Not so different but so different...

The spiritual dimension of caring for patients in Papua New Guinea is not so different from being in the states.  Should it be different? Pray with patients, pray for them, pray for opportunities to share the Gospel.  Wherever you go, make disciples. In fact, with the language barrier this first week, I had a lot more conversations with patients about Jesus in the states than I have here.  There is nothing wrong with that.

Missions is not that your light shines differently or brighter, but that it shines in places that have more need of it. I’ve been reading the book of John, and in chapter 1:4-5  it says, “In Him was life and the life was the light of men. The Light shines in the darkness and the darkness does not comprehend it.”  Jesus is not afraid of the darkness, He does not avoid it. This is why He came. I was thinking about how we are candles, and candles are not made to look pretty in warm sun lit windowsills. They are meant to be burned in dark places.

Honestly, I’m not sure that Kudjip, Papua New Guinea is much darker than California spiritually. Physically and medically however, it is a whole different world. There is significant medical need here.  Many lives are saved due to the ministry and faithfulness of the medical missionaries at this hospital.  They have traded a potentially rich and extravagant lifestyle for taking care of the least of these.  This is pure and undefiled religion. This too is a spiritual act of worship. If the people who had the greatest need were the hardest and most inconvenient to help, would you go there?