I have a story to tell you.

This sumer I went Bolivia on a working missions trip in Guayadermaurin. While there, I met several wonderful people who lived out Chirst's call to loving other in the way of a servant. And when I say servants I don't mean serve on a sunday afternoon serve, but a leave-your-family-to-love-on-the-hurting sort of serving. It was incredible to be thousands of miles from home and see Christ in a culure so different than my own, and to experience His love through the translated words and simple gestures of kindness. No poetic phrases can describe how I felt loved by those people.

But while in the mornings we would work on building the river boat, the evenings different churches in the area would invite us for dinner and a church service. Although it may have seemed long and boring because I didn't know spanish, they treated us with so much honor and respect. One meal we sat in front of enough food to feed a hundred that they had spend a fortune on. The entire church sat around and watched us eat, while I'm sure very hungry themselves. Painfully humbling. The many pastors we met where so loving, and it was very obvious they desrired so much to see a change in their drug and alcohol saturated city. They were love in action.

The next part of the story breaks my heart. Within the past few months nasty political wars have broken out, leaving schools closed and families nervous for safety and restitution in Guay. I recieved an e-mail that one of the pastors that hosted us was shot and killed because of his efforts to restore peace and be love. He has four kids.

This not only is very real because I had met him, but it hits me in that he practised love, did what was right, knowing Christ was the provider and sustainer of his life.

We have it so easy, being comfortable in our christian bubbles and little CHS. He chose to do what was right. We compromise and lie to our friends just to avoid conflict or to ensure we don't loose friends. He was shot and killed because he knew people were dying because of corruption.

How often to we skip over the vitality of integrity and obeying what Christ says because it is uncomfortable to our comfortalble Christ-saturated lives?