| Philippines 2008 |
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By Alicia Clore
“We love you, Ate (big sister) Alicia!” Those five words will forever be printed on my heart—the five words that a choir of children yelled from their second-story classroom window as I walked past the nearby elementary school for the last time. I had only spent a short thirty minutes sharing in their classroom the week before, but every time I saw them after that, we always shared a greeting, a smile, and often a big hug. I was no longer the strange “Americana” walking down the street, I was their big sister. The most amazing part of my time sharing for two months in the Philippines, was that this was completely normal! Every congregation and community I walked into—even if we shared for only a few moments, even if smiles were the only way to communicate—I was already part of the family and shown a love that can be found only within a family founded on the love of God.
Returning home to a culture so different from the one that I have just left has been a struggle, but also an exciting challenge to share the richness I’ve discovered and search for middle ground in which to share in that pure love with all of my brothers and sisters in my own community. This new-found understanding of worship has marked the beginning of a permanent transformation, as I have caught even a glimpse of what it means for each one of us to be a member of God’s family—a global community of Christ. |
Alicia Clore, East Lansing, Michigan. A full time student and resent gradate of Michigan State University went to The Philippines for two months. She writes:
I applied to be a part of the World Service Corps program with the hope that I could better understand what it means to be a world church and what it means to be a member of a global family. I wanted to meet, share, and worship with my brothers and sisters from around the world. I never imagined that I would not only be given that chance, but also be embraced and loved so freely by family that did not even know me. Time and time again, my needs were met by generous hands of folks who did not yet even know my name. I was equally blessed to witness the ways that this unrestricted love and care so naturally flows throughout communities. Where there were disease-rampant areas, my partners and I joined church and community members on medical missions to provide free vaccinations. Where there were hungry mouths, we sat side-by-side at dinner tables that became the site for multiple souls to find nourishment of both food and fellowship. And where there were crying children, we saw comfort extended by the gentle hands of family and neighbor alike.
Being a recipient of this love, as well as witnessing the powerful ways in which that love so freely exists within so many relationships has shown me what it means to truly worship. Jesus calls us to love our God with all our heart, mind, and strength but He also calls us to love our neighbor as ourselves. That is worship. Every Sunday morning, we lifted our voices together in praise to our God—but it was all of the other times throughout the week that I felt so blessed to be sharing in the other half of worship! The way that every single person of a community is loved and cared for as a member of the family modeled for me what it means to respond to Jesus’ call and to truly worship. It was just an added blessing for me to experience first-hand the way that love extends even into relationships with those whose sole commonality is a mutual love for our God.
