When I left the room, the first word that came to my mind was "process". I had to say goodbye to a good friend whose fight with cancer was finally coming to an end. I needed to process this experience, just as I had processed all of those mission trips I had been on since 2008. That was the first trip I took overseas; the first trip I took with Charlie.
He told me then that I would need some time to process my thoughts after a trip like that, and I would need time with these thoughts as well.
Charlie was preparing for another adventure, only this time he would go without the team.
He was struggling to leave. He was struggling to say goodbye, because Charlie knew that this would be his final adventure.
I know that he was certain of his destination, but maybe still a little confused about his mission.
Mission is necessary for a doer; for the mission-minded. Charlie likes to finish the task at hand, and he knew that task was still unfinished.
Even though he had trained them well, Charlie would have to be content to leave the task to all of the STM's (short term mission) he had influenced along the way.
One of those was me.
I am a product of all the Charlie's who believe the great commission is meant for everyone; not just those who walk the aisle in view of a mission call.
Ecuador became my country because a man in my church played a video about a tribe who needed Jesus.
So I went.
And I keep going back, and I pray every day for the Shuar Indians of Ecuador, because now I know about them. Now I've seen their faces, and held the dirty hands of their children, and smelled their campfires. Now they're in my heart, because a man named Charlie put them there.
He wouldn't want the credit. He would never call for the attention. And while I know it was the Lord putting it all together, it was His delight to use a man who saw the things that He saw, who loved the way the He loves, and who would go with the same passion that He came with.
Charlie's mission trips will continue because of all the missionaries who will follow in his steps. And we won't count the number of trips we take overseas, because he always said those numbers weren't important. We'll just go.
I'll keep taking the gospel to the un-reached of this world, just like Charlie taught me to do.
Good students learn from great teachers, and Charlie was one of the best ones out there.
