Join the LCOH-Revive IMPACT team in Abaco for day three! Today, Brady Silas shares the lessons he has been taught by the community of Abaco in a short time–lessons he hopes he can take back home to the U.S. with him and use to impact others.
Hello from Abaco! It’s day 3 of our mission. Today was filled with a lot of teamwork, sweaty foreheads and laughter. While I am writing this, the sound of camp games fills the community room. Some people are playing Sorry, some are playing Codenames–all very competitive!
Two words have jumped out at me throughout our first three days here: Community and Love. There are no strangers here – everyone belongs. Everyone is your neighbor. The Bahamian people are deeply committed to their community and that community rallies behind each person to ensure no one is left unsupported. This has moved me deeply, especially thinking about how it is back home. In the U.S., we are blessed with such abundance and opportunity, yet often lack this same sense of closeness that can be felt on the island.
This sense of community is evident in big ways, like organizing an entire fundraiser for a 17-year-old girl who needs emergency heart surgery, or a community leader (the equivalent of the town mayor in America) giving away all the supplies he received after Hurricane Dorian to those in his town who needed them more. But it’s also in the small things – a man pulling over when he saw a fellow trip member, Ross, and I struggling to light a fire with matches, offering us his lighter so we could get the flame going.
The strength of this community and the love for their home is palpable…you can feel it in the air, in every interaction, every act of kindness. It’s leaving me with a big question: how can we foster this kind of connection back home? The answer God has put on my heart is Love. It’s all rooted in love. Love for your neighbor, love for your community, love people the way Jesus loved. So remember, the next time you’re walking through the grocery store, the gym, or at a restaurant, it’s completely free to show the people around you joyful, unconditional love.
We are all called to be the change that we want to see in the world.
–Brady Silas
