As I've been in the States this month, I've had a number of conversations with good friends who, while they respect my work with those with disabilities, have shared that it's not for them. They often say they'd love to come on a mission trip to work with me, but cannot bring themselves to spend a full week at Hermano Pedro. "It's not their gifting." "I would cry the whole time." "I'm just not comfortable around the handicapped."
And it's gotten me thinking. Are short term mission trips about being comfortable? Are they about using the gifts we are certain we possess? Should we expect to feel good about what we are doing?
Isn't the precise way God works most deeply in our lives by taking us outside of our comfort zone? Doing things in and through us which we know we cannot do ourselves? Breaking our hearts for what breaks the heart of our Father? Why should a short-term mission trip be any different?
Don't think that I believe everyone must spend a week in a orphanage with severely disabled children. I don't believe God calls everyone to that. But I do believe He calls us to step outside of ourselves and risk doing things we have never done before. Maybe to serve in areas outside our gifting, knowing we must depend on Him for our strength. To learn what God can do in and through us when we ourselves have nothing to offer him but our willingness to obey.
What I guess I want to challenge is the idea that a short term mission trip is about us. About doing what we are good at. About showing God how much we can do for him.
Please know I learned this through experience. For years I went to Nicaragua with a team from my home church to lead the Children's Church. It was right up my alley. I knew how to do it. I was even pretty confident that I was good at it.
One year, as I was preparing activities and materials for the next trip, I felt God was telling my heart to prepare in such a way that someone else could lead the children's program. I can't explain it, but I had a strong conviction that I would not be doing what I thought I planned to do. So I prepared, and I went, and we started Children's Church as usual. So what was all that about? Had I really heard God in this?
Early on the morning of the second day in the village, the team captain came to me and said he had a request. One of the women working in the kitchen had hurt her ankle. Would I consider moving to work in the kitchen this trip?
Somewhat disappointed at leaving that which was comfortable to me, I agreed. Of all the jobs on the trip, the kitchen was the one I found least appealing. But for the next five days I began helping prepare food before most were even out of their beds. I worked with a good friend, and that brought some pleasure to the process, but the work in the kitchen was tedious at best. I cut fruit and vegetables, washed pots and pans, set up serving lines and did a variety of other menial tasks necessary to feed the roughly 60 people on our team. I seldom got out of the kitchen, rarely seeing the people who were coming to the services and clinics. I, one of the few team members who spoke Spanish, spent my days for the most part with my English speaking team members.
Did I enjoy this trip? Honestly, not so much. Did I grow on this trip? More than I had on any other.
I learned that I had nothing to give God that He really needed. He could do all this without me. It was His grace that let me be part of serving his people. What He needed to teach me this trip, I could not have learned in Children's Church. I need to learn to obey. To go where there is a need, even if I don't feel equipped to meet the need (what did I know about feeding 60 people?) and even if I didn't really like what I would have to do to meet the need (does anyone like cutting up watermelon for hours at a time?).
And what did I "get" out of this trip? I had my first extended experience in a typical home in Latin America, seeing first hand how some of the poorest of the poor lived (our kitchen was in the "kitchen" of one of the homes in the community). I learned that even the simplest task becomes holy when done for the glory of God. I learned to rejoice with my teammates at their stories of how God had used them that day. I learned that it wasn't about me. . .
God knew (of course) exactly what I needed this trip. I had previously "flirted" with going into mission work in Latin America full time. During my hours in the kitchen, I had many long conversations with him about what it meant to serve in missions. I learned that little of this service is glamorous or exciting; most of serving in missions is the tedious work of everyday life. Realizing this, however, I returned home with the firm knowledge that He was inviting me to join His work in Latin America.
It was in doing the very things that I found unpleasant that confirmed my desire to follow Him wherever He might lead me. I learned the blessing of obedience when to obey was to do something I didn't want to be doing. I learned to trust Him, that if I obey, He would be there. What more could I want?
Would I be in Guatemala if it weren't for the time I spent cooking in Nicaragua. Probably so, for I don't think God is so easily thwarted. I am grateful, though, for the lessons I learned in that hot, stuffy kitchen which have served me well as I try to honor Him in my daily life. I know now that surrendering my wants, doing things I don't like, and being uncomfortable are the very pathways He uses to bring me to the "desires of my heart."
So what's my point? I guess I'm just saying that if you're thinking about participating in a short-term mission trip, please don't decide based on your own feelings and desires. Don't go to do something you enjoy or you're good at. Go where there is an unmet need.
In considering at trip, the only question you need to ask is, "Father, do you want me to go?" Trust Him that if He says, "Go," He will have his best waiting for you. Be willing and available to step out of yourself and meet Him in uncharted territory. I can promise, He'll knock your socks off!
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