Orphan Outreach

While these words may have been written for people returning home from Orphan Outreach mission trips, the devotional penned by Breann Schwasinger holds a newfound meaning in this turbulent season. Our Orphan Outreach family is praying today for you and your family. Together, we restore hope in the lives of the vulnerable, around the world and right here at home.

Returning from a mission trip can be overwhelming. The statistics now have names, the dots on a map are now your friends, and the news segments show pictures of where you’ve invested your life. There is tension when our reality is now disrupted by the, often times, harsh reality of the world. There is tension when we don’t know what it looks like to walk forward and make any kind of difference because the problems are just too many, too big, and too much.

God is both sovereign and intimate. There is rest to be found in acknowledging that God has made and sustains all of existence. It is not too big for Him. Even still, that doesn’t fully quench my questioning and frustrations when I return from seeing my new friends hurting. What if we came home believing that the complex things in life coexist with compassion? What if we fought to believe that the overwhelming parts of the world should not freeze us? What if we allow the overwhelming things in life propel us forward?

Through this trip, God has given you an opportunity to release some control and see His sovereignty in a new way. But simply watching the sovereignty of God is a spectator sport. He is continually inviting us to participate in His redemptive process through community. He is calling us to be a living example of His intimacy, nearness, and compassion to the world around us. And we can’t do this alone.

You are coming home with something new to offer to the table. You have a new part to your story, ways you’ve seen God show up, and maybe some big questions that don’t seem to have easy answers. What would it look like for you to believe that the people in your life need to hear these things? Not merely as an update for how your trip was, but so that you can encourage, challenge, and build up the body of Christ to pursue meeting the complex things of life with compassion. Invite your community to participate in God’s redemptive process in the world, your town, and your home. Together.