Prepare.

It's Advent. We're invited in the Isaiah 40-based song to:
Prepare the way of the Lord.
Prepare the way of the Lord.
And all people will see the salvation of our God.
(Copyright 1980, Les Presses de Taize (France), admin. GIA Publications, Inc.)

I find that to be a fitting call as I prepare for Christ's coming.
I'm also finding that to be a fitting - and challenging - call as I prepare to travel to Sierra Leone in February.

Some of the preparations are easy, TTD-list items: Ticket - Check. Vaccinations - Check. Visa - waiting-with-bated-breath...

Other preparations are not so easy: How will I get ready to meet people who are so willing to disrupt their lives and host my colleagues and me, when I'm rarely willing to disrupt my life for others? Can I prepare for the shock of infrastructure fractured by civil war, families ripped apart by atrocities, and life lived on the brink (Movies like Blood Diamond and books like In the Land of Magic Soldiers can only prepare me so much, I suspect)? How will I be prepared to keep my eyes open to see God's work, His love and His people in Sierra Leone?

I suspect Advent will prepare me, if anything can, to see the way of the Lord. After all, what I really long for are those wonderfully pregnant words of Isaiah to be born in my life, in our world: All people will see the salvation of our God. Not just in my head or heart. Not just in Terrace or Vancouver. But everywhere in everyone with everything.

I have much to learn, so I entrust preparations to the God of all advents who is already making all things new.

- Joel Ringma

Note: Joel Ringma (Terrace CRC); Sid Ypma (Port Alberni CRC); Dave Mayer (Smithers CRC); Martin Contant (Home Missions Regional Director); Dennis deGroot (Fraser Valley Christian High School) will be travelling to Sierra Leone February 2-19, 2009. They hope to meet with members and leaders of the CRC in Sierra Leone to learn from each other, to celebrate our unity in Christ and to think together about what partership between churches in BC and churches in Sierra Leone might look like.