Last night, I slept on the floor of the youth room in a church in Falkville Alabama with 10 other people. Needless to say, this was not my normal Saturday routine. My husband and I are traveling with 3 other adults and 8 youth from our church in Indiana for a week of mission work just north of New Orleans. It’s a loooooong drive. We chose to break up the trip by staying at my cousins church about 1/2 way. The floor was hard but the hospitality was amazing. Thank you, Fairview Church of God for housing and feeding us!
As we packed to make this lengthy trek, I couldn’t help but question again: why travel for mission work when there’s so much need right at home? It takes effort to plan, raise money, pack and launch off for our destination. Is it worth it?
Over the years, I’ve struggled with this question often. The amount of money needed to fund a trip would go a long way toward helping the needy right in Indianapolis. Is a mission trip a good use of our resources? Besides this, for the same amount, I could go on a great vacation…and I bet I wouldn’t be sleeping on the floor.
Even with these reservations, I still choose every few years to travel on missions. I’ve worked in Appalachian Mountain hollers, in border towns of Texas and as far north as Alaska. Medical missions work took me to Haiti after the earthquake and high in the Andes of Ecuador. The accommodations were often primitive and the food unusual. Flexibility was of utmost importance just to function on a day to day basis. Most of the time, this wasn’t an issue for me. However, when offered some of a whole fried guinea pig in Ecuador, I couldn’t comply. In my country, we just don’t eat pets.
I understand that these kind of experiences aren’t for everyone. Even though I was born into a family whose members love adventure, sometimes these mission trips were too much for me. One day in Haiti, I came back to our living quarters in tears. A child was badly cut on a fence while trying to get to our medical team. Then just before packing up, a group of young men tried to take all the hygiene kits we brought to give away. It took a firm conversation and courage from God to talk them out of their intent. We left with the hygiene kits but we were all distraught from the day’s events. This was only our 2nd day of work! Was this what the rest of our week held for us? Thankfully, the remainder of our trip to Haiti in 2000 went smoothly.
In my experience, every trip has it’s high and low moments but the benefits greatly outweigh the times of discouragement. If I could distill into one word why I feel mission trips are beneficial it would be RELATIONSHIP. The people I meet and the friendships I make are invaluable. I am exposed to cultures and ways of living, I would never experience if I stayed home. The same has been true for my children. They stay in contact with a diversity of friends through social media they met on our trips. This has widened our perspective and softened our hearts to people we would never know otherwise.
Even though the obvious reason for going on a mission trip is to physically help those in need, for me the purpose is much deeper. I’ve come to realize the only way to overcome division in society is through relationships with people different than myself. Individuals need to reach over cultural lines for any change to happen. Mission trips are one way for this to occur. The physical impact may be small but the heart transformation is astronomical.
You may not feel comfortable going to foreign countries as I have, but you can do your part to break down cultural and racial division in your own backyard. Volunteer in a local mission. Make friends. Form relationships with the people you meet. Mission work can be tough. But remember: Relationship=Change of Heart. Be a part of the change.
