Rest

New Camaldoli, Big Sur California

Daily Highlight

Dear Br. Michael,

Someone asked me how I started working with the children. I started in the US by purchasing a small travel trailer and then loading it up with clothes and shoes and medical supplies - six thousand pounds in all. I loaded the travel trailer on a cargo ship destined for Belize Central America. This was in October, of 2002 I traveled along with the trailer on the cargo ship and the trip took 7 days under some very rough seas. Arriving in southern Belize, I began distributing the clothing, shoes and medical supplies to some of the poorest of the poor people of the area. When finished, I used the travel trailer as my base camp as I began the building of the Mission of the Good Shepherd.

Why was it so important to care for these children? From the day that I arrived in Mango Creek, in southern Belize, I had been so shocked at the plight of some of the street children here. Some were sent out by their parents to beg for coins here and there. Some were sent out to sell whatever they could. Some had parents, but many had none. But all were children, dirty, undernourished, sickly, needing care and crying out for love and attention. It literally pained my heart not to be able to do anything for them. That is when I first decided to become a Missionary and that was over 20 years ago.

Having previously been a Doctor, I started out by giving medical care to these children, but it turned out that the problems of the children were not so much medical as nutritional, social and spiritual. Sick children would be cured, but two weeks later they were back again with the same symptoms. It became evident that any ministry to these children would have to be of a long term nature, covering not just physical, but also financial, spiritual and emotional problems.

But not all of Belize is poor. Just offshore of Belize there are many beautiful islands where many rich Americans come for vacation. Some come by cruise ship. Some fly in, but they never enter the mainland to see the plight of these children. And if they do get to enter the mainland, they are kept away from the real Belize by the people who run the Cruise Ships. These Americans vacation in luxury on these islands, never seeing the plight of some of the underprivileged children who suffer so greatly only a few miles away. Seeing underprivileged children only a few miles from where rich Americans were vacationing in luxury was even more tragic than if the country as a whole had been struggling to survive. Things have changed over the past 19 years and there are not as many of these poorest of the poor children as there were. And I would like to think that our Mission had a hand in changing some of that.

From the humble beginning of a travel trailer, through the Grace of God, and only through the Grace of God, we were able to build the Mission of the Good Shepherd. I say we because this is a partnership. I might be the one over here working with the children, but I could not be doing anything that I am doing without your help, and those like yourself, as partners back at home. By this partnership, and only by this partnership, is our Mission able to grow and to help the children. And I thank God every day for your part in this partnership.

Since most of these children don’t have parents who attend church, or who can teach them about God, bringing the children to God is the most important thing that we do. The Mission also has it’s our own Church for the children during the week and on Sunday, as well as a separate Prayer Chapel in which we pray for the needs of those around us and those who help and support our Mission. The children are taught to give back in the best way that they can, which is usually through praying for others.

Among the many other things that we have at our Mission is a playground located right next to our Church. We purposely put it there so that the children would mentally associated worshiping God with fun. Not just something that they have to do. And it’s working. At the Mission of the Good Shepherd we have a very strong spirit of religious observance and love for God and we strive to pass that along to the children.

Sometimes children seem so unimportant. At least they did when I lived back in the US. But now after working almost 20 years with these children over here in this 3rd world country, things are different. Every time I look at one of these little children, those who are considered so unimportant by most, I know that I am looking at the face of Jesus. I guess that’s what keeps me going as a Missionary against the odds that I must face. 

Please pray for our Mission and for me as I continue to work with these children who are considered unimportant by so many, but are so dear to Jesus. And please pray for me as I struggle with some of the daily hardships of being a Missionary in a 3rd world country. The hardships are nothing, however, compared to being allowed to work for God. I thank God every day for His allowing me to serve Him over here. I am so blessed to be allowed to work for Him. And so blessed to have you as a partner in this.

In the Service of the Good Shepherd,

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Dr. Post

Mission of the Good Shepherd

Mango Creek Independence Village

Stann Creek District

Belize, Central America

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PS: This is not a request for donations. It’s just a little history of our Mission and the children. But as you already know, if you do get the urge to donate, simply send a check made out to the “Mission of the Good Shepherd” directly to our US address:

 

PS: Our new USA mailing address is:

Miranda Parkey, Church Secretary

Mission of the Good Shepherd

P.O. Box 1

Buckhorn, NM 88025

It is always good to put your all into anything you do. Yet, progress does not come of it's own, it is a product of all the actions of His Holy Will.

I remember another time when I encountered great peace, a tangible peace, a flowing of rest and happiness. It was at the retreat house of the New Camaldoli hermitage in California. 

The place is 1300 feet above the Pacific Ocean, and the retreat house has a beautiful view, and many secluded places to seek a truer solitude if you have come for refuge in it.

Above all else it is quiet there. No radios or Tv's. But once the din of civlization has diminished and faded away, there is an electric current that runs through you and stands you bolt upright, stunned.That terrible place is the one we have all dreaded for ages, when reality shows itself not to be what we all took for granted, but what is actually is. There is nothing to fear in it, the way people might obsess; " me? in total silence all day long without entertainment or human company? and nothing to do?"

It is not hard to pass through such a journey, but it has derailed more than one person who felt the urging of God to "come aside with me". The beginning of a realization of what solitude and silence consist of starts when you are in fact abandoned in solitude and silence and all doing resolves itself into being and somehow you touch God, and He touches you, and life changes in a more pure and intense presence.

After a while, all the little objects in a place dedicated to silence fall into their appointed places, not interrupting and not intruding, but only letting the current of that river of spiritual love carries you effortlessly down stream without a care in the world, not even worrying about the possibility of a high falls over which the silence falls to plunge into unknown depths and what they may contain.

God guides, leads, persuades and intervenes as necessary until you find out how effortless resting can be when it is the divine rest. It is easy to grow fond of that place, but do not get used to it, or worse still, expect it to be persistent so that you might become habitually expecting it, like an infant anticipatinf teaspoons of honey. That will lead out of the possibility of dreams, to the hard work waiting to get done, adjusting to nailed hands and feet, and wounds reopened by the thorns. Then you must push on and that may be all you have to go on. But if you persist, it has its effect and you no longer care. You cannot know HIs environment without experiencing HIm, even on the cross, hanging from pitiless wounds. You do not get used to it, the reaction against the pain is the same, but the spirit rises up not of its own accord but under the influence of His Holy Spirit, and then you begin to live and work and grow into the being you were meant to be.