"I see my role as an opportunity to be an instrument of God's grace and truth in a large organization that has the potential to improve the health of hundreds of thousands of people and to be an instrument of mercy and grace. But there are so many forces working against that, including evil ones."
While many of their colleagues and friends headed south to warm beaches for spring break, 34 students from five University of Wisconsin (UW) campuses drove to Centrobrook Church in Milwaukee. Centrobrook is a Hispanic church that meets in an old warehouse on Milwaukee's near south side.
So much of contemporary spirituality—and this is not just limited to the church—is self-absorbed and narcissistic. Freud defined narcissism as the inability to grow up. The writer of Hebrews talks about those who are still longing for milk and asks "What about meat? Where's the maturity coming in?"
The human desire to flourish is as old as the biblical story of creation. The creation story in Genesis records that God instructed Adam and Eve to be fruitful and multiply. But the Fall changed everything.
Elfira felt uneasy about returning home to Indonesia. It had been five years since she was there last, and she thought she had left it behind. She came to the States to pursue a degree in engineering. But during her time here heard a call from God to serve him in another way. She decided to return home in order to help equip and minister with churches in caring for the poor and needy in Indonesia.
"The good news brings us to God," writes Brenda Salter McNeil, in her new book, "and it also brings life and healing to a broken, dying and divided world. Anything less is not the gospel."