Doug’s Weekly Words
Last Sunday we had a delightful celebration of our early July Mexico Trip. Amidst a delicious meal we heard reflections from a variety of our hard works about the way that the Holy Spirit was at work in our work. We also saw some great pictures of the trip and the 2 houses going up.
My reflection of the trip was a tale of 2 trips as this year our family was blessed to travel down to Mexico twice. The first trip was a Bless the Bunnells trip. Laurie had been working in her business for a few years with the goal of traveling somewhere warm after Christmas. We flew to Puerto Vallerta, stayed in a very nice resort, and rested. We sat by the pool, we screamed down the zip lines, we swam in the ocean, we ate pie on the beach in Yelapa. It was a week bent of blessing ourselves.
The second trip was this month with 28 members of our community to build houses. The trip could not have been more different. Instead of luxury beds we slept on thin mats, on the ground in a tent. The dirt and dust covered us from day one and we weren’t clean for 5 days. Instead of a resort, we surfed the Banos, going to the bathroom in smelly “honey buckets.” Instead of pools and showers, we poured 2 gallons of luke-cold non-potable water over our heads and called ourselves clean. Instead of resting, we mixed concrete, sawed boards, hammered, tarred, stuccoed, and worked our tails off.
And if given the chance, all our family, especially our daughter Zoe, would opt for the second trip in a heart beat. We would much rather Bless others than live a week of luxury blessing ourselves. This is who were created to be. When we offer a week of our life, doing something that is worth doing, and matters to another brother or sister, we are so much closer to who are meant to be. There is a joy in blessing others that is so much richer than any joy of self-blessing.
With so much of the summer left- let us continue to bless others as we have been so blessed by God.
Coming up TODAY- Haiti Relief Concert at the church at 7pm. Don’t miss the chance to hear music from 3 great singer songwriters in our church.
Blessings,
Doug Bunnell
Pastor, FPC Bellingham
Dougb@fpcbellingham.org
