’s work, I have no satisfactory answer for those who question such things. I know it sounds a bit pedestrian, but the Lord has His ways; and I know without a doubt that while I cannot fully understand, He does, and that is good enough for me.

Love,
Pastor Tony

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