As I alluded
to in yesterday's post, "partnership" would be an apt word to
describe this year's Lakota trip. We have joined Hope Bible Church for our
sixth year to serve together as truly one team. In past years, others have been
around the area or individuals have come in to work on specific projects. The
Brennans seem to love involving as many people as possible in as many ways as
possible, which produces an incredible amount of momentum for the ministry here
on the Pine Ridge Reservation. This year, however, the idea of partnership has
been stretched far beyond anything I would have anticipated. The Brennans,
Haddens, and McIntoshs work together like a well-oiled machine. I've never seen
a ministry team work so effectively and yet be going in six different
directions at once. Matt and Amanda Hadden are on-site camp directors and
oversee much of the local ministry and outreach, along with Rob and Michelle
McIntosh, who live at the parsonage next to Sharps Corner Baptist Church (the
McIntoshes will be moving to the Gallup ministry in September). Mike and Monica
Brennan currently live in Rapid City, but are involved in nearly every aspect
of the ministry AND travelling to and from Gallup once or twice a month to
continue to support the growth of that ministry.
The Haddens
have a couple of Matt's sisters and friends staying with them for the summer to
work with the camp, but this summer is also the first year that Team Effort (a
summer missions ministry Matt used to lead) is staying at the camp all summer.
Our ministry has coincided with Team Effort in past years, but they have
usually stayed at a local school and served on work teams in the community.
This spring they built an additional bunkhouse at the camp, and they are now
staying on-site for each of their summer teams. Their ministry primarily
focuses on work projects, both at camp and around the reservation. The
bunkhouse will be a great addition to the camp, and we have already been able
to take advantage of a chapel room as extra space for our camp stations. Team
Effort currently has youth groups from North Carolina and Kansas staying and
working at camp.
We were also
joined this summer by a team from Indiana. Knowing that our team numbers were
going to be a little lower, Pastor Brennan combined us with a new team that was
interested in getting involved in the ministry at Chanku Waste Ranch, which has
turned out to be two churches: Calvary Temple and North Park Baptist Church in
Evansville, IN. With everything that was already going on, we might have
thought that we had plenty of "partnership" to go around; however,
God knew just what we needed. We had a couple of team members that had to drop
in the week before the trip, but the Indiana team has helped to fill gaps and
probably the greatest role of all: prepare meals for the entire week!
"Partnership"
is mentioned in the English New Testament only three times, twice of which
refer to ministry and are found in Philippians. One describes a financial
partnership (Philippians 4:15) and the other partnership in the gospel in
Philippians 1:3-5:
"I
thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for
you all making my prayer with joy, because of your partnership in the gospel
from the first day until now."
I was
surprised to notice that "partnership" isn't a word that stands by
itself; it's a translation of koinonia or "fellowship." In other
words, partnering together in ministry is a form of fellowship. In that sense,
as the global church, we really have no other option but partnership. As we
have responded to the gospel, we enter into the fellowship of all believers. It
may stretch us out of our comfort zones at times, but partnership for the
gospel may be one of the best representations of the gospel. One of our
devotions this week came from Ephesians 2, and these verses jumped out as I
thought about partnership:
"For He
Himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in His flesh
the dividing wall of hostility" (v14)
"So
then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with
the saints and members of the household of God" (v19)
The divisions
that may have existed prior to our salvation in Christ have been broken down
and removed. The power of Christ's death that broke down the dividing line
between Jew and Gentile can also break down barriers among us Gentiles as well,
bringing us one and all under the unity of Christ's death and resurrection. We
may reside in different states with different ethnicities (Lakota, anglo,
hispanic, even "vikibilly") but the gospel that we share is what
unites us. We are humbled because we are reminded that we are not the only ones
who serve or the only ones that care; many believers from many churches are
engaged in missions. We are encouraged for the same reason. We don't compete
with other teams for the best camp week; instead we have the opportunity to learn
from one another and truly partner together in the ministry of the gospel in
one of the hardest, darkest places in the U.S. In the past our focus has been
on what God has been doing through us among the Lakota people, but this year is
a tangible reminder of simply what He is doing through His people among the
Lakota people.
