Who said anything about safe?

AH it’s mid-June already. This Thursday marks our three-month stay at the mission. When I informed everybody of our time here, I got a few responses saying it’s been more like years. There has been much discouragement lately, but I think it’s appropriate for the amount of time we’ve been here. Things can only get better.

Our Tuesday night meals have recently become mandatory, and we are now closing it off to outsiders solely because we don’t really even have a chance to have fellowship with one another. We’re also taking it up a notch on accountability and being intentional.

We placed importance on really dividing up the genders at the mission in the area of ministry. They’ve really changed the place by separating the disciplers from the shelter side, but we’re going to see now how things will turn out with this new approach.

I recall talking to some of the programmers when I first came. They’d mention that they only chose this mission because it’s the only one that doesn’t divide up the men and the women. I didn’t realize the full implications of what that meant until recently. I also remember laughing when I first read the mission manual explicitly stating that it is not a dating service…or something of those words, but they really meant it.

I’ve become more distant with the men, simply saying hi and bye so that I can really focus on the women. I’m not saying that there won’t be times that the men will need their fellow sisters to share life with, but it’s been too much of a hindrance for the men that deliberately only open up to the women. My brothers have shared their frustrations with the walls that have been built up.

My initial response to anything planned or structure seems to be suffocation or failure, but towards the end of our prayer session, I felt so much joy and excitement surrounding all of this. I was further encouraged by the repetitious reading of Isaiah 55.