Relishing the Sabbath

“Unless one learns how to relish the taste of Sabbath … one will be unable to enjoy the taste of eternity in the world to come.” - Abraham Joshua Heschel

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Sabbath is hard. It really shouldn’t be when you think about it, and yet I find this to be true every time I look around me… or honestly, when I look in the mirror. Especially within our American hustle and grind culture, gotta get the kids into every season of sports, extracurricular activities, and weekend social outings. Our calendars are packed to the brim; to set aside an entire day for rest and embracing our Father seems absurd. But to just be in God’s presence, and not be striving to accomplish something or hit any level of productivity - that is a foretaste of eternity.

This may seem especially difficult on a mission trip. How can we justify it? With all of the time and money and effort that went into getting us here - we’re going to take a day off?! That is exactly what we did this last Sunday. As I expressed in my last post, our team has been grinding since we left camp and frankly, their work ethic has been incredible. Work projects have been crushed, relationships have developed (in spite of a language barrier), and it has been for the glory of God. Yet He didn’t need us to accomplish any of it. Though God calls us into servanthood and to assist in building His Kingdom, He doesn’t need us for this one bit… and that is what we remember when we take Sabbath.

So how did we use our Sabbath? After breakfast and our morning quiet time in the Word, our team donned their Sunday best and walked to church. Experiencing a church service in another culture is already quite the experience, and then to have no idea what is being said is even more interesting. Our team was welcomed by the pastor, we sang Spanish worship songs, sat through a lengthy sermon about… well, I’m not quite sure, but we read from Psalms and Matthew and James. Most participants on our team had not been to a church service in 3 or 4 weeks (I left for camp on June 1 and haven’t been to church since May!) so this was a wonderful and welcome act of worship to God.

We followed this up with a picnic in the park: PB and J’s with an apple - a classic Royal Servants pack lunch. While eating we placed Nathan and Evie on the “hot seat” as our way of asking all manner of questions, practical and odd, to get to know them better. They are a brother and sister that live in Arequipa with their missionary parents and though they couldn’t come to training camp, they joined our team once we arrived and will be fully participating students the rest of the way! (We’ll actually be working with their home church later this week)

Once we finished our meal, we walked for about a half an hour to enjoy Sabbath through our Father’s creation - of the animal kingdom. We ended up at Mundo Alpaca where our team was able to feed llamas and alpacas and (of course) take pictures with them whilst trying to avoid being spit upon. There were also opportunities to learn about the textile process with the alpaca wool and buy souvenirs. We then returned to our hotel at about 3.30pm. With dinner not until 6, I instituted Siesta a.k.a. mandatory rest time. Some napped, others journaled or read their Bibles, I’m told one of our guys played several hands of Solitaire. It was a nice opportunity to recuperate and strive for nothing. After dinner, our team continued worship through small groups discussion and a teaching on the reliability of Scriptures. We finished the evening with popcorn and a projected movie.

So, why take an entire 24-hours to abstain from active ministry? Well, it was practical. We for sure were dog tired and needed the rest. It was an act of obedience as one of the ten commandments famously tells us to keep the Sabbath day holy. But the primary reason is that this summer is more than a mission trip for our students. We are training them for a life as followers of Christ. That means teaching them how to share their faith and their testimony with others, how to work hard and serve like Jesus did, but that also means learning to rest, trust, and take joy in merely existing in God’s presence. We want our students to relish the taste of the world to come.

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Jack Becker

Peru Mission Trip Leader