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Unfortunately, it is often difficult to discern the intentions of our own hearts. Are we serving because we want praise or because we want the name of Jesus to be praised? The lines of these contrasting motivations blur in our not-yet-perfected hearts. However, there are some fairly simple questions we can ask ourselves to determine whether our service may have drifted away from gospel-centrality.

127 Worldwide is blessed to have longstanding and trustworthy partnerships with local leaders in Kenya, Uganda, and Guatemala. We aim to be a reliable resource to connect, equip, and empower our partners so that they can thrive in the work they’ve been called to do. Partnership with local leaders has long been a distinctive trait of 127, and the following example from Kenya highlights the value of this ministry strategy.

We’re committed to gospel-centrality in justice work because the Bible commands our participation, because we want to serve people holistically, and because our goal is to catalyze long-term impact.

I was visiting rural Kenya with a team building an aquaponics system that would benefit a local church. It was hard work, and our team of Kenyans and Americans was behind schedule. One afternoon, with precious few hours of daylight left to work, a local woman came to visit and see the project.

This is the first summer in twenty years that I have not gone, or helped people to go, on short-term mission projects. Twenty years means that I’ve had multiple decades of evaluating, educating people on, and executing best practices in this arena. Twenty years means 7,300 days full of opportunities to both make many mistakes and play a small role in God’s big story.