jetSTREAM missions

Hi friends!

We are having a great time in San Francisco!

Today one of our teams served meals at St. Anthony’s (a place for homeless and poverty stricken people to get a free meal). The other team spent most of the afternoon at the San Francisco food bank sorting through cereal that will be distributed. Both experiences served as reminders that missions work does not only occur in the spiritual abstract (prayer, the secret and mysterious work of the Holy Spirit…) but also in the physical and concrete as well. We are called not only to minister to people spiritually but to also care for their physical needs as well. Today was a good day to remember that.

This morning we had the opportunity to talk through what it means to love people as “persons” rather than “projects”. The point being that often times we can use missions as something to check off our holier-than-thou checklist (don’t kid yourself, you’ve probably got one too) instead of truly entering into the lives of people and genuinely caring for them. Being with and for them as Christ is with and for the world. When we love people as “projects” instead of “persons” we can only love selfishly, caring only for how our service is received or what the person will do or how they will perform for us. Conversely, when we love people as “persons” we enter into their stories and love them for their sake. This is selfless love and the only kind of love that can take on suffering, compassionately care, and selflessly serve the world. Would you pray that our team would love this way?

We had a free night tonight to hangout with our team and, perhaps more importantly, eat Inn n Out burger. It was a great night to take in more of San Francisco culture.

We only have a couple more days here. We are tired but enjoying what God has in store for us here! Love you all back home!

-j