Scars!

In the article, the three steps that need to be part of all short term preparation are: cultivate a compassionate heart, develop an understanding of what the Bible says about injustice and my favorite one, be willing to take action.
Being merciful is very important for us Christians, God call us to be merciful cuz He is and always be merciful for us sinners. When we go in a short term mission trip, usually we visit slums and low profile places with problems such as racism and poverty. For example: if we feel the need to give like a gift or money for a cause, we need to do it because God has placed compassion in our hearts rather than for some effect, like expecting something back or as we say in Spanish doing it “ a regañadientes”, that means like forced too. There’s this quote in the article that really caught my attention: “God wants soft hearts more than efficient remedies; a compassionate heart gives us eyes to see and keeps us awake to the world”. God, in His wonderful mercy, wants us to act for compassion rather than some effect, because in this way God can act through ourselves, and be a softener for our hearts! By doing things for compassion, we work for His glory and mercy, and He works in us changing our hearts.
Knowing and developing an understanding of what the Bible says about injustice have to principal benefits for us: first of all it makes us walk between three rock solid understandings: That we believe in God on a cross, we believe that judgment will come beyond judgment on earth and that we believe he wants us to be involved in the solution. When we walk between these, it makes stronger our faith and gives us authority to preach when we see injustice taking action, and that’s the second point: preaching. Knowing what’s injustice in Bible terms, gives us the authority we need to preach about what’s right and wrong according to His word.
My favorite one: taking action. As God want his people be involved in the solution, taking action is part of this. We need to be very good observers (eyes and ears open) in order to be able to see things around superficial stuff: if one problem is racism for example, we need to look beyond, seek the causes, how’s affecting the population, the reason why this act is developing, I mean, there’re so many background things that we can’t see simply, but if we analyze and found this things, important things, that can really be part of giving a solution. Maybe people will disagree on some solutions, but as the article says, ignorance and denial is unacceptable. I feel like all the previous preparation that we receive at all the meetings during Sunday school at church were a way to as we prepared for the trip, we prepared too in taking actions. This previous preparation I really feel that have opened our eyes, to see things beyond the context, and I’m willing to form part of the solution.