Orientation in Chicago

So, this is my blog, neat, isn't it? a little bit about what I am doing... a little bit about my thoughts and feelings now... a little bit about what I have learned... I will try to update this as frequently as possible over the next year and I will try to post pictures as soon as I figure out how to load them from my camera to the computer... please let me know what is going on in your lives over the next year and how I can pray for each of you...

I left Darlington to begin this journey on August 20. Since then, I have been in Chicago for a week-long orientation program where I have had the opportunity to share thoughts and experiences with other young adults going out to serve as partners in the global community. We have gotten the chance to reflect on the journey about to begin and the inevitable changes that will occur in and through us because of this journey.
I know that God has called me here this week, to share in the struggles and excitement of this place and these people. I have been so blessed by the speakers we have heard and the friendships we have formed as we prepare each day to take part in God's mission in the larger world. My eyes have been opened to new ways of looking at problems and new ways of defining my place and my call. We go out into the world, not to save it, but to simply to offer our presence... To stand up as the body of Christ with our brothers and sisters all over the globe... to commit to the fact that we are all connected... to commit to the idea that when one of us hurts, we all hurt; when one of us hungers, we all hunger...
On Monday we looked at the parable of the Lost Sheep, not from the perspective of the one, but from the comfort of the 99. I have always thought of myself as the one who was lost, and I found reassurance in the Shepard who would find me no matter where I wandered. While this is still very true in my life, I have also come to see myself as a part of the church that is comfortable, the church that wonders: Why would the Shepard leave us to go after that one? And dare we risk following if it means endangering our status or privilege? The answer came as a surprise to me... you see, without that one, the ninety-nine are incomplete. We cannot claim to be a part of the great Church universal if we do not find ways to reach out to those who are lost and hungry and hurting in the world. Not because we can save them, not because we can teach them, but because we are not whole without them. Our humanity rests in their humanity, and there is no status or privilege worth risking that.
As the time to leave for Kenya draws closer, I pray that God will give me eyes that see beneath the surface, ears that can understand the meaning behind words, and a heart open to the pain of others. I am going as a stranger to a new place, a place of unfamiliarity and discomfort... perhaps during this time of transition and newness, I will be shaken up enough to be changed by the stories of Christ lived out in the people of Kenya.