The theme for our Honduras trip this year was Philippians 1:11- "May you always be doing those good, kind things which show that you are a child of God, for this will bring much praise and glory to the Lord." This was the purpose and mission of our trip. But by the end of our time in Honduras we had another passage that voiced our prayer for those we had worked beside and played with and held and listened to and helped in some small way.
Philippians 1:3-6 says "I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus"
The medicines and school supplies and the gifts and the money, and all the hugs and laughter and love we brought with us seems so small compared to the great needs of the people of Honduras. And yet God promises that He can take those small things and multiply them, just as He multiplied a few fish and loaves of bread to feed over 5,000 people. He will use the small things that we offered to Him and use it to reach these people whom He loves. Even though we may not have been able to see the fruits of our work, and what we did seems so futile, God promises that He will carry on the good works that He began until the day of Christ Jesus.
What we felt at the end of our trip characterizes how I often feel about other ways that I have served. It seems that what I do is so small and incomplete. I've often built relationships with people and hopefully planted a seed in their hearts. Yet I rarely am able to see the fruits of those seeds. When I leave my job to go back to school I will have been working with most of my kids for almost two years. I've cared for them, prayed for them, and loved them. I've seen many of them make great strides in their lives, while others are still taking baby steps. I have dreams for these kids and what they will become. Yet God is calling me elsewhere and I won't be able to see the fruit of the seeds that I've worked so hard to plant. But in these verses in Philippians, God promises that He will complete these works that He has begun in the lives of these children. These children, my kids, God's creation, are never out of His sight or far from His hands. God will continue to work in their lives, to shape them and mold them, and hopefully one day they will find their way home to Him.
This is my prayer for all the seeds that have been planted, both in Honduras and here in our every-day lives.
