Participating in God’s Great Love

Happy World Missions Month! “The missionary thrust belongs to the very nature of the Christian life…missionary activity is a matter for all Christians,” wrote Saint Pope John Paul II in his encyclical Mission of the Redeemer. This echoes and emphasizes the call of Christ to “make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:19).

October begins our second month of formation, called Intake, here in Louisiana for missionary training! I have been blessed over the past several weeks to get to know the amazing group the Lord has called me to train alongside: the Caldwell family from Texas, the Acosta family from Missouri, Leeann Graff also from Missouri, and Faith Lewis from Ohio. Please keep us in your prayers as we continue formation and head to Mexico for a time of international training in November!

In Intake, we begin most mornings with community prayer, followed by formation sessions Monday through Thursday mornings, and outreach on Fridays. Four days a week we then enjoy a community lunch. Our afternoons are filled with more formation sessions, service work at the mission base, and “flex time” to accomplish personal and logistical necessities. Each week concludes with Friday night praise and worship as a community and a lively potluck dinner.

For the past two weeks, all of us in Intake have visited and prayed with residents of a local nursing home during Friday morning service time. One woman we visited had suffered a stroke and her left arm lay with minimal range of motion on the side of her wheelchair. Despite this affliction, she gave thanks to the Lord from the moment we met her for the many blessings God had given her—from the nursing home itself to the ability to move about a bit on her own. Her faith inspired me to strive for greater gratitude and to give more praise. 

Before we left, we prayed together. During the prayer, we asked the Lord to heal her. When we finished, praise be to God her range of motion in her left arm had miraculously increased! The Lord is truly working wonders! 

While Intake formation sessions cover a wide range of topics, from reflections on who God is, who we all are, and how our mission flows from that…to presentations about the logistics of foreign missions, these series of foundational talks encourage each of us to reflect on how we see God and how He sees us, which has particularly impacted me.

Through these talks, I have become increasingly aware of our Lord’s tender and merciful love for us and how He delights in us. This tender, delighting Lord is at the same time our Savior and “Messiah, the Son of the living God” (Matthew 16:16). Our Lord loves us so deeply, and He gives us hearts to love in various ways that each shows different parts of His own heart. Each person is loved and given a unique call to participate in His love in a special way.