The Compassion of Christ

Splanchna. Literally, from the Greek, visceral, the spilling out of oneself. Often used to describe the pouring out of love to another. This word is found nine times in the Bible, one of those times being in 1 John 3:16-18. “By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love (splanchna) abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.”

Hello! Madison Ezzell and Courtney Haag here, hailing from our room in East New Orleans, LA. We are here for ten months serving as participants in the Lutheran Young Adult Corps, which is a gap year program for young adults aged 18-26. While here we will be serving full time at Camp Restore and various churches in the area. Camp Restore is a recognized service organization (RSO) that works to restore homes and communities destroyed in Hurricane Katrina and other natural disasters. We arrived in New Orleans on Friday, August 11th, excited for our service and intent on documenting our experience here in the Big Easy, but our story began ten days before the 11th.

On August 2nd, twelve young adults aged 18-23 from Portland, Oregon to Fort Meyers, Florida, traveled to St. Louis, Missouri for ten days of training at the Lutheran Church Missouri-Synod (LCMS) International Center (IC). We worked in groups of four based on where we were placed - either Boston, St. Louis, or Louisiana. Courtney and I worked with our boys, Hayden Duncan and Paul Mroczenski, who are placed at Camp Restore's sister site in Baton Rouge. Throughout the ten days all twelve bonded and grew together in Christ. We were certainly sad to leave everyone, but we are even more excited to see how God will use us and our new friends through the country. Although we all have different stories and are in different cities, we all joined the Lutheran Young Adult Corps to serve our God and our neighbors.

The ten days of training were jam packed from 8:30 to 7:00 or later every day. We were LERT (Lutheran Early Response Team) trained and certified and CPR certified. We worked service events, studied Lutheran theology, and practiced "adulting", as well as listened to lectures on Urban and International ministries. Finally, we learned about the challenges of mercy and service work found in under-resourced communities. Throughout the week we experienced exhaustion, joy, excitement, and boredom, and we are better for it.

Out of everything we did, Courtney and I especially enjoyed the daily devotions and chapel services in the International Center. These times served as a daily reminders to focus our eyes on Christ, no matter where we were or what we were doing. While all these drew our hearts and minds back to Christ, one in particular stuck out to us, led by Rev. Dr. Matthew Harrison, president of the LCMS. He spoke to us on 1 John 3:16-18 in reference to our upcoming service work, and that random Greek word I threw in at the top, splanchna.

Perhaps it was his gentle persona, perhaps it was the joy and power of the words he spoke, but when President Harrison spoke to us on these verses I was stunned. Specifically this verse, “But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love (splanchna) abide in him?”

After President Harrison read this verse and explained the meaning behind the word splanchna he simply looked at us. He told us he was proud of us for our willingness to go out into the world and serve those around us as best we are able, he thanked us for our courage. He told us that we are doing good things, but it is not about what we are doing. Rather, it is about who we are as the compassion, as the splanchna of Christ, as the literal pouring out of Christ’s mercy and love to others. This statement portrays a radical type of love, a type of love willing to sacrifice everything, even unto death, for the least of these, for us.

This is mercy work, this is service, to be the compassion of Christ, no matter where we are or what we are doing.

Through this blog, we will try and keep y’all updated on our experiences, stories, and work down here in NOLA. Until next time… we're just taking it minute by minute.

Please pray for:

• Please pray that we listen and train well and our skills are used as we finish our first week of work.

• Us as we continue to settle in

• The teams in Boston, St. Louis, and Baton Rouge

• Courtney as she gets used to the humidity