What Are You Going to Be Doing?

We get that question a lot. It's a reasonable question. People want to know what we'll be doing. Heck, I want to know what we'll be doing. And, to be honest, we found out this week what our jobs will be. (Yipee!) But I'm not going to share it just yet with you. Before I do that, though, I want to share a quote that I got this week during one of our training sessions.

Before all else, dialogue is a manner of acting, an attitude; a spirit which guides one's conduct. It implies concern, respect and hospitality toward the other. It leaves room for the other person's identity, modes of expression and values. Dialogue is thus the norm and necessary manner of every form of Christian mission as well as every aspect of it whether one speaks of simple presence and witness, service or direct proclamation.
-Reflections and Orientations on Dialogue and Mission #836

I put this quote up here because it's a reminder (mostly to me) that regardless of what my job will be, my main purpose is to listen to people, to accompany them in their stories. There is nothing I can do for anyone without first doing that. This is probably the hardest thing that we will do while we're missioners.