Pioneering... becoming and living the new vision.

I read this morning about what it means to be a PIONEER.
The greek word is ARCHEGOS, a leader who is also a founder: someone who breaks a path and estabilishes a way.

I felt very much when I came out to Sierra Leone in April 07 to start this work with disabled children in their own homes, that I was starting something new - pioneering it.

Breaking new paths has not been easy: knocking on doors for partnerships and being rejected, sometimes scraping for money, searching for patients and it taking time to find them, getting used to new cultures and how relationships interact, trying to 'achieve' in my own world view but that not being the way here, and often feeling lonely and battling on against what feels like everything and everyone.

But I'm inspired by this...

The archegos pioneers the way by becoming and living the new vision, not by 'claiming new ground' or by force.
And that I feel is what I have done... I praise God that by seeking His ways here for this work and having Sierra Leone become my home since the start of this project and before then (during my time working with Mercy Ships), I have had such a living adventure of this dream become a reality.

We discover God revealing himself to us in Jesus as we follow the path and way of Jesus. Wise and prudent people would not have been able to work out, without revelation from God, that it was to be through suffering that Jesus would restore the glorious destiny of humanitiy and all creation.

So despite the road being tough at times, I'm glad I have lived through it, pioneering something that I know is close to Jesus' heart, and as well inspired in me by God. Without Him I am nothing, and without His inspiration I would have done nothing.

Let us all be inspired to DREAM God's BIGGER dream, then go on pioneering His love to the places and people around us - wherever we are.

This is what the CMS community is all about - working together all over the world to discover Jesus and live out the new vision for life he gives. That's truely pioneering.

Inspiration on Pioneering (in green) from Tim Dakin General Secretary Church Mission Society