This past year, Student.Go personnel served in more than 25 locations around the world. McAfee School of Theology student, Clair Kermitz, spent 8 months serving with The Well at Springfield – a new church start in urban Jacksonville, FL.
Uncomfortable. Yes, uncomfortable. It is a word and a feeling most of us try to escape. However, for eight months, while I was serving with Susan Rogers at The Well of Springfield I was uncomfortable. I was faced every single day with the hurt, with the pain, with the undeniable need of the community in which I was raised. I was uncomfortable because the same pain and hurt that I have traveled to meet was meeting me head on in my backyard, in my community.
My challenge while I was serving with Student.Go at The Well was not to change the education system or cure generational poverty. My challenge was to build a relationship that could act as a foundation on which healing and reconciliation could be built. I discovered quickly that building relationships, in large part, is all about just being present. Hanging out in the local coffee shop, eating at the local restaurants and walking the neighborhood were all ways in which I discovered needs, discovered talents, and built relationships. That foundation could not have been built if I was comfortable with the pain and the hurt in my community. If I was comfortable my heart would never have been broken.
Now as I enter into Seminary at McAfee School of Theology my challenge is to never be comfortable, but always be searching for what breaks God’s heart. What will break yours?