On our last evening in Choluteca, Honduras, we attended service at the local church (inglesia gran commission). The service was on greed. Pastor Giovany explained how greed is a condition of the heart, and he discussed the different signs of whether greed is in your heart. A poor man can be just as greedy as a rich man. It's more about your focus. Is sufficient not enough? Is your focus on accumulating more or preserving what you have? Greed may be in your heart.
He then gave us what the antidote is to a greedy heart. Generosity. When you give, you are more apt to store up heavenly treasurers. It is a fool who spends his life storing up earthly things only to die and leave it all behind with no benefit to their salvation.
Pastor Giovany then explained a family of the church, Orlin and Wendy's family for which we just built a house. When they first met them, their daughter Katherine caught their eye, she had very low energy. She was not active. Something looked terribly wrong. It was clear that a medical intervention was needed. Her hemoglobin level was 1.5. Acceptable for Honduras is 11. Little Katherine was not having oxygen delivered through the blood. She was basically dying. With the church's help, Katherine was saved and is much healthier.
Now, a team from the USA has come down to build the family a home. The aid and assistance is completely one way. There is no way Orlin can ever return the favor. Orlin and Wendy knows that. How humbling to be on the receiving end of grace. The antidote to greed is generosity, and the ultimate form of generosity is one where the recipient can never give anything back. Complete grace.
The reason why generosity is the antidote to greed is because when we are generous, whether we go to the extreme of overseas missions or just blessing someone locally, we DO RECEIVE something in return. We get a glimpse, a small taste, of God's loving grace for us. It gives us perspective, at least as much of it as we can handle, a perspective on he real value of "things", specifically the lack of value. "Things" are temporary, while gracious generosity is monumental. The house was a "thing" given, but it only occupied a small tangible space on our planet. The grace given planted a seeds in the recipients' heart and our very own. When we plant those seeds in our hearts, theirs and ours, there is less room for greed to take hold.
This mission trip, like the last one for me, had an awesome group of people going. Every one of us was very different from the next, but we all came with the same generous heart. The cheer mom loved on so many children and displayed unconditional love in such a way that many of the kids may have never seen before. The tall often stoic looking fellow not only worked hard, but he took time to plant a few loving seeds of his own by goofing around with some of the kids or by donating most of his clothes he brought. The boisterous furry-face Italian that had a larger-than-life personality not only connected a man's loving heart with the kids that we came across, but he also made a huge heart felt impact with many of the staff.
We can't possibly have a full heavenly concept of the impact of the work that was done here, but it doesn't take much insight to see the grateful hearts all along the way. This was a great and fulfilling mission trip. We may be coming back tattered, tired and taxed, but we come back to the USA with a smile in our hearts an image of God's grace that we can share with those still in Honduras. They are our brothers and sisters of Christ. For God has no grandchildren, only children.
God Bless,
Aaron Mason
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