I
have just returned to South Africa. I went to attend a dialogue of
Anglican bishops on the subject of reconciliation. It was a great
blessing. While I was there I also had the chance to spend some time
with Holly Milburn, Cameron Spoor, and Steve Smith, all of them Young
Adult Service Corps volunteers from the Episcopal Church serving in
South Africa. As profound as Anglican bishops can be talking about
reconciliation, and indeed they were, having the chance to be inspired
by these three young people was, without a doubt, the highlight of the
trip. Indeed, they were the greater blessing.
On
my last day, one of them, Cameron, asked to have our picture taken
together. I stopped by the school where he and Steve work, and one of
the teachers was kind enough to take a picture of the three of us. He
sent me a copy, but with it he sent some other, much more important,
pictures.
The
other pictures were of the students at Holy Cross School. Some of them
show the younger students excitedly looking through their new books
about Clifford the Big Red Dog. Ginger, who along with me has been
involved with the educational ministry of the Holy Cross Monastery in
Grahamstown for a number of years and has been a recipient of the
blessing that is, carefully packed the books and sent them with me.
Clifford, you see, was one of the characters we read to our own children
about, and we have long since come to think of the children at Holy
Cross as ours, too. I had delivered the books to the school the day
before, one book for each of the children to take
home.
The
funny thing about that was that the teachers sent the books home with
the children. All of the children brought them back and returned them
the next day. They couldn’t believe something so precious could be
theirs to keep. The teachers explained and the books went home again
the next night. I hope they stayed this time.
The
real point I want to tell you about, though, is about Cameron’s email
and the way he signed it, which was this: “Servant in Christ (and
unabashed about being a missionary!).” Unabashed for good reason.
Missionary
is a word that has taken on some very negative connotations, and not
without justification. There have been times when missionary and
colonialist were very nearly synonyms. There have been times, good
intentions notwithstanding, when missionaries have fostered dependence
and may have done more harm than good. Cameron’s insight, though, is
that it is not only possible to reclaim the word from its misuses, it is
important to do so.
Being
a missionary, of course, is not truly about colonialism or
short-sightedness in our strategies. Being a missionary, in truth, has
very little to do with what we do for others at all. It has to do
mostly with being who we ourselves are. Mission is a matter of identity
for us. Mission is just simply who we are.
And
who we are is human beings, created like all other human beings, in the
image of God, and born for the purpose of loving, of loving God and
loving one another, which are really pretty much the same thing. That
purpose is what our mission is. What Cameron and all the YASC
volunteers know, I think, is that in loving the poor, they are loving
Christ himself, and what makes that mission work, as opposed to doing
good, is that it fulfills our very basic identity as human beings,
children of God, which is to love. Trevor Huddleston, a missionary who
preceded Holly, Cameron, and Steve to South Africa by 70 years, put it
this way: “You cannot love an
unseen God until you perceive Him in those you are sent to serve.”
Doing just that is what being a missionary is all about.
So,
I am deeply grateful for Cameron’s reminder about that mission is about
being who we are. And in that sense, it is not only acceptable to be a
missionary, it is imperative. Cameron, Holly, and Steve are
missionaries on our behalf in South Africa. There are other YASC
volunteers in other places doing exactly the same thing. And that makes
all of us who work to support them in our various ways missionaries,
too. I’m so grateful for the small opportunity I have had to do so. It
has left me unabashed about being a missionary.
Peace,
+Stacy
