To hold in your arms a small child whose body is so malnourished that it feels like you are going to break her tiny little bones just by lifting her into your arms, and then to feel her rest her head upon your shoulder and snuggle into you and fall asleep. To realize this little child from this orphanage has probably never been held before, just to be held - and for a moment you think, "My arms for this child are the arms of Christ."

To dig a ditch in the mud for the fifth day straight, to lay pipe to bring water to a village, wondering all the while why you are there, and then to finally see the pipe put together, water brought to a village so they don't have to fetch water from that pond where the mosquitoes breed, and to see the children dance - and all of a sudden Baptism takes on a whole new level of meaning for you.

To stand in a line and hand out bread and bowls of soup to hungry people, and as you hand out this bread, people don't snatch it from you; they wait until you place it in their hands, and they thank you - and suddenly the Lord's Supper takes on new meaning.

To stand in the hot sun, and to be chiseling away at rock and feeling that you are getting nowhere, and then to look up and see digging next to you someone from that community who, because he has a house made out of little pieces of crate instead of cardboard, feels so much more privileged he is giving of his own time after a long day's work just because you're there, and you're working, and you're giving of yourself - and you think to yourself, "I am in the presence of Christ."

You look into the eyes of an old woman as she holds your hand and she tells you why it is that she has no roof on her home, and why she needs those holes in the walls plastered up where bullets or shells hit her home, because, you see, her husband and her sons have all been killed. Then she thanks you just for listening, you cannot help but be transformed and humbled by that experience and you realize, "I am not bringing her anything, but she has given me so much." When you participate in mission, you go into it sometimes thinking of all the things that you will accomplish. But what really happens is you are changed. Your soul is touched in a way that nothing else will ever, ever do for you.

So now I ask you - after you have done this, and you have wiped tears from your cheek, and you have held that tiny baby, and you have dug those ditches, and you have danced in the mud with those children, and you have be touched and transformed and changed - is this going to change your preaching? YES! Will it change your teaching? YES! Will it affect people who sit in your pews or in your classes? YES! Will it affect apportionments? YES! Will it affect tithing? YES! Will it affect your ministry? YES Will you be a transformed and vital leader? YES! You see, you cannot help but go, because you - and each of us - are Christ's body in the world.