June 08

Jill Shaw in Auckland New Zealand
South Pacific Christian Fellowship

Last week I spoke to a Girls’ Brigade group. Here I was, an American in New Zealand talking to a multi-cultural group of girls about Africa. It’s part of their curriculum to learn about different cultures. I shared John 3:16 in a couple of languages & explained about the cross & Africa hanging on a chain around my neck and the stories behind the bangles on my arm. I was able to talk freely about why I was in Africa and about how different is not necessarily bad. In fact, different is often interesting!

The next night I led a small group discussion with young adults from Shore Community Christian Church about Telling Each Other The Truth. It was a great discussion, interlaced with Scripture, on how to be honest in relationships, considering personality types, love languages, stages of maturity and faith.

Later that week I took a woman from Congo to a mental health appointment.
She is a refugee and managing the buses was not going to help her resolve anything!
We struggled with conversation, my Swahili being very limited. It was fun to overhear her conversation with the interpreter later, and to know that I could understand some of the chit chat as Swahili and Shona share similar words for similar things.

The week before I had taken an Iraqi woman to a mental health appointment. I did not understand much of the Arabic spoken, though I very much wish I could. Speaking another person’s language communicates that you respect them, value them, and want to communicate with them. Relationship is nearly impossible without common language.

The isolation of many refugees worldwide is a sad reality. They can’t go home. They don’t fit in. They live in hopes that the next generation will have better opportunities. They are making a tough choice that will very likely not produce fruit for many years to come.

My Monday night Bible study continues to be an encouragement to me as I see the ladies gather round my kitchen table and open their Bible, their hearts and their minds. It takes me back to Bible studies I had as a young teenager. All of us gathered round on the floor, Bibles open and snickerdoodles waiting to be eaten!

I taught at a new church plant this week too. I spoke on the need to be Spiritual, Missional & Intentional; how being with Jesus causes us to see and respond to needs around us, and how much is at stake if we neglect the opportunities.

Excerpts from that talk:
It’s not nice to live your life as if God saved you for yourself alone.
It’s not nice to be so spiritually immature that you’re no good to others.
It’s not nice to be more excited about your stuff than about other people’s eternal wellbeing.

Just ask yourself, “What is it that’s an extension of my relationship with Jesus that God wants me to participate in with Him?”

What’s going on that gives me an outlet to tell people, even quietly, what Jesus has done, is doing in me?

Honesty & Integrity at work. Hospitality wherever there’s a need. Generosity wherever possible.

. . . the Lord has told you what is good, and this is what he requires of you:
to do what is right, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God. Micah 6:8 NLT

Live intentionally because being haphazard puts people at risk.

The last, the least, the lost . . . who are they? Where are they?

How is Jesus responding to them through you?

We serve a God who redeems the past, gives abiding joy in the present and hope & purpose for the future.

So here I am, a missionary in a land that very much needs the transformative power and influence of the Gospel, being missional as I see opportunities to interact with people for whom Jesus died.

Here in my house, I try to live grace. Theology is good, but I don’t think it’s something we read as much as something we do.

So as I interact with women who live here, with women who come to seek refuge, with visitors just in for a night of Bible study or a meal, I try to live grace. I am inconsistent. I lack integrity. When I say integrity I mean that I desire to live an integrated life wherein the life of the one I call Lord is mirrored in my life. When people see me, I want them to catch glimpses of Jesus. That would be integrity, and oh, if that could happen consistently!

Anyway. I spoke of the interplay and ambiguities of the words and concepts of spirituality, faith & religion yesterday at a Regional Chaplains’ Meeting. I know people who claim to have faith, but who don’t understand what it might mean to be spiritual. I know people who will defend the faith, possibly meaning the core doctrines, but who might be at a loss to step out in faith and take a risk in obedience to God. I know religious people who resemble those Jesus challenged so often. And I know people who don’t discuss theology at all, but who look an awful lot like Jesus.

The words keep seeping into my conversations. I don’t think I’ll ever nail them down. I’m not sure nailing things down is always best. Sometimes punching holes in things is bad and causes leaks.
If none of this makes sense to you and you’re thinking I should get someone to drive me to a mental health appointment, let me reassure you. I love Jesus more and more everyday and the Words of Scripture often come alive in everyday situations as I see lost people seeking and finding Jesus, as I see cultures mingle and love and truth rising to the top.

The work the Lord is doing here is multi-faceted; it has many faces. I celebrate the variety, the opportunities, the privileges I have to influence with healing & illumination. When people let me in to their lives, to accompany them and disciple them, they let me in to the shaping of their souls. Pray that I serve in God’s wisdom, overflowing with His love and grace.


My forwarding agents, Murphy & Cheryl Belding, will be moving soon, so please be on the watch for an update of their contact details. God is good to allow us to serve together. Cheryl was also in that Bible study waiting for the snickerdoodles!