Drip…drip…drip! It has to be one of life’s most annoying sounds when you are trying to sleep. You try to ignore it, but no amount of pillow hugging, thinking about something else or covering your ears can take away that persistent sound. Drip. Drip. Drip! The dripping only stops when you get out of bed […]

Drip…drip…drip! It has to be one of life’s most annoying sounds when you are trying to sleep. You try to ignore it, but no amount of pillow hugging, thinking about something else or covering your ears can take away that persistent sound. Drip. Drip. Drip! The dripping only stops when you get out of bed and do something about it!

In many ways the dripping tap is a metaphor for the missional journey that LifeWay Lutheran Church in Sydney’s west has be on over the past eight years. It began with a group of young adults who met weekly to grow deeper in the word of God. Drip. We were studying the book of Acts. Drip. Drip. Each week there was a growing discontent. Drip. Drip. Drip! Each week, the drips were harder to ignore until one person asked, ‘don’t you think God is calling us to something more?’

What transpired was months of wrestling and praying that eventually led to the first mission trip among the Lua people in Thailand, and now to Cambodia where we are privileged to partner in God’s mission with the Lutheran Church in Cambodia. Over the past eight years, more than 50 of our people (as well as others from the LCA) have had the opportunity to see God at work in an unfamiliar environment, to see the Gospel transform hearts and lives before their eyes, and to see the power of prayer.

It has left an indelible imprint and enlarged our capacity as a Church and the generosity of our hearts in so many ways.

But for us at LifeWay, it didn’t stop the dripping tap! If anything, the drips became more frequent. The overseas mission trips were never about feeling good or serving for serving’s sake. It was about ‘living, sharing and growing’ in our God-given purpose; to live out the Great Commission daily and bring Jesus, the ‘Good News’ to others wherever they are living, in actions and language they can understand.

The dripping tap of mission became so annoying that we began asking seriously ‘what is God calling us to here?’ He has been leading us on an incredible journey locally, with the re-potting of a satellite community in Newcastle, and becoming a ‘Sending Church’ with the formation of two new missional communities, one on Sydney’s northern beaches and another right under our nose in Epping. We don’t know how we will resource all that, but if there is one thing we have learnt, it is that God just wants us to get up and go and he will provide more than enough to do what he calls us to do!

Drip. The missional journey is a messy one, for relationships are messy! Drip. Drip. The journey is often uncomfortable, but brings blessing upon blessing. Drip. Drip. Drip!  Is God calling you to get up and do something about the dripping missional tap too?

View the Cambodia Mission Trip 2016 video produced by LifeWay Lutheran Church, NSW

This story was also published in the November 2016 edition of Border Crossings, the magazine of LCA International Mission.

If you, your school or your congregation, would like to know how you can connect to the mission of God through a LCA International Mission partnership, you are invited to phone Erin on (08) 8267 7300 or email erin.kerber@lca.org.au. For more information, go to www.lcamission.org.au/join-gods-mission/start-a-partnership/

Read more stories about congregational partnerships at www.lcamission.org.au/category/stories/local-partners/congregations/