Urbana Bus Eavesdropping.

They keep talking about short-term missions.
… and “follow-up”.

They want to make a tangible difference wherever they go.
“I mean it’s great and all that we’ll be the ones that gain from the experience but that’s not why I want to go. I want to make a difference.”

But that’s not what I learned from Urbana.
I learned that God makes the difference.
I learned that His agenda is his people.

Yes, their statements seem humble on the surface, but who are we to pick and choose where to serve, which organization to go with? Who are we to judge them as ineffective or proper or not?

Ramez Atallah reminded us that what is most important is obedience, not success.
I learned in Afghanistan that God will use whoever he chooses. Our job is to be obedient. What He does out of the work He does through us is not for us to see or know. If we are lucky, we are able to see His hand at work at all. And we do! And that should blow us away. And if we do not, then praise God anyway because we have faith that He is a God who has perfect plans. Who are we to question it? We can only be thankful to be a part of it.

Sundar Krishnan challenged us to question what God’s true agenda is.
We intercede and serve and minister to the oppressed, the poor, the blind, the naked, the fatherless and so forth. But we emerge transformed. Is that yet not the grace of God?
We shouldn’t feel guilty for the transformation God does in us. This transformation is not oppositely relative to the change that he did in the lives of those we serve and pray for.

It is always about the painter, not the painting.
A God who loved us, created us, transforms us is most definitely a God who loves, who created, and will transform the world.


Embrace transformation! Go serve, go overseas, and be changed. Be obedient, and trust in God’s successfulness. In the meantime, we must be faithful and obedient to the transformation God does in our lives.

If ever there was a man or woman who made a difference in the missions occurring around the world in history, it was because he or she first received the love and transforming salvation from Jesus Christ. Freely we’ve received, so freely we give.