Brook Hills sent out over 20 Mid-Term missionaries this summer. These are people who will serve 2 months to 2 years in a different context around the world. Patric is one of our Mid-Term missionaries to Central Asia. He will spend a little over 2 months teaching English at a local university among an unreached people group. Due to high security, we will not disclose Patric's specific location but he will blog for the next 2 months to let us in on his experiences in sharing the gospel and working with an unreached people. Let us pray for him and his team as they make disciples of all nations.

posted by Patric B.

Central Asia is very different from the West. Food, clothes, language, people, mentality, relationships, along with a myriad of other things within the culture as a whole, are vastly different from our ways back home. However, it's really not all that bad and actually in a lot of ways this is a very beautiful thing. It reminds me one, that there is really more than one way to screw in a light bulb, and two that the worshippers around the throne will be that much more beautiful because of our varying degrees of diversity. But quite honestly at times this varying degrees of diversity can be a bit overwhelming.

However as I was looking out my plane window looking down upon the place that would be home for the next 2 months and reflecting on the difference between my old life in the West and my new life in the East, I saw something that captivated me, a cloud. And in some mysterious way this cloud comforted me. As I started investigating why this would be I realized the reason I was comforted so was because these clouds I saw out my window, which hung over this distant land, looked like the same clouds I was admiring as I took off from Birmingham International.

I found this thought profound. Because in an instant I realized that while this place I am going will be different to be sure, there will still be some things that will remain the same. Laughter, sadness, a desire for happiness, a need for hope, a yearning for purpose and meaning, and among other things that carry a little less weight, clouds. These things remain the same no matter what culture you dive into.

I praise God that while the way questions of purpose are answered are different from culture to culture, the quest itself is still the same. God-given desires, God-given hungers, God-given pursuits that must be fulfilled. These things unify all men from every language, even amidst staggering diversity.

I pray that this summer that even through times of difference that frustrate, I would take time to look at the clouds. And in doing so I would be reminded that some things never change. Most transcendently is the fact that everyone everywhere has an insatiable hunger for personal satisfaction. They try their hand at a variety of different things to fill the need. Whether it takes the form of religion, irreligion, rule breaking, or rule keeping everyone just wants to be happy. And it is a good thing they do because it is for that for which they were designed. Therefore, I pray that this Summer I would be a good steward of the message that has been given to man as a means of causing the explosion of joy that we are all designed to experience at the hands of its reality. The message of a beautiful King who came to the earth and will one day unite all people from every tribe, language, and nation.

Who knew clouds would bring such deep encouragement to my anxious soul?