24 Jun Missions: Head, Hands, Heart

Hi everyone! My name is Colby May, and I am happy to be involved with our short-term missions teams at Mosaic. I have an educational background in holistic missions, and seeing the world reached for Christ is a passion of mine! Before I break into my song and dance about our trips, I first wanted to share a favorite quote of mine that helped shape my understanding of missions:

“Both grace and love are expressed in action that go far beyond the call of duty, but love ties the lover to the beloved with a greater bond of affection.” “God does not exist to make love real, but love is real because God exists. God can come to us as love only because He comes to us as God…” – Stanley Hauerwas

Hauerwas’ quote reminds me of Psalm 73, a psalm of Asaph. Asaph was a chief musician for David’s royal court, and in verses 1-16 we find Asaph confessing something to God. He states that his feet had almost slipped, that he had almost given up the faith. He looks at the world around him and is envious. Look at the position of his heart—he is not looking at God. His back and heart are turned away from God and he is looking at the outside world. His understanding of reality is being perverted based on what he is giving himself to at the moment.

Can we relate? He goes on to talk this way until verse 17… wait for it ….then He says, “when I tried to understand this it deeply troubled me until I entered the Sanctuary of God, then I understood.”

We shouldn’t water this down or skip over this encounter. When we encounter God, we encounter the Creator. We encounter Truth. We encounter the Word. We encounter God the Provider. We encounter Love, which flows from God. In that encounter Asaph was radically changed from the inside out.

He now saw the world through different eyes because he saw the world through God’s eyes, and his actions then followed his heart. The remainder of the Psalm is a psalm of proclamation and worship. Because his heart was changed, then his hands could be lifted!

And isn’t that the purpose of missions? Not simply to feed, clothe, and protect, but rather to direct a lost generation back to the heart of the Father. If we want to change the hands, we must change the heart!

And so, as a church we have the unique opportunity to do just that, not only to invest into our local community, but to also stand with our brothers and sisters globally. God has connected Mosaic with a number of unique opportunities, and challenged us to “Go, Send and Pray” in some very vulnerable areas.

In 2017/2018 we/you have the opportunity to serve in different locations all over the world:
Congo; Mexico (3 trips), New Zealand; India; Ethiopia; Ukraine and Rwanda. More specifically, and in the next few months, we have trips to Lviv, Ukraine (Oct), Kageyo, Rwanda (Sept); Goma, Congo (Sept); and San Luis Potosi, Mexico (Dec).

Our mission is to make disciple of all nations. Our vision is an engaged world who worships God in word and deed. Our objectives and strategies are focused on raising leaders, planting churches, empowering children and community development—however, we cannot live this out without you! Mosaic has been blessed with much, not so that we can hold it in, but so that we can pour our blessings (you) out into a world that needs light.

Every great work starts with an encounter with God. Moses first encountered God by the burning bush before he led generations out of slavery, Paul encountered Jesus on the road before being a pillar of the church, C.S. Lewis encountered God through the imagination of J.R.R. Tolkien before his writing transformed the hearts of generations, and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. encountered God on the mountain top before waking up a sleeping world. Who is next?

Sign Up:

If you feel God calling you to sign up to go, send or pray, you can find more information on our trips by visiting mosaicchurchaustin.com/missions

Thanks and let’s Go!

Colby May (aka Amanda’s Husband)

“I have but one candle of life to burn, and I would rather burn it out in a land filled with darkness than in a land flooded with light.” – Falconer