For a few adventurous years, my husband and I directed a study abroad program overseas. We carved a campus out of the jungle and housed college students on a remote coconut plantation in the South Pacific Ocean. No running water, no electricity, no internet, no cell phone signal. Just a group of young people (we were young too!) living with the locals off the land and sea, learning about culture, God, ministry, and community.

Do you really know who you are until you’re stuck with the same people day after day in the heat, pushed to the edge physically, emotionally, and spiritually? The facades and fronts of “civilized” life come tumbling down and you’re forced to deal with the rough edges of what comes out of you. Community helps with that. When iron sharpens iron, sometimes the sparks can fly (and they sometimes did in our little community!). It’s not pleasant, but God’s refining and shaping happens in the sharpening. In our program, sometimes a student changed so much, we wanted to give them a new name.

As “creature comforts” were stripped away, the comfort of communion replaced them. Communion with Christ, and with our community. The Latin root of communion is communionem, which means "fellowship, mutual participation, or sharing." Community teaches us about the communion of the body of Christ, as we flesh it out together.

As we live out the body of Christ, we live out community. We depend on Him and we depend on each other. Community doesn’t tolerate bad behavior, because often tolerance is the opposite of real love. True love sparks life and truth into others, even when it’s hard. Community is a furnace where we are refined and come out reflecting God more clearly. Community is a mirror in which we see ourselves as we are, and then are surrounded by love that leads us to God.

As workers overseas, our community is diverse in culture, comprised of both locals and expats. We can learn a lot through cross-cultural discomfort, just as we can through physical discomfort.

There are seasons when community feels easier than others, but don’t give up on it. Keep asking God, keep looking for it. When you find it, thank God for a group in which you can be vulnerable, known, and challenged. Don’t be afraid when the sparks fly. Allow Him to work in your heart through community, the fellowship of a life lived with Him and with others; living stones together being built and shaped into His home.