Minute for Mission
Our team arrived in August 2001 — seventeen young adults welcomed to a Peruvian winter in a hillside village on the outskirts of Lima. The work for our short-term mission trip: dismantle the little wooden church and help dig the foundation for a new block church and school to be built in its place.
Every board of the old church had been used two or three times before and needed to be saved to be used again. Materials were scarce in this village and reused until they literally disintegrated. The ragged boards we handled were precious materials that could become a new house for a villager who had no home at all.
As we worked through the week, we were humbled by the families we had come to serve. We discovered that they were far more skilled in the construction work than we were. They told us they had prayed for two years that God would send a group to help them realize their dream.
Our mere presence was a demonstration of God’s power and provision for them. Most of us had not even met each other when they began praying for us.
The gratitude of this village’s small congregation was overwhelming. They were thankful for the scrap wood that gave them shelter. They were thankful for a community where their children could grow up happy and safe. They were thankful that God would send them young adults from faraway Orlando, Florida, just to encourage their mission and lend a helping hand.
Happiness does not require an abundance of wealth or power — only the sure and certain knowledge of and gratitude for God’s presence in our midst.
—Elder Rob Bullock, director of mission communication, General Assembly Mission Council
PC(USA) General Assembly Staff
Elder Robert Tinkham, FDN
Irvin Tinley, BOP
Elaine Tischendorf, GAMC
The psalmist asked, “What shall I return to the Lord for all his bounty to me?” Gracious God, you have given us far more than we could ever need. Fill our hearts with gratitude for the simplest of your gifts — for family and friends, for shelter and nurture, for faith in the Creator and Giver of all things. Most of all, make us grateful for your presence with us. Amen.
Ps. 116, 147:12–20 Ps. 26, 130
Zeph. 3:1–13
1 Peter 2:11–25; Matt. 20:1–16
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