Appalachian Mission Trip Reflection

by Perry Chang

Joshua 3:7-17

The Lord said to Joshua, ‘This day I will begin to exalt you in the sight of all Israel, so that they may know that I will be with you as I was with Moses. You are the one who shall command the priests who bear the ark of the covenant, “When you come to the edge of the waters of the Jordan, you shall stand still in the Jordan.” ’ Joshua then said to the Israelites, ‘Draw near and hear the words of the Lord your God.’  Joshua said, ‘By this you shall know that among you is the living God who without fail will drive out from before you the Canaanites, Hittites, Hivites, Perizzites, Girgashites, Amorites, and Jebusites: the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth is going to pass before you into the Jordan. So now select twelve men from the tribes of Israel, one from each tribe. When the soles of the feet of the priests who bear the ark of the Lord, the Lord of all the earth, rest in the waters of the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan flowing from above shall be cut off; they shall stand in a single heap.’

When the people set out from their tents to cross over the Jordan, the priests bearing the ark of the covenant were in front of the people. Now the Jordan overflows all its banks throughout the time of harvest. So when those who bore the ark had come to the Jordan, and the feet of the priests bearing the ark were dipped in the edge of the water, the waters flowing from above stood still, rising up in a single heap far off at Adam, the city that is beside Zarethan, while those flowing towards the sea of the Arabah, the Dead Sea,^* were wholly cut off. Then the people crossed over opposite Jericho. While all Israel were crossing over on dry ground, the priests who bore the ark of the covenant of the Lord stood on dry ground in the middle of the Jordan, until the entire nation finished crossing over the Jordan.

This past school year the Spanish-language Sunday school studied the book of Joshua, and this passage from Joshua that Claire read was one of the passages we focused on.  Joshua, you may recall, kind of took over for Moses as leader of the Israelites.  The Israelites had escaped from Egypt and wandered in the Sinai for several decades.  When Joshua and the Israelites came to the banks of the River Jordan, they were on the edge of a land of promise for them. 

In our class we talked about crossing the Jordan River as a kind of metaphor for going to new places, meeting new people, or trying new things – and doing so as part of a spiritual community, in covenant with God and each other, seeking to experience God’s presence and share God’s love.

This seemed like a great description of our mission team and our mission trip.  And so it seems apt that we started one of our first times of reading and reflection during the trip by listening to this passage, and it seems apt that we began this time of reading and reflection this morning with the same passage.