When the storm passes

Summer storms are normal.  First the pressure builds up and creates intensity, often with winds of change. Then the heavens open and the storm commences. It crashes, flashes, and thunders around us, and afterward, the world settles down. 

That’s a little how I feel four days into a new summer team. The first few days are always intense. If it is not one issue, it is another. The responsibility for keeping eighteen people well, fed, and oriented weighs heavily on me. We’re all jet-lagged and weary by nightfall. I have absolutely no time alone. 

Then the team begins to click. The returning teammates connect with the new ones and everyone begins to pick up responsibilities. Others are heading to the store to purchase supplies and food. The rooms are working, everyone is sleeping through the night, and even the newbies have figured out how to get a good cup of coffee made in the morning.

Today was a day apart, tucked deep in the business center of an international church. First we met for worship with some of the staff – Chinese, Russian, Ugandan, western – and our souls were sated with good music and a godly devotional. Then we moved to discussion of how Chinese – or anyone who comes from a totally non-biblical worldview – journeys to Jesus. Stories were told around the circle of past experiences. One of our former learners, now a youth minister, told her own person story of how she came to believe, and what the Lord means in her life. 

At lunch we told the team to go find food -- without us. No hand holding. We were in a commercial area with scores of restaurants. We did our own thing, and so did they. No one starved, no one got lost, no one cried. In fact, they enjoyed themselves.

After lunch we divided into small groups and studied the Word together, using materials written by one of the team who isn’t with us this year. His pastoral voice was heard around the room, even when he was not there.

Coming home we put a buddy system into place. Check, make eye contact at each subway change. Already they are more independent. Already they are finding their way. Already they are a working force. At dinner with the president of the university tonight, two ate their entire meal for the very first time using chopsticks. They all remembered to give and accept gifts with two hands, to leave a little in the bottom of their glasses, to NOT ask if the food was spicy, and to use a few Chinese words of thanks at the end. 

This team of eighteen will be great teachers. They are eager to get started and meet the students and professors who will be in their classes. Two more days of training and then the real fun begins.  And in the meantime, they aren’t even concerned that some of the air conditioners don’t work, the internet is spotty, and faucets sometimes don’t have water.