This Side of the Journey
February 27, 2020
By Jodi Beckham
We are waiting for this journey to begin. Not sure what to expect. Not sure exactly where or when I will sleep next. I guess there are a lot of unknowns at this point. We arrived in NYC and went to Ash
Wednesday service at Fifth Avenue Presbyterian. A beautiful church tucked off of the busy hustle of 5th Avenue. Four people from that church are joining us on this journey. Julie Warren and I met up with Nancy Dimmock and Sally Harwood of Ministry of Hope yesterday.
We are waiting at JFK International Airport on our flight to be called that will carry us 8,000 miles, across the North and South Atlantic oceans, into the southern hemisphere, to the small country of Lesotho in southern Africa where it is currently summer time. When we finally get the chance to sleep next, we will
wake and drive 4-5 hours on an unpaved road to Maseru, where we will find Ministry of Hope, the home for vulnerable children that Nancy Dimmock co-founded with Mamonyane Mohale more than 10 years ago.
I don’t feel prepared. I’ve been trying to learn the language of Sesotho but all I can say is hello. I get conflicting weather reports so I didn’t know what to pack, so I probably overpacked the wrong clothes
and under packed what I will need. I am travelling with Nancy Dimmock, former PCUSA mission coworker and co-founder of Ministry of Hope. I don’t feel worthy to be travelling with her – someone who
has given so much of her life serving others.
I can’t help but think about the early disciples. Not that I am likening myself to them at all. But I have often thought about this notion Jesus teaches to go out and take nothing with you. Jesus taught the disciples to rely on the people they would meet to provide for them. I think those passages of Scripture have always bothered me because of that whole going out idea. I am more of a staying in kind of girl. I like to watch movies from the comfort of my couch with my husband, where we control what we eat, what we do. Jesus never seems to want to keep us in the comfort of our own dens for very long, does
He?
I learned an important lesson from our trip to Frontera de Cristo, in Agua Prieta, Mexico last summer. Our just showing up brought the staff and volunteers of FdC so much encouragement. They had just
experienced a horrifying round of cartel violence in Agua Prieta, a very small community. Nothing new to them, but still frightening. They really didn’t expect we would want to stay on the Mexico side of the border when they gave us the option of staying in an American guest house. But our choice to stay with them in their community was such encouragement and source of strength for them. I am grateful my group made that decision.
So, I travel with these people I have just met, to a faraway place I have dreamed of seeing, in hopes that I may bring encouragement and hope. May I have the wisdom to step out of Christ’s way so Christ may use me.
May my “showing up” be light in a light in a difficult world.
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