A One-Person Group?

A one-person group? Sounds a little like an oxymoron, huh? Imagine this scenario...

Your pastor tells you that he needs you to take off a week of work to join with 10 other Elders from the area to join a group of foreigners on mission project. You know you won't be able to understand their language. You aren't sure that you'll be able to eat their food. You have no idea what to expect but you're a faithful Elder and faithful servant, so you pack your bags for the week. Upon arrival, you discover that your fellow Elders (the ones who speak your language, the one's you're planning to connect with while you're getting to know these foreigners) haven't arrived. The next day comes, and still no other Elders. In fact, there's not a soul there you know....all week long! What would you do? Catch a ride home? Be on the phone chastising those who were supposed to join you and never showed up? What's a faithful servant to do?!

Well, Antonio, the Elder from the Lacandon Presbytery who worked with the group from Salem Presbytery (NC) all week long, did his best to fulfill his charge. He experimented with different food, tried to communicate with members of the group and our team of Americans, and worked hard moving dirt, compacting and otherwise taxing his body on the clinic construction project.

At the end of the week, the group and our team had immense respect for Antonio as a person, for the feelings he must have had that week, and for his faithfulness to his pastor, his church, the clinic project, and to our God. When we gathered together one last time to dedicate our work at the clinic site, Antonio joined in our prayers, sang the Doxology in Tzeltal right along with us as we sang in English, and shared in our tearful goodbyes. By the end of that week, Antonio AND the group were sure of two things...we could find common ground for living, working, worshiping and loving together over the week's time AND we are joined together by our common love for our God - the same God that was, that is, that will always be. Amen.