The Eugene Mission

So this is where I work now.  But to be honest calling it work just seems weird.  It is the mission field God has placed me in.  That feels better.  If any of you have ever been on a mission trip you realize how you forget the worldly things around you and just focus on serving and somewhere in the process you get changed.  The unhindered serving somehow allows God to move in your life in new ways, fresh ways, and humbling ways.  You walk away from the experience different.  I feel like that is what the Eugene Mission is doing to me.  When I found out I had gotten the job here I came out with guns a blazin and ideas flying everywhere.  For those of you that know me, typical Q fashion.  But as I slowed down and led my life meld with the men around me and let their stories become part of mine I started to become a different character.  God began dealing with things in my heart.  Not new things, but old, like pride, being judgmental, and arrogance.  In light of it, God began to show me how to love deeper.

The Mission is growing.  More people are staying here.  We are moving to a deeper discipleship of the people that God is sending here.  New buildings are being built.  And we are dreaming about how to show this community and especially the forgotten the love of Christ more and more everyday. 

I started a midday Bible study on leadership with some of the guys Monday.  We looked at Nehemiah and how he wept, mourned, fasted, and prayed for the people.  I want to let my heart break in the same way.  I'm tired of feeling like it is all about implementing the right strategy or the next good idea.  Those will come.  But why do we so easily jump right over the fact that people's pain, suffering, disarray, lack of vision, and lostness should be felt in our very bones.  We should weep over people.  Instead, we've been taught to weep over lost dreams or dwindling bank accounts.  Rubbish.

I'm am blessed to serve the men and women who find themselves at the mission.  By spending time with them I learn amazing lessons.  I get to share with them what the Bible says about how much God loves them and the plans he has for them.  I get to pray with men fighting cancer.  I get to help people walk through psychological disorders of all kinds.  I get to play bingo with guys and get coffee with men who teach me things from their life experiences.  I get prayed for by people who have struggled yet saw God come through and I get to pray around circles against addictions.  I get to take people to church.  I get to teach from God's word and I get to listen. 

In the end what I've found is that as much as "I give", "I get" the much more. 

You should come to the Eugene Mission and serve.  It will change you.  And if you read this too far away from Eugene, well then begin to mourn, weep, fast, and pray for the people who move your heart.  Then do as Paul says in Philippians 2, pour your life out like a drink offering.  It could be amazing.

Check out the Mission's website HERE or on Facebook HERE.