Expect the unexpected. That was the counsel I, Carl Cosaert, was given while planning to head off to the Philippines for our families first mission trip. Since I don’t like to be taken by surprise, I thought I would get a better idea of what to actually “expect” by talking with people who had traveled to the Philippines before. So before we even packed our luggage, we learned so much about the Philippines that I was positive nothing would really take us by surprise. While I was right in many ways, the one thing I had under estimated was the full extent of the spiritual blessing God had planned for our family in the Philippines.
Once we arrived in the Philippines, everything at first seemed to be roughly what I had expected though I have to admit that traveling by car in the highly congested and under-regulated driving conditions in the Philippines was far more unnerving than I could have ever imagined. While everyone on the mission trip would eat lunch together, we learned that supper was to be provided by one of the families at the local church where each of us were assigned to work. So as we headed off to our church for the first time, I envisioned that the home where we would eat every night would probably resemble the extremely poor homes we saw scattered along the sides of the road. While that did turn out to be a reality for most everyone else on the mission trip, our situation was not what I had expected. It turned out that our church’s head elder and his wife were medical doctors. Their house while certainly more spacious than the average Filipino home, was very simple and plain. Their living room, however, was different. It was wonderfully decorated with ornate vases, elegantly handcrafted furniture, and beautiful curtains. This was definitely not the tiny, run down home with dirt floors I had expected.
Over the next two weeks, it was a privilege to become better acquainted with my wonderful host and his wife. They were not only extremely kind, generous, and humble, but also deeply committed people spiritually. Toward the end of our stay, my host told me that the vast majority of his siblings were living in 
the United States. I was curious why he had chosen to stay in the Philippines. His response was simple. “I’m afraid.” I figured he must be referring to violent crimes and the steady flow of violence depicted on television, movies, and the video games kids play in the United States. But I was mistaken; his answer was something I never would have expected. “I like life in the Philippines,” he went on to say. “I have a good job and I’m able to provide a modest living for my family. But I especially like the way church is here. I’m afraid that if I lived in the United States, I would be like many others I know who get so caught up in the riches of the world that they lose their faith in the process.
“His words reminded me of the passage in James 2:5, ” Listen, my beloved brothers, has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom…?” Here was a man who by American standards could have so much more materially, if he only wanted to live in the United States. But instead he chose to live in a very modest home by American standards for a person with his skills and education because his primary goal in life was not material riches, but in the spiritual riches he experienced in being a part of a small poor church in the Philippines. It’s so easy for us living in first world countries like the United States to become complacent in our faith. May God’s Spirit awakened us from our Laodicean slumber and teach us to value what really matters most in this life.
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