Soul Train (Tuesday)

Today we had some new folks show up for their day of work and nearly all of them asked me the same question: "did y'all get a lot done yesterday?"

I had to pause and ask myself... did we? It seemed that we were a bit, shall I say, sluggish. Slow moving. Compared to our list of projects, my honest answer really was: "no, I don't think we got very much done yesterday."

Working on a mission trip is comparable to driving a steam train. If I took all these folks and turned them into train cars, I'd have to shovel in a lot of coal to get the fire started. And then someone would have to come along beside me, take that throttle by both hands, push it forward with some serious effort and eventually, our train cars might lurch forward. Once. Or twice. Or four times. Until our momentum began to move our wheels forward.

Even after we got ourselves going at a decent pace - because we are sooooooo long, and hauling sooooo much weight - it could take a full day before we were able to look backward and see some good distance travelled. It might take a few days before we could say, "hey! we've gone over 100 miles!"

On the up side, have you ever seen a "full steam ahead" steam train? They FLY! Their wheels click and clack with a fast rhythm that sounds like the beat of a great song. The wind blowing around those train cars whip the surrounding leaves about in a near frenzy. If you happen to be standing along side of the tracks, that same wind can take your breath away and ignite a sense of adventure in your soul. (I happen to think long haul trains running at full speed are really cool.)

Mission work at Cherokee Retreat Center is heading toward that click/clack rhythm. The leaves about our "soul train" are starting to rustle and we're just now getting into our groove. I can tell that our hearts are stirring toward a common objective and our group is bonding. Slowly, we are beginning to see the distance we have travelled in our ever shrinking list of things to do.

I think God promises us those same mission/soul train perks. Sometimes it's hard to get our selves motivated to do what's right. Or moving in a direction that feels like we're connected - as a people with a purpose. Or going far enough along the journey that we can see where we've been as compared to where we are today.

But isn't it exciting when our spirits, our souls, our minds and our bodies really get going? Find a mission train and hop on! It's quite a ride!!!

Posted by Becky Jordan