For the king!

4:12 a.m., the first cockcrow in the Brazilian jungle. Rainy season. The roof had just been finished on drier days. Today we had to work on the walls. The boards were stored under a hut near the riverbank.

The Deni (ethnic group) never go under their huts. It is mainly wet wood from washing-up water and urine with a topping full of leftover food that can be found there. This also meant that a flood of omnivorous cockroaches was not far away. I would have loved to have been wrong. But as soon as I lifted the first board, they swarmed in all directions to escape the light of day. What would I have given for a pair of gloves that day? Jesse, who helped me carry the boards, was no different. It was the perfect place for the kindest of pathogens. As I hoisted two boards onto my shoulder and shortly afterwards felt wetness on the back of my neck, I suddenly thought of my vaccination record. Hepatitis, yellow fever, polio, typhoid ... Thank goodness there are check marks everywhere.

On the way to the construction site, with a runny nose, surrounded by mosquitoes and now bitten to death, I had a burning question: 

What on earth could be reason enough for missionaries to live in the rainforest for decades? We are quick to say in our air-conditioned church services: Love for lost people!

Love for lost people? I was sure - that wasn't enough! Because at a tropical, humid 35°C with cockroaches in your shoes, mosquitoes on your cheeks and urine on the back of your neck, the sentimentalism stops. Because we love what is lovable. That was definitely not it.

However, there is one who gave his life for people who deliberately spat in his face - Jesus. He did it to forgive them for exactly that and much more. I couldn't help but think of Paul explaining to the Corinthians that it is only when we understand this that the love of Christ compels us. It urges us to live for HIM. And for me, living for HIM that day meant touching these planks and building a wall out of them - for the King!