On our penultimate evening in New Orleans an enormous rainbow was displayed in the sky.
After two weeks of rain in Kentucky, Louisiana, and even at the Ark Encounter the rainbow served as a reminder to me of God's sovereignty and love.
"The earth is the LORD's, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it;" Psalm 24:1
God is good and the promises He makes He keeps. One that we can all attest to is that of - Koinonia. Earlier this year, a sub-group of our KYNOLA Team dove deep into St. Paul's epistles and we began to grasp the theme of koinonia in a new light.
Beyond relationship and even beyond fellowship we see that koinonia is a byproduct of the body of Christ at work. A bond. A glue. A gift. It is exclusively inclusive in a way that through the Holy Spirit's indwelling, God is readying His Son's Bride - the church - creating a new way to live together, unified, one, while still here on earth. We don't strive for koinonia instead we seek and serve God with sincerity together and He grants us the grace to work and love together. That's what I've come to understand about it.
Over the years we've tied our mission trips to books or passages of the Bible to steer us and help us to keep a Biblical perspective. This year, as many of you know, we chose the entire chapter of Romans 12 to study and memorize. It gave us reminders to be living sacrifices, to by renewed by the word of God, to view each other as vital members of the Christ's body and how we should conduct ourselves as such. Many a time while serving or being served I rejoiced over God's truth made tangible through His universal church.
As mentioned before we have connected with fellow believers from Brazil, Chile, Jordan, Pennsylvania, and other states. We got to experience koinonia from day 1, right after stepping off the plane they put us to work, together. Though very few words were said (or understood) there was a joy and purpose even amidst our exhaustion. Rod, Kealoha, and Justin were thrust into situations at the conference to serve in Love Moves side by side with Brazilians who only knew a broken English. At the work site we were given tasks with interns or each other and had to figure things out together.
A highlight for me, out of many, were lunch breaks during our second week. We grabbed our sack lunches, sat in a circle and shared our stories. 3 or 4 people from any group would share their lives and experiences. We celebrated God's guidance and provision as the family of God. Pastor Darrel shared about the church building (where we worked) and it's transformation after the hurricane. All three of the Ryans shared. We heard about reconciliation, salvation, transformation, hope, and the Father's love. Then after the stories each person was asked to share a nugget of wisdom that they wanted to pass on. Some that I remember were:
"Listen to your Mom - the first time."
"Don't wait till you're older to commit your time to Christ."
"Don't mix syrup and ketchup."
After saying by to Anna and Tyler, we departed from New Orleans Saturday afternoon and arrived back in Honolulu Sunday morning after an 11 hour overnight layover at LAX (where Sean stayed back to attend a work thing). As a veteran of several trips I can surely say that this return was different. Often times I am saddened that a trip is over and the good times are over - but not this year. We parted at the airport and said our goodbyes but it isn't over. As Gary said during our debrief at 5 in the morning @ LAX. "This is just the beginning..."
