Yesterday, Wednesday July 1st, I lead worship with three other OMS interns at a prayer service. The service was live streamed which allowed OMS missionaries from all over the world join us digitally as we praised and prayed. Our set starts at 9:30 in the video.
It's amazing what we can do nowadays with our fancy technology.
Yesterday, Wednesday July 1st, I lead worship with three other OMS interns at a prayer service. The service was live streamed which allowed OMS missionaries from all over the world join us digitally as we praised and prayed. Our set starts at 9:30 in the video.
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“Oh, I don’t know if I could do that ... I’ll have to think about it,” I said to my youth pastor about a month ago. That was the last I’d spoken to him until yesterday afternoon about sharing a message with his youth students. Over the past year, I’ve been working with my church’s middle school youth group and have formed some meaningful, life-giving relationships. I remember making similar connections as a middle schooler with people who continually encouraged and helped me in ways I strive to do now for these students. To be able to talk to them about life and God would be a complete blessing. I truly do want to speak, but I was hesitant. My mind immediately flooded with lies: “You don’t speak well in front of people. You have nothing to offer them. Who are you to teach anyway?” As a naturally shy and submissive person, I’ve never thought of myself as a “leader,” which is why the question frightened me. However, I am beginning to rethink what leadership truly means. Last Monday, Angie Ward, a special assignment missionary with One Mission Society, led a training session titled “The Art of Leadership” at OMS’ Greenwood headquarters. Angie is a professor of leadership, education & discipleship at Capital Seminary and Graduate School, with a Ph.D. in leadership from Southern Seminary. During the hour-long session, she spoke about the qualities and responsibilities of effective, moral leaders. I was surprised by the simplicity of her eloquent, poignant message, as well as what it would come to mean to me. OMS Summer Interns 2015 photo courtesy of Susan Loobie https://onemissionsociety.org/blog/post/leadership-and-empowerment-through-christ
This summer I am interning with One Mission Society as a journalist in their communications department. The missionaries I work with at OMS headquarters in Greenwood, Indiana (only a half hour drive from Indy!) have all been so kind to me. One even bought my first batch of groceries. Everyone I have met has reached out to me and made me feel like a valued, necessary team member. Coming into this internship I knew basically nothing about what I would be doing. I had no idea that being a part of the comm department would mean learning from, and working with, experts in writing, editing, graphic design, audio engineering, videography, and photography. I did not know I would have the best office-intern-mate ever who would adventure to non-profit coffee shop for brainstorming sessions and sneak off with me during coffee break to play piano and sing. I didn't expect the huge desk and work space or the lovely little apartment I get to share with an even lovelier roommate. You can't imagine my surprise when our neighbor's door opened to reveal a fellow Houghton classmate that I have always desired to know and now had the opportunity to while getting lost driving all over Indianapolis without a GPS (those streets are so tricky!) I never could have anticipated any of the blessing that this week has unveiled. The work is challenging and satisfying. The people are kind and honest. The lifestyle is simple and focused. At night I am tired and in the morning I am excited. If I'd known how great this would be I would've done it years ago. My ideal airplane ride happens like this: I am seated next to a window near the front of the plane. Outside a sunset pallet commands the sky leaving land and sea richly clothed in contrasting emeralds and blues. My dear friend and traveling companion, Emma Watson, laughs at a pun I make about painting and air travel. Emma and I chat about French artists for a bit and then retreat into our introverted selves, putting in headphones and listening to underground indie music. Comfortable. Picturesque. Perfect. My flight from JFK to Zurich last Friday happened like this: I was seated in the middle section in economy. The window I might have seen through from across the aisle was blocked by a large Swiss man. My traveling buddy (not Emma Watson, but still a great lady) was seated five rows in front of me which made chat about French artists impossible. Determined to reach contentment I put in headphones and started to turn on Birds of the Northeast. I was just about to sink into music when a twenty something, Indian man sat in my row and immediately started asking questions from across the empty seat between us. My introverted plans ruined I answered politely looking for a way to end the conversation as soon as possible. Windowless. Stranger danger. Eh. So there I am trying to duck out of talking to this man (who I would later learn was named Amit). Meanwhile, Amit is pursuing dialogue with a fierce enthusiasm I’ve only seen on QVC. Luckily for both of us, after small talk about our destinations, occupations, and interests we began approaching subjects of consequence. It all started with cow pee. Let me explain. At the first lull in our conversation Amit spoke to a flight attendant requesting a vegetarian meal. I slyly popped in headphones. He then turned to my fully headphoned self (do.you.not.understand.social.cues) and explained to me that as a practicing Taoist he does not eat flesh or roots. He went on to say that in his culture animals such as the cow are regarded very highly and that the cow is considered the divine mother of us all. He said that during famine Indian families feed their cows with what little food they have. The families then in turn are sustained by the cow’s milk. They would die of hunger before eating the cow’s food or the cow itself. Amit said that some Taoists even take drops of cow pee on their hands every morning and rub it from the forehead to the back of the neck as a kind of blessing. At that point my headphones were quietly stowed away in my backpack once again. His account of the famine sent my mind reeling. I was challenged to find my own tangible equivalent to the Taoist’s cow and became frustrated when I could think of none. I would not give my last bits of famine food to anyone besides my family and surely not to a cow whose meat would sustain with more certainty than milk. The one comparable example that came to mind was the way some Jews refuse to say or write the word “God” out of fear and reverence. I silently noted to adopt this practice if possible. “I want the devotion of a Taoist and the fear of a Jew”, I thought to myself. If I am honest most days the name of Jesus does not make me tremble. That is a serious problem. I listened with interest as Amit blushed finishing his thought on urine consecrations, “I know it must seem silly to you, but cows are very sacred to us”. I responded saying that such is true of any religion. “Is it not odd to you that Christianity should adopt the image of their Savior’s execution weapon as their defining, sacred symbol?” I asked. He agreed that it was quite odd. Perhaps even more odd than the cow pee. So then we were talking about Jesus. If there’s one thing I know about spicing up a conversation it’s that bring up Jesus will at worst- get you killed and at best- end in life changing commitments to follow Christ. Our interaction ended with thoughtfulness which I think was a fair compromise. |
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November 2015
AuthorLaura Johnson is a junior writing major at Houghton College. Laura writes for The Houghton Star, Mousailink, and One Mission Society. This virtual space is a journal of things that matter to her; tales, musings, wanderings. |