Unite. Be Humble. Be Obedient. Journey.

Those are our organizations core values. They are what we claim to hold in high priority when making decisions and creating the culture of Love Walks. They are words that carry an enormous amount of depth, and quite frankly, they aren’t the most exciting words. It’s not very often that you see an organization that markets it’s ministry with words like “obedience” or “humility”, but they are core to the heart of what we believe Christ called us to as believers. As pursuers of Christ, we allow Him to teach us what each of these words truly means. Throughout this past weekend, Love Walks and some of our volunteers learned some important lessons about each of these values.

As of Friday morning we were still planning on heading down to Mexico for our January trip. When we were just hours away from our departure, our focus was on taking care of last minute details for the ministry. Everything began to change when one of core volunteers contacted me (Chris) telling me how uneasy she felt about the trip. She had been in a place of unrest since the night before and had been in prayer that morning seeking God’s direction. This uneasiness was followed by news of a few scares in Rocky Point in the previous weeks. One was a shooting, upon which the suspects were arrested and the other turned out to be a hoax that had grown in the midst of the tension following the shooting.

The uneasiness of this particular persons heart, as well as wanting to be discerning of the situations in Rocky Point, led me into a time of prayer and thought. All the while, the trip was only a few hours away. During that time I felt like we were being called to do something different instead of our planned trip to Mexico. I felt that God was calling us to a time of prayer and worship of Him, which is what we fulfilled.

At this point it is important to make a distinction.

The reason we didn’t go to Mexico wasn’t a feeling of fear due to anything in Rocky Point (we felt confident having researched and prayed about the situations there that we could still go down). The reason we didn’t go is that I felt God asked us a simple question, “What do you hold higher- your plans to serve me, or, Me?” To be honest the question convicted me on the spot. Our organization talks about how important humility and obedience are, but then it is all to often that we never fully humble ourselves enough to hear how God is asking us to obey. It is so easy to do ‘God things’ and attach His name to it, but it is not so easy to remain in a posture of humility awaiting His direction.

“The plans of the heart belong to man, but the answer of the tongue is from the LORD.
All the ways of a man are pure in his own eyes, but the LORD weighs the spirit.
Commit your work to the LORD and your plans will be established.” ( Proverbs 16:1-3 )

Our confession is this: There are many things that come from Love Walks ministry in Mexico, but none of it counts for anything outside of that which God is a part of; we can do nothing of value apart from Him.

As God called us to pray over the weekend instead of serve in more tangible ways, there was a part of us that had to be humbled and put into check. It was that voice inside us that said, “What about passing out food, building onto houses, teaching kids? What about serving!?” We had to ask ourselves, “Do we believe prayer is as important as the more tangible work we do?” It is a questions we should all ask because an honest answer helps reveal who we believe God to be.

It wasn’t an easy decision, but we didn’t go to Mexico. We instead traveled to Northern Arizona, and from 6:00 am Saturday morning to 6:00 pm that evening we prayed. People came in and out of our “prayer shed”. During this time, we worshiped God, we read from His word, and we lifted up the people and ministries of Rocky Point. We learned how little we are capable of and how much we need God.

So, how was January’s trip?

It was a journey. It was a humbling process. It was a step towards obedience. It was a beautiful site of the body of Christ uniting to serve in Rocky Point, even with some eight hours away.