On Mission

In the picture to the right Marsha is engaged with a woman at one of our visits among the poor during our mission trip to Jamaica with Food for the Poor. At every stop it didn't matter if we were painting a house, or greeting children, or visiting the handicapped, Marsha was in the middle of everything with her big heart reaching out with that inviting smile on her face. I know people who go on mission trips and I'm not trying to say they do not have right motives or that they are not doing God's work. What I am saying is not to diminish the desire and efforts of others. It is just that Marsha did not go on mission, her life was mission. Wherever she was she just opened up to the needs around her and invited people in to find what they needed. It could be students at school, or in Sunday school. It might be people who needed a place to live as they grappled with life's tough stuff. It could be helping people to see God on a Cursillo or with spiritual direction. Marsha had so many ways that she was living mission that it is hard to write them all here. I spent 45 years on a journey with a giver. She just gave and gave and gave. I have mentioned many of the kinds of situations in which she found herself on mission and where she chose again and again to give, but the greatest recipient of her giving was me. She did the same with me, and she opened me up to be a giver too.