Embodying the Gospel

Another Child Foundation is committed to "embodying" the Gospel in everything we do. Our mission statement of reaching, teaching, and transforming indicates to others who we are and what we do. The definition of embody is..."be an expression of or give a tangible or visible form to (an idea, quality, or feeling)." So, for ACF to "embody" the Gospel this means that we are required to be God's expression of God's love in a tangible way. Ultimately it is God who does the transformational work of ACF in Romania but God calls on us to habitually plant seeds, water the seeds, and cultivate the soil so that a good harvest can be had.

ACF is committed to "embodying" the Gospel through the building of relationships with the people we partner with. This means our supporters, our ministry partner Buckner Romania, and the people we provide programs to in Romania. The building of a person's faith rarely happens in a moment's notice. For me it has been a long process of gaining wisdom, making mistakes and repeating that cycle over and over again. Luckily for me God is faithful in his commitment to me. Because I question the depth of my faith all the time. When struggles come up within my life I routinely depend on my strength and ability to overcome instead of laying those issues at His feet immediately. Without relationships with my family, friends, and Lord I would quickly spiral into the depths of sadness and depression. If that is true with me then I am others deal with the same issue. So, God lead relationships are vitally important for all people.

ACF and Buckner Romania have worked tirelessly in building relationships. It takes a lot of hard work to build relationships with the Gypsy community in Tarneveni, Romania. We live in a world of instant gratification and want things quickly and without hassle. This developing a relationships with the Gypsy community will be the hardest thing we will ever do. But, when you truly understand what "embodying" the Gospel means and how God will work within this mission I am convinced it will happen in His time and not ours. At times long-term missionaries will work for years without seeing the "fruit" of their labor only to find that years later a great harvest was produced. Jesus calls us to do the same things for others as He did for us. Jesus first cared about a persons health followed by family, work, their values, their relationships, and finally their behavior and we need to do the same.

In my last blog I wrote about the mission statement of Jesus. In my opinion it was 3 items. Proclaiming the Gospel, show compassion, and commitment to justice. Proclaiming the Gospel does not necessarily mean using words. I have seen mission teams make great strides in proclaiming the Gospel when not one word was spoken; this is "embodying" the Gospel. ACF teams and representatives always have a compassionate heart and are committed to providing justice to all people. I will write more about providing justice in future posts because to provide justice to a community of people who have been living in oppression for such a long time is not a "snap of the fingers" plan. However, the holy scriptures are very clear on what is expected of ACF if we are truly going to be the hands and feet of Jesus. This means that ACF has to be a tangible expression of God's love to ALL people!