vow of community

Last week I had the opportunity to help one of the sisters at OLA get to town.

It was the one I knew the least and she was going to have to take a taxi. Her name is Sister Filemon. It had been a hard day for me up to that point. No real reason, I was just feeling down and a bit left out. It was exactly what God had prescribed for me.

The sister and I were talking about how living in community can be hard, but is well worth the practice of it. When they "sign up" or feel the call of being an actual sister, they must make three vows: the vow of poverty, the vow of chastity and the vow of obedience. She then made an interesting comment about how she wishes they would add a third vow to their ceremony - the vow of

community. Her thought was this is where all three come together.

My whole point of mentioning this is because as I once again took the 8th grade girls (remember love in high action) to visit the OLA children, I saw a change in the atmosphere. The first time I took them, it was a bit awkward. They were 7th graders, first time doing anything like this and they enjoyed the children. Then again in October, the second time, they felt more comfortable so they loved and played hard, all good stuff. Then this last time I realized that there was more of a depth of affection and more of a desire to be apart of these children. This time these girls went and we swept the entire orphanage, not just swept, but really got under things swept and organized, and they loved on the kids. I even found out that one of them had taken her family over Christmas to spend time with them.

I kept saying, "this was great, this is the best time ever," but I couldn't put my finger on the exact reason why. Then as I looked around, big picture, I realized these girls had formed a community with these children. It was no longer their community serving the other community, but it had become one community serving each other out of the affection of Christ. It was an overflow of what was already established. Gosh, what an amazing thing to be a part of, and I am so grateful for the community here that has allowed us to serve alongside of them as it is a vow that is taken seriously in each of our hearts.