One bread, One Body

I just got back from a mission trip to Choctaw, Mississippi, USA.  My team and I ministered to (not with) the Choctaw people by putting on a Vacation Bible School at Great Spirit UMC.  I helped teach first and second grade.  Oh my Lord.  I knew it would be a challenge, but I never expected THAT MUCH of a challenge.  I have a deep respect for anyone who works with children on a regular basis.

Children's ministers, elementary school teachers/workers, daycare providers...my hat is off to you.  Cheers!

On this mission trip, i was struck by how very "white" the Bible school materials were, and how little effort the team made to be in ministry with the people rather than to them.  We had very few Choctaw assistants, and it felt like we were the white people once again trying to force our religion and culture onto the Native American people.

Then I saw the kids.

The kids come from unspeakable homes.  Homes of abuse of all kinds, poverty, and despair.  These same kids came running to the vans so they could go to bible school for a two hour break where they could learn about Jesus and be kids.  They care about stickball (a Choctaw sport), basketball, and each other.

I am white, but before I am white, I am human.  The kids are Choctaw, but before they are Choctaw, they are human.  God has made of one blood all nations of the earth.

This is imago dei.  There is a hymn in the United Methodist Hymnal that says it much better than I can.  "One bread, one body, one Lord of all.  One cup of blessing which we bless.  And we, though many throughout the earth, we are one body in this one Lord."