But have not love

if i speak in the tongues of men and of angels, BUT HAVE NOT LOVE, i am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. and if i have prophetic powers and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if i have all faith, so as to remove mountains, BUT HAVE NOT LOVE, i am nothing, if i give all i have and i deliver up my body to burned, BUT HAVE NOT LOVE, i gain nothing.... 1 Corinthians 13

before i went to the community i prayed that God would open my heart and help me to love the people of Marajai even if i was only there for a few weeks......i know that as a missionary love should be like blood in our veins...but we are human too....and it is hard to love people who are unlovable...it is hard to open yourself up again and again knowing it will hurt when you walk away and leave them behind....

like the old saying goes ' it is better to have loved and lost than to have never loved before'..always thought that to be a sappy romantic thing, but i think it came true in my life...i let the people of Marajai into my life, i loved them as much as i could...and yes it hurt the day i left and a few days after...but when i look back on those pictures it brings a warmth to my heart and a smile to my face...i have never met a person who said that they regretted loving too much...now i am sure you could find plenty of people who would say they have not loved enough...

1 John 4:19" We love because he first loved us."