Author: Jenny, Kaleo Staff

Anticipation.  What is God going to do?

It takes so much planning and preparation to get ready for the moment that the caravan of vans leaves the church parking lot and sets off on the direction set by their GPS.  The road trip is filled with the anticipation, and even anxiety about, what will we be doing this week?  How will I be pushed out of my comfort zone?

When our Kaleo staff welcomes the students of each new mission team, the students often come in with their pillow clutched to their chests and their belongings in a suitcase dragging behind them.  They look a bit uncertain, but super excited to be out of the vans and exploring their new home for the week.

We settle in, eat a nutritious home-made meal, and then we put the most important thing first: the Gospel.  The good news that God sent Jesus, his only Son, while we were still sinners, to rescue us from our sin and adopt us into His family.  Jesus, the only perfect One, died and was resurrected to demonstrate his power over sin and death.  We circle up all our staff and all the students who have signed up to leave their homes and come spend a week serving and learning, and we dive into the Gospel.  What does it have to do with the city?  With the issues we’re going to learn about and talk about?  How does it change how I relate to people I think I have nothing in common with?  How does the Gospel motivate me to serve and love?

The Gospel message is the distinctive of our ministry with Kaleo.  We have no interest in being simply a service-organization, providing “do-gooders” opportunities to think more highly of their impressiveness.

We want to bring broken people into the city to serve other broken people.  We want to see God reconcile each person he created and loves, through the Gospel, the Good News that we have a Savior, to Himself and to each other.

In 2 Corinthians 5:14-21 we read,

Our firm decision is to work from this focused center: One man died for everyone. That puts everyone in the same boat. He included everyone in his death so that everyone could also be included in his life, a resurrection life, a far better life than people ever lived on their own.  Because of this decision we don’t evaluate people by what they have or how they look. We looked at the Messiah that way once and got it all wrong, as you know. We certainly don’t look at him that way anymore. Now we look inside, and what we see is that anyone united with the Messiah gets a fresh start, is created new. The old life is gone; a new life burgeons! Look at it! All this comes from the God who settled the relationship between us and him, and then called us to settle our relationships with each other. God put the world square with himself through the Messiah, giving the world a fresh start by offering forgiveness of sins. God has given us the task of telling everyone what he is doing. We’re Christ’s representatives. God uses us to persuade men and women to drop their differences and enter into God’s work of making things right between them. We’re speaking for Christ himself now: Become friends with God; he’s already a friend with you. How? you ask. In Christ. God put the wrong on him who never did anything wrong, so we could be put right with God. (The Message)

When you arrive onsite to serve with us this summer, you might be anxious about a lot of things, but of the main thing you can be certain.  God is actively seeking ways to help each of us grow in Him, and our Kaleo staff are eager to provide you with opportunities to experience that reconciliation for His glory.