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Colleen is a staff member at the Mission Office. She is the Website Editor and the Coordinator for the Holy Childhood Association.
 In my office, I have a small collection of comic strips and magnets with funny and inspirational sayings. Every day, I am greeted by Garfield, the Family Circus, Speed Bump clowns, and Noah. Wait … Noah? How did he get in there? Yes, I do have a funny little magnet featuring Noah and the Ark. It was a gift from my dad – one of the many little trinkets he brought home with him over the years from his job at Catholic Supply. He always enjoyed anything with humor in it, and when he found this line of funny religious magnets, boy, he thought he had hit the jackpot! As you can see from the magnet, the rains are pouring, the land is flooding, and the skies are dark with clouds. Noah is chest-deep in water, while the snails are just taking their good old sweet time getting to the ark. At first glance, it’s pretty silly – we all know the story of Noah and the Ark! Noah had to get those animals moving, and fast! But, how often have I felt like those poor little snails? Times where I have been overwhelmed with work, home, family, and friends. Sometimes it feels like I just can’t move fast enough. I know something big or important is ahead of me, but no matter how hard I try, I can’t seem to catch it and I can’t make it in time. I’m sure we’ve all been there before. While the magnet is silly and Noah is obviously being sarcastic, his words do ring true – “Take Your Time.”
For anyone working or volunteering in the field of mission work or humanitarian work, it’s easy to get overwhelmed. You see so much need in the world – people who need food, people who need clothing, people who need shelter …and while those things encompass the usual list of items that “poor” people need, and might sound like a cliché to some, sadly, they are realities. It’s easy for someone on the outside looking in to see these things on TV or in the newspaper, send a check, and think it’s all okay. And yes, that’s great – every little bit helps. But, when you are actually on the inside – that’s a whole other story. I’ve heard so many stories from real missionaries working “in the field”, and there is definitely much more to it than just food, clothing, shelter, and sending in a check to make it all better. There are things we would never even dream of. Imagine a 10-year-old boy in Bolivia sniffing glue to take away the pain of his hunger. Imagine a newborn baby in Russia who has Down’s syndrome and is “traded in” to an orphanage in exchange for a “healthy” baby. Imagine a little girl in Belize who catches worm disease through her foot because she does not have shoes. These are all incredibly sad and awful stories, and it’s easy to see how one can get overwhelmed when those are the realities one is facing. What to do? Where to start? And that phrase – “Take Your Time” – how can there ever be enough time to solve all those problems? And how can you take your time when the problems at hand are so severe?
But there IS time. Every second, every minute, every hour, and every day is an opportunity to choose what you are going to do and how you are going to help. Some people choose to spend a year in Africa volunteering; others choose to work in a mission office like I do. It’s all important work. And I don’t always think it’s the quantity of time that matters, but rather the quality of time and the attitude you have. And the more people who join together and put in that “quality time,” then the more we as a whole are able to help and make a difference – whether we are in Sudan or in Saint Louis, or whether it takes one day or a hundred.
As I said before, there have been many times where I’ve felt like those snails, moving too slow or not doing enough to reach that goal. When I’ve tried to rush, things have just turned out sloppy and nothing gets accomplished. By turning my attention every-which-way all at once (which I’ve done before), I’m not able to give the appropriate care and attention to the matter at hand. In my job, the matter at hand is to raise awareness, prayers, and financial support for missionaries and the people they serve. While I might want to help every single cause and every single person around the world (trust me, I wish I could!), I need to focus and take my time while assisting with the various projects and situations that I come across in this office. I have found that the one “big goal” of helping others is actually comprised of many “smaller goals” to help accomplish the big one. In order to help everyone in this world – Asia, Africa, Latin America, the Pacific Islands – we need to break it down and help one person at a time. It can’t be done overnight; it takes time.
I hope that the next time you or I feel like we’re trudging along, getting nowhere, or never reaching that goal, that we’re able to remember that every step counts – even if it’s at a snail’s pace. It’s okay to take it slow, because with persistence, determination – and that precious thing called time – we can accomplish anything.
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