Sunday, August 24, 2008 
Scripture reading: Romans 10: 12b-15
12For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; the same Lord is Lord of all and is generous to all who call on him. 13For, ‘Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.’
14 But how are they to call on one in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in one of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone to proclaim him? 15And how are they to proclaim him unless they are sent? As it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!’
Sermon Title: "MANOS JUNTAS" MEXICO Sunday, August 24, 2008
MARSHA ALEXANDER: I just want to say how
delighted I'm to be here in Shawnee, Oklahoma. I
think it was four months ago when your team was down
in Rio Bravo on a mission trip when they said it would
be nice if I could come up for a visit. I said, well,
invite me. I am delighted to be here with you now.
We have people who come from all over the United
States to share in our ministry, which is basically
two-fold, construction and medical. We have
volunteers who come and their purpose is to share
Christ's love. The tasks they do range from building
to painting to sometimes checking patients. So what
they do is a task, but the purpose is to share the
love of Christ.
I want to share a story about George Washington
that relates to what we do in Rio Bravo. One day
Washington was riding along with a group of soldiers
across this farmland, and he had a very tempting
moment where he saw something that made him want to
preach to the group about you should love your
neighbor.
As they were riding across this farmland and
talking about the events of the day, they came to a
fence that required their horses to jump over. One of
them didn't quite make it over and knocked a hole in
the fence. Washington saw the big hole, and he
suggested to them, we should stop and repair this.
The troop just shrugged their shoulders, like, it's
just a little hole. Washington realized at that
moment probably all the words in the world would not
make a lot of difference to their ho-hum attitude
about what had just happened.
When they disbanded, one of the men was riding
back the same way when he discovered someone carefully
repairing the fence. As he got closer he recognized
that person, it was George Washington himself. He
walked up and said, "My goodness, General, you're too
big of a man to be doing such a little job as that,
mending a fence." Washington looked at him very
gravely and said, "No, I'm just the right size."
You see he was preaching his sermon in that
universal language that we know that Christ came to
teach us, that of action. The actions that Washington
was showing spoke much louder than words. So I guess
that's why they say that actions speak louder than
words, is it not? We can talk all we want, but if our
actions don't speak of what we're saying, then people
will turn a deaf ear to us.
When volunteers in mission, such as yourself,
come to Rio Bravo, they're told your purpose is to
share the love of Christ. Now they'll say I don't
speak the language, how can I? Well, there is another
language, too, and it's the language of a smile. Even
if you don't know a word to say, you can smile. A
smile reaches out and says I care. So when volunteers
come, they are encouraged to smile, to talk, to act,
and truly volunteers in missions do act.
I like to think that as volunteers in mission we
are building bridges. Now there is a lot of talk
about building a wall between our two countries. The
volunteers in mission and the ministry that we have,
we're there to build bridges among friends, among
neighbors, not to build a wall.
We've built enough walls around us. We're there
to build bridges of love to bring us together as God's
people and share in ministry, to offer hope to those
who have no hope, to offer love to people sometimes
who feel no love because they're shunned or turned
away because of their financial condition.
We are there to be the hands and feet of Christ
who came to show us how to love, and so in Rio Bravo
we are very happy when people to come to help us with
our ministry, to share in bringing Christ's love to
those who maybe never have felt love, and I am so
grateful when I know that there are people who are
like you who can come be a part of our mission.
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