Rachel Hampton

My new home… February 9, 2010

I’m here! Manila, Philippines. Even though I’ve spent the past year on a ship that has traveled all over Asia, right now I feel like a great adventurer. There was a certain cocoon-ness of ship-life. Yes, you are exploring cities around the world and are constantly in new environments, but when you go home, you go home to a ship that is in the harbor and somehow cut off from the city in which it’s berthed. You are never alone and there is never one city that actually becomes your home. Those days are behind me. I am a resident of Manila, Philippines. For the next year, this beautiful, friendly, foreign place will be my home. It’s hard to imagine a life where newness and travel are not a part of it. I’m of the rare breed that loves change. It can sometimes be nerve-wracking, but in an exciting way. And traveling allows me to see even more of the wonderful world that God has created. It blows my mind to see how different (but still sometimes the same) the world is. God formed the people here in their mother’s wombs and cares just as much about the details of their lives as He does mine. We may not all speak the same language, eat the same food (except for McDonalds which you cannot escape from no matter where in the world you are), or come from the same culture, but we have at least one thing connecting us: we were brought into existence by a vastly creative God.

In the past few days I’ve walked down the street, ridden in a jeepney, hailed a taxi, wandered a mall, all the while looking at the people around me in my new home and being overwhelmed by God’s love for them. I have a purpose here that surpasses working in an office for a great organization that I believe in. And my purpose doesn’t require a job description, office clothes, or a business savvy attitude.  It all boils down to one word. LOVE. God has really been working in my life recently on this issue. When we truly have love for others, it permeates everything else we do. Our own desires and list of priorities are torn down to the very basics; from what we want to what we need. If I truly love my brother down the street who is struggling to provide food for his family (which is much more a reality here), how easy it will be to give up something totally meaningless like cable TV in order to use that money for him? I want to be filled with a love and compassion for the people here as I know God is. The line of a famous praise song constantly comes to mind “Break my heart for what breaks yours.” I know God’s heart is broken for the lost people here who are destined to spend an eternity without him. Is mine to the same level? I’m not sure that I can honestly say it is. But I desire for it to be. The line of that song is certainly a cry of my heart. I yearn to be a light to the lost people around me. To be as effective a disciple of Christ as I can be. To be emptied of the ugly pride, selfishness, and sin that is in my heart. To fill that with the love of God. On my own, I am incapable of living out love with complete abandon. But-can I hear an amen-I belong to a super-powerful God who makes that possible. And through Him, even this sarcastic, self-centered, failure of a woman is capable of anything! And I’m looking forward to what “anything” will turn out to be this year.