This is my first mission trip. As I shared my decision to go on this trip with friends, family and co-workers, the common question was “What are you going to do while you are there?” I guess I’ve had my ideas about what happens on short-term mission (STM) trips. After all, my parents have been going to Mexico on STMs for the past 25 years. I’ve heard their stories and the stories of others. As I learned about the Mathare Valley mission, I was told it was a “humanitarian” mission…but, what did that mean?
I understood building relationships, but, why was that the focus rather than putting our talents to good use in a foreign country? I knew God would show me if I asked—so, I did. And he provided me clues along the way.
One of the things each of us was asked to do is to define our role in one word. God led me to a passage of scripture that helped me to do just that:
“Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all kinds of disease among the people.” (Matthew 4:23).
This passage seemed to contradict what I had been told this mission was about. But, it wasn’t until I read an excerpt from John Maxwell’s book Failing Forward that I put it together.
When people think about you, do they say to themselves, “My life is better because of that person?” To succeed personally, you must try to help others. That’s why Zig Ziglar says, “You can get everything in life you want if you help enough other people get what they want.” How can you turn your focus from yourself and start adding value to others? By putting others first in your thinking, finding out what others need, and meeting that need with excellence and generosity.”
The word that came to mind for me was “connector.” Putting those passages together with a description from the book Now, Discover Your Strengths (Buckingham, 2001), I understood why:
“Certain of the unity of humankind, you are a bridge builder for people of different cultures. Sensitive to the invisible hand, you can give others comfort that there is a purpose beyond our humdrum lives.”B-I-N-G-O! I bring connection for the team.
The final piece to the puzzle came as I was reading the Global Field Guide which helped prepare us for a cross-cultural trip. This is not a medical mission or a mission where we will be working in soup kitchens or a mission where we will be helping with the local vacation Bible school program or a mission where we will be constructing any buildings. This is a mission simply about being.
It’s the kind of trip you would take when you learn that your estranged cousin is diagnosed with ovarian cancer and she needs loves and support to get through the grueling chemo treatments…someone to hold her hand, wipe her brow and hold the pan when she vomits profusely from the treatment. It’s not about curing her, or fixing her. It’s about sitting beside her and listening to her story, her fear, her joys, her aches and pains. It’s about her knowing that she is valued enough in your eyes that you would take time away from your own family, work and obligations to nurture her through this. It’s about the value in the relationship.
So this “life changing experience” that I am headed toward…will it be my life that changes….the lives of the people I meet…..or both? It is my intention through this blog to share my journey and the stories of those people I meet during the few days I am in Kenya in order to bring a clearer understanding of how the love of Jesus Christ connects the two cultures with faith, hope and love.
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