in the footsteps of Mother Teresa

Late in November I was feeling the inner desire to go on the next mission trip with Pastor Omar. I knew he was taking a team of eight to India so when I mentioned to him I’d like to go, he winked at me and said, oh yes we have one more spot. I tiptoed the topic up to Craig’s attention. He was generous in agreeing to gather information with me, to pray about it and to see where that would take us.

His ministry is called : Go Beyond. Cool.

Every inch of me wanted to join the team. India has been a dream of mine for years. And Mother Teresa has been a hero for even longer. I eagerly read her writings which were published after her death. She was a humble lady and didn’t want credit for any sort of wisdom, she wanted it all to go to God. As it should. But God gave her a heart surpassed by few, and a wisdom that ought to be shared to inspire others.

“If you judge people you have no time to love them.” ~Mother Teresa

The book I read about Mother Teresa

I went to the meeting the group had one week before I had to hand over the cash and apply for my visa. Pastor Omar described how we would spend a week caring for the people who were utterly poor, alone and at death’s entrance. The extremely sick would require our assistance with all manner of nursing care. People with skin diseases that distort their entire features so desperate just to be touched would receive our loving touch. They would be long, hard working days that would utterly alter our perspective on life as we know it. I have to say the idea of the trip was sobering. I teetered on the fence of scared to watch people die every day, and willing to serve my God who would strengthen me through it.

We prayed. Craig and I assessed our year ahead and knew with the big trip to Africa and the great need we will have for our family to come assist us in that endeavor I could not possibly ask for someone to come be “me” while I went to India. Pastor Omar promised me that several teams a year will go there and so there will be more opportunity in the future. I pouted a little.

Maybe God knew my heart needed more time to prepare to do that sort of work. I sadly had to decide not to take the trip. The team is there right now deep in the middle of their week of serving the dying at Mother Teresa’s home in Kolkata India. I know what they are facing each day so maybe God kept me here to pray for them. I am several times a day. I ask you to pray as well that the people who are forgotten in this world will not die alone and afraid, but with the loving touch of people who extend the hands and feet of Jesus.

This week I needed to be here for my family, and I wouldn’t have wanted to miss the visit Craig’s parents made over the weekend. Craig, as studly as he is, needs me. We are his soft spot to land after exhausting days at work. God knows when I’ll get to voyage to India and serve there, but it wasn’t this week, and I see his greater plan as better than mine. And, seriously, I wouldn’t want to be in control of my own life, I’d make a big fat mess of it. God is so much better at it.

“We can cure physical diseases with medicine but the only cure for loneliness despair and helplessness is love.  There are many in the world who are dying for a piece of bread but there are many more dying for a little love.” ~Mother Teresa

Please visit the Go Beyond Blog at my sidebar and see what Pastor shares as they serve there, it will inspire you.

More sayings of Mother Teresa:

• It is easy to love the people far away. It is not always easy to love those close to us. It is easier to give a cup of rice to relieve hunger than to relieve the loneliness and pain of someone unloved in our own home.  Bring love into your home, for this is where our love for each other must start.
• Love is like a fruit in season at all times. Love can warm three winter months.
• We need silence to be alone with God, to speak to him, to listen to him, to ponder his words deep in our hearts.  We need to be alone with God in silence to be renewed and transformed. Silence gives us a new outlook on life.  In it we are filled with the energy of God hinself that makes us do all things with joy.
• Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless.
• We need to find God, and he cannot be found in noise and restlessness.  God is the friend of silence.  See how nature– trees, flowers, grass– grows in silence; see the stars, the moon and the sun, how they move in silence… We need silence to be able to touch souls.
• There is so much love in us all, but often we are too shy to express our love, and keep it bottled up inside us.  We must learn to love, to love until it hurts, and we will know how to accept love.
• You can do what I can’t do. I can do what you can’t do. Together we can do something beautiful for God.
• I know God won’t give me anything I can’t handle. I just wish that he didn’t trust me so much.
• The fruit of silence is prayer. The fruit of prayer is faith. The fruit of faith is love. The fruit of love is service. The fruit of service is peace.
• Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow is not yet come. We have ony today. Let us begin.
• If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to eachother.

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