{"id":2164,"date":"2015-01-29T05:24:45","date_gmt":"2015-01-29T12:24:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/airwoof.org\/journey\/?p=2164"},"modified":"2015-01-29T03:31:40","modified_gmt":"2015-01-29T10:31:40","slug":"serve","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/airwoof.org\/journey\/?p=2164","title":{"rendered":"serve"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"photo\"<\/a>Our last \u2018word for the day\u2019 in Nicaragua was \u2018serve.\u2019 As John Bland, the founder of \u2018Amigos for Christ,\u2019 welcomed us on our first day, he started his talk in an unusual way: \u201cI first want to introduce you all to a special group.” He pointed to five Nicaraguan women who varied in age from mid-twenties to mid-fifties.\u00a0 “Ladies, will you please stand.\u201d<\/p>\n

As they rose, John continued: \u201cThese ladies get up at four o\u2019clock each morning and begin preparing the breakfast you will enjoy. Then, after we leave for the villages, they clean the kitchen, then clean our dorms, then clean the toilets. This takes a lot of time and it is a thankless job. It is then time for them to prepare the dinner we will enjoy after our day of hard work. After they finish cleaning the kitchen, they leave the base around eight PM. These ladies don\u2019t ask for any praise or attention. They are servants\u2026 and model the attitude of Jesus that I want to possess. Will you guys please give them a round of applause?\u201d<\/p>\n

As I heard John\u2019s words and watched the small group take their seats, I smiled at the \u2018upside-down values\u2019 of the Kingdom of God. ‘The last shall be first.’ ‘The greatest shall be your servant.’ Perhaps without intending, the leader of \u2018Amigos for Christ\u2019 proclaimed what their organization was all about by honoring those whom most would call \u2018the least of these.\u2019<\/p>\n

For any of us Americans who thought we deserved credit for going to serve a few days in a foreign land, we witnessed the power of \u2018lifestyle service\u2019 through humble women. It is easy to go work hard for a week, knowing we would soon return to our modern luxuries. It is more challenging to intentionally decide to be a servant\u2026 always. If I knew that becoming a servant of Jesus Christ meant that I would basically become nothing, would I sign up?<\/p>\n

But that\u2019s what Jesus did: \u201c[Jesus], being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made Himself nothing, taking on the very nature of a servant\u2026\u201d (Philippians 2:6-7) And He teaches us the path to true greatness: \u201cYou know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.\u201d (Mark 10:42-45)<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s walk in His steps!<\/p>\n

\u201cYou call Me \u2018Teacher\u2019 and \u2018Lord,\u2019 and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another\u2019s feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you.\u201d John 13:13-15<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Our last \u2018word for the day\u2019 in Nicaragua was \u2018serve.\u2019 As John Bland, the founder of \u2018Amigos for Christ,\u2019 welcomed us on our first day, he started his talk in an unusual way: \u201cI first want to introduce you all to a special group.” He pointed to five Nicaraguan women who varied in age from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2164","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-missions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/airwoof.org\/journey\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2164","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/airwoof.org\/journey\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/airwoof.org\/journey\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/airwoof.org\/journey\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/airwoof.org\/journey\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2164"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/airwoof.org\/journey\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2164\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2168,"href":"https:\/\/airwoof.org\/journey\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2164\/revisions\/2168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/airwoof.org\/journey\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2164"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/airwoof.org\/journey\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2164"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/airwoof.org\/journey\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2164"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}