Love DOES

"...we need to stop plotting the course and instead just land the plane on our plans to make a difference by getting to the “do” part of faith. That’s because love is never stationary. In the end, love doesn’t just keep thinking about it or keep planning for it. Simply put: love does." ⁃ Bob GoffWhat a joy to know that the love of Jesus is extremely practical. It's not some theory in textbooks, or a complicated formula only a quarter of the population would understand. It's a hands-on kind of love, the kind of love where one is required to be fully engaged. This week was one packed with action. It all started with going to help out with the harvest of our friends in the community. I had just taken a nice shower (first one in a few days) when the urgent call came, we had to leave now! The machine to process the maize and sorghum arrived. This was just as Luke had lit the fire to start preparing dinner. But off we went and helped out. It felt good to be needed in a practical way. The next day we returned to finish the job to find that the action was only starting. A donkey was to be slaughtered that day. Most of us had never witnessed that before and we were all quite shocked. The simple reason as to why the donkey had to go was because it was stubborn. There was no way of talking our friends out of it. The story with the donkey doesn't end there... the next day we were promptly handed over some donkey meat, to eat, of course. Since we had seen the donkey alive it was a difficult concept, but our excitement to have something to braai far outweighed the queasy feelings. To this day we're not completely sure if we prepared it in the right way. The meat turns out to be quite tough. But we had a braai and meat. That's really what it was about.On Saturday (our usual day off) we had our team trip. We, along with our translators got into Buks (the bakkie) and headed towards the mountains. Excitement was high. Our final destination was Mohale Dam. After a beautiful drive into the mountains we arrived, walked across over the dam wall and had a photo shoot for the ages. There was lots of laughter and joy in the air. Reflecting back on this as a team we saw it as a practical way of reaching out and loving people the way Jesus demonstrated. In fact, they aren't just translators but our friends. Love looks like something - in our case it's fetching water cans for the village, listening to others talk, helping out with the harvest and inviting friends to a feast. It's being spontaneous and deciding to build a grand motor track with pipes and whatever else we could find for the boys that usually come around to play with little toy cars. We had a great time making a game out of seeing how fast the cars could slide down the pipes and how far they could fly! It's these kind of things that make love a verb in every day life. Please keep us in your prayers as we start handing off and saying goodbye. We will start preparing for Masechaba's arrival soon.Another point to pray for be for us: to stay fully engaged and in the moment during these last couple of days. Our desire is to finish well."Love in action is what gives us grace. We have been created for greater things . . . to love and to be loved. Love is love—to love a person without any conditions, without any expectations. Small things, done in great love, bring joy and peace." ⁃ Mother Theresa