Second Day of Medical Camp

Today was better than yesterday, which is saying something! We saw many children who were very sick (pneumonia). Our national partners were able to have significant spiritual conversations. The team is going to join us again on Thursday when we go to Kibera. Our students are getting unique clinical experience and the Nurse practitioners we are partnering with are excellent teachers.

Tomorrow we will visit in a community of Congolese refugees. Some of our missionary partners work with them consistently, and have invited us to hear their stories. Being heard is significant for all of us, and I imagine even more so for people who have been displaced from their home and culture. It is a real privilege for us to listen, and by listening we will be changed. I saw a former colleague’s post recently that aptly describes the importance of telling and hearing one another’s stories.

Of the 50+ one anothers in the New Testament, I am not aware of any that exhort us to listen to one another’s stories. Yet, I know of no better way to begin fulfilling the one another passages than by listening to each other’s stories.

Listening to one another’s stories:
-brings us together
-unites us
-makes us more human
-gives us context for understanding each other better
-reveals our hearts
-corrects misconceptions
-draws us together
-makes us more of a “real” person
-reveals what we have in common
-makes us appreciate others more
-reveals areas we were unaware of before
-reveals how much more we have in common than differences
-fills in gaps about the “why’s” of people’s actions/behavior
-rids us of false impressions we might have had
-clarifies things we only vaguely knew before
-and a lot more…

The sum total of the above is that we are drawn together to better:
-be of the same mind toward one another
-be devoted to one another
-give greater preference to one another
-help to not judge one another
-build up one another
-accept one another
-bear one another’s burdens
-care for one another
-serve one another
-tolerate one another in love
-be kind to one another
-be subject to one another
-consider one another more important than ourselves
-bear with one another
-forgive one another

These and other similar exhortations draw us closer to fulfilling the command of Christ to truly love one another as God loves us.

Sadly, we often define people by a few skewed perceptions. We are quick to label a person based on what someone else has said about them or our own quick conclusions from distorted or partial facts. People seem a lot different when we know their stories. -Guy Muse

Thank you for praying for us as we listen with open and compassionate hearts to these refugees from the DRC. Here is a link to understand the conflict in the DRC and the resulting devastation for so many.

https://www.cfr.org/global-conflict-tracker/conflict/violence-democratic-republic-congo#Background-0