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Published: July 12th 2005
Hey Everyone,
We are back in America and I decided to put one last post up for the sake of closure. We went through the whole range of emotions, from joy to anger, as you may have seen from some of our posts. I'm sure it helped us to become more unified.
We did a lot, saw a lot, and learned a lot. Now we just need to do more. It would be easy to preach to you about how spiritual we are for going to India. It would be easy to accept praise from everyone about our willingness to sacrifice. It would be easy to be a storyteller. But that would be a disservice to the people that we met.
I love America and all the freedom and wealth we have. I am definitely not one of those people that will look down on the US just because of our prosperity. My only fear is that I will allow my freedom to make me a lazy person when, in fact, it should motivate me to do more and more. I was embarassed to tell people about all my possessions because I knew that none of them made me a better Christian. When a family of 5 rides a motorcycle to church and my wife and I each have a car, I should be motivated to serve others. When I am so warmly welcomed by a family whose home is smaller than my kitchen, I should be motivated to be hospitable to others.
And I think the worst temptation I could fall victim to would be that I have to go to India to be spiritual. I don't, I can be like them here in America. That is how I will be more than just a storyteller.
Love,
Ben
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Adrianne
non-member comment
Amen!
It's so easy for us to imagine that our way of life is normal, or even sub-standard compared to what we see around us and on TV, when actually we're living better than about 95% of the world's population. So seeing all that we have, what are we going to do with it? If we have enough courage, we'll grow a faith that withstands those choking weeds of blessing and worry in order to produce a vast crop of fruit. Thanks for being a great vessel for that message. I am so happy that the teens had this opportunity early in life to see how much they've been blessed, and how much they are needed. I wish everyone could share the same experience.