Generational Team on Mission

We talk a lot about TEAM at our house.  It is a model for family that one of my college professors shared from his own families’ approach to working together.  It became essential language during our “for a while” phase- when we needed another word for “family”.  It is philosophy we’ve clung to even now as we talk about taking care of each other, having privileges and responsibilities and going on mission for God.

But what if our team-work extended beyond the people living in our home or even in our generation?

Jefferson Bethke on the “Made for This” podcast with Jennie Allen said

“God’s plan A for bringing blessing into the world was a multi-generational family team on mission…Whether you are a kid or adult, married or single you are part of a story and you are part of legacy and part of a last name that goes back hundreds and hundreds of years.”

His ideas about connectedness, based on biblical truth, are definitely worth listening to, but the part that really stood out to me was that one phrase…

GENERATIONAL TEAM

I am not who I am purely because of my own experiences, my kids are not who they are purely because of the experiences in our immediate family life, AND those who come generations after us will not be who they are purely because of the way the world looks or their home looks in that age.

There are family stories told so often they are nearly woven into the fabric of our identity.  Stories of those we barely knew because their earthly journey hardly intersected our own.  Some of the stories have heroic and life altering endings, many do not- they are just told because of the way ordinary life intersected with funny anctedotes or unexpected turns.  Some of the stories have intimate details passed down carefully, some only vague memories of supposition.  And even where some stories are never told we can see evidence in the people living around us now.  The stories represent parents and grandparents, generations long before, in-laws and step-laws and by-adoption-laws.

The word “legacy” is often used to represent these stories with an idea of history.  But the idea of generational teamwork has an additional layer- an idea of working together. Right now.  The very movements I am making impacted by teammates before and impacting teammates to come.  It is an acknoweldgement that many of the opportunities I have to make a play on the field today (the mission field, career field, home-front-field) were alley-ooped by people I never met.

This eye-opening understanding solidified my belief that one of the critical blessings God is giving us in Tanzania is shared memories.  All 9 of us spent three weeks studying Swahili in Iringa, where we met a missionary man traveling around giving audio Bibles out of his truck.  Once, on that same trip, one of our kids dared us all to dunk in the frigid river…and we all participated in a family “polar bear challenge”.  This year we visited an elephant orphanage in Nairobi and ran on the beach in Zanzibar.  All 9 of us have shouted hallelujah together when the electricity comes back on, have read books together when we were stuck in traffic and have eaten icecream together, purchased from the side of the road.  Because there were so many memories on the other side of the ocean that evoked the question “was I there for that?” the certainty of “I remember, too” is invaluable.  These are the stories I know my children will tell their own.

But one of my favorite experience from the year also created awareness for our all 7 of our children that they are ALL (whether born or adopted Lewis) part of the same generational team.  This summer we traveled with RRL’s mom to Malawi to see a piece of our generational team story first-hand.

The story of a man who crossed the ocean to buy land, begin a school, and train pastors just because someone sent a letter and asked.  A man who went to a place he’d never seen, then later moved his wife and small children against the council of those who didn’t understand the mission.  He simply said “yes, I’ll go” and I believe he said “yes” because he’d been taught to by the generations before him.

This story now includes 3^rd and 4^th generations of our family living in the same area, extending the work started 60 years ago which now includes the same Bible training school, but also a maternity clinic and primary school as well as coffee growing and processing.  As we walked the property seeing new construction and coffee fields, hearing about the vision for the future, we talked about what it might have been like in the beginning.  So much has changed since the days when the land for the Namikango Mission was first purchased, but one thing has remained extraordinarily consistent: the mission to bring the gospel of Christ to those who have not yet heard.  It was amazing to see, and also incredible to be able to tell our children what a difference those decisions, of someone they never met, have impacted our lives forever.

This Thanksgiving, I could not be more thankful to know God, who is faithful TO ALL GENERATIONS (Psalm 100:5). Consistently.  May there be a spirit of unity amongst us as we recognize the bond we have, the team we are apart of and the mission we have the privilege to join.

As we gather around the holiday tables, may we listen and embrace the stories of older team-members and then take time to tell the stories to our children.  We have the immense privalege and extraordinary responsibility to help the next generation declare their stories, to choose what they will remember and learn from these days, to decide how they want to write their chapter and to confidently make their next kingdom move.  It is so important because we are on their team.  It’s a wide open field, let’s pass them the ball well.

ABL