ID trip to the Middle East
We were delighted to partner with ID (Intentional Discipleship) on a recent trip to the Middle East. Here you’ll find a short blog, followed by a spoken word, both written by the students on the programme. For more information, visit https://www.intentionaldiscipleship.org.uk/
It’s common for where we stayed in the Middle East, to be asked by security outside of a church if they can have your ID, and to keep it until you leave.
At the beginning of the trip, we all (a small group of 18-22 year olds) felt very hesitant and reluctant to hand over our ID, whether that was our passport or driving license.
It felt unnatural to give away the very thing that tells us and others who we are; where we were born, our date of birth and a very unflattering photo of our faces plastered on the left hand side of some of the most personal and sensitive information about who we are as people.
Very soon into the trip, it dawned on us that it wasn’t only churches who were asking for our ID to step into something new, God was standing at the door of his plans and purposes, asking us the same question.
We soon learnt to leave all that we held tightly about ourselves; where we come from, what life looks like for us at home, to step into what God is doing and saying to us and others here in the Middle East.
By surrendering our ID at the door, we walked with locals, we taught children sports despite a language barrier, we ate new foods and drank new drinks, we worked hard at learning key phrases in the local language to be able to approach others, we worshiped in the spirit in church, to songs we could only sense the heart of.
When we reached the end of our trip, and we returned to the front desk to receive our ID’s back, they looked different.
All of the information about who we are, and more evidently, where we were from, was in small print.
In bold print, covering our ID’s, said “Children of the King”, a universal king, not held within the confines of the UK, nor another nation, but a king who reigns universally, to whom every knee shall bow and every tongue confess (Revelation 22:20).
We trust and pray that when others saw our ID here, and when people see our ID in the future; the very thing that tells us and others who we are, they will see our universal God who was and is and is to come, and for them to have the desire to hand over their ID too, and for God to modify it and mould it into an identity that gives glory and honour to him.
Written and performed by Docras, an ID Student after a trip to the Middle East. We were delighted to partner with ID on this project.
For more information, visit https://www.intentionaldiscipleship.org.uk/
