Volunteer Missionary Movement (VMM-USA) | home
"We are, therefore, sharers of the Good News through witness and service. It
is only through the way we live, love and serve that we can truly witness to
the Christ who served, and invited us to do likewise. Only in following His
way faithfully dare we claim the name Christian".
* * * Spirit and Lifestyle
It seems very simple! La Mision nos cambia la vida - Mission changes our
life - is the title of a booklet I picked up in El Salvador. In the first
chapter, "Mission is to build the Reign of God," we are reminded that the
traditional idea of missionaries going to preach and making sure that church
laws are observed isn't what mission is all about. "Missionaries also
promote justice, tackle illnesses, work in education and with the poor in
community development. . . . To summarize, they embrace the struggles and
hopes of the poor, work with others to create a new and more human society,
serve for peace and life, and do all this in the style and with the spirit
of Jesus . . . . All of this is the mission missionaries undertake with open
eyes in the Reign of God."
Meredith Shaw in a letter to the Editor in Saturday's local newspaper,
revealed to me how Jesus would have walked in Edmonton. Instead of avoiding
eye contact with a person selling the street paper Our Voice, she stopped
and asked him how he was doing. In six hours, he had sold only four papers.
He rented a room at a per-day rate and so he needed to stay out in the cold
until he had made enought to pay for his room that night. He was often out
for 12 hours a day. Before he worked as a labourer but due to his broken
leg, he was unable to find a normal job and was instead receiving AISH
(Alberta Income for the Severely Handicapped), which wasn't enough to live
on. He was supposed to be staying off his leg so it would heal, but without
selling papers, he was unable to make enough to make ends meet. As a result,
his leg wasn't healing properly.
Many people had gone by this corner of Whyte Avenue. On a Saturday, the area
is full of people shopping, visiting the farmers' market, having lunch at
the various cafes and restaurants or taking in a movie. Out of all those
passersby, only four had stopped to buy a paper.
Meredith bought a paper, stopped to talk, wrote a letter to the Editor. The
Editor found a file photo of a Victor Jones selling Our Voice on Whyte
Avenue, gave the letter a prominent heading: "This is no ordinary paper
route - Streetcorner vendors of Our Voice put in long hours to support
themselves."
We are called to be missionaries!
Cecily
