Life as Mission Trip

Have you ever been on a mission trip?

I'll tell you about the ones I did, in the late 80's.  My parents paid the church, some amount of money, for my passage.

The church picked me and my luggage (one bag of clothes, a backpack, and a few toiletries), and took us on a road trip to the slums of Tijuana.  This was when it was safe to take American teens into "TJ".

We went to an orphanage in a slum, and engaged in physical labor, improving the orphanage, for a few days.  The thinking went along the lines of "They will know we are Christians by our love, and it will encourage them to get save".  We did no evangelizing.  We didn't even do Bible Study or prayer, except before meals.

I felt a little odd, but I always brought my trusty Bible.  I was the only one who did.  I don't believe the youth pastor even brought his Bible.  I never saw him reading it.

The conditions were "fairly" primitive.  We had a crude roof over our heads, no electricity, cold running water - hence, cold showers, and rodents in the dorm area.  I used to be fairly high strung, the other kids used to tease me by telling me they'd seen a rat, and I'd panic.

We ate our own food and supplied our own drink.  We were told consumption of the local fare would make us ill.  One year, I got a vicious migraine.  A boy I liked sat quietly near my sleeping bag as I retched miserably.

I will always love him for being so kind to me.

So, when they said "We're going on a mission trip" I knew what to expect: primitive conditions, hard physical labor, and limited food and sleep.  If I went on a mission trip today, I would also expect hostility from some of the locals (not saying that about Mexico, but anywhere "else").

You may wonder why I'm talking about this.  I was worried about a situation I would encounter last week.  I cannot share the details.

I prayed about it, and God told me "Treat it like a mission trip" - well, what I expected to find would certainly qualify as primitive.  Heavy labor?  Well, I had very little, actually.

OK, I could do that.  I was ready to go.

As I handed out Bibles, I had to grin at my worldview.  Happily, things at the other end were not as bad as expected.

I was pretty sleep deprived, and missed my God Time most days, but I still prayed for everyone and handed out Bibles to eager recipients whenever possible.  It's almost like they knew I'd traveled over 900 miles, just to give them a Bible.  I've never had such an easy time distributing!

That made everything worthwhile, not that it was at all bad to start.  Towards the end of the week, Ron decided to "try" whiskey.  He thinks he can handle it now.  Oh, boy.

Would I expect to encounter drunks on my mission trip?  Most likely.  I will leave him in God's hands and deal with any behavior as it arises.

Ron called me up, Thursday, very drunk.  He kept telling me he was sorry, and asking if I would forgive him.  He was progressively more remorseful and I was deeply alarmed.

"What?  Just tell me what's wrong".  I thought he had hurt the cat, or set the house on fire.

What's wrong?  We don't have any hot water.  What?  I forgot to pay the gas bill, and they cut it off (the cutoff notice came while I was gone, and Ron can't read the mail).

Life as a mission trip: cold showers expected.  I told him it was no big deal, especially when he said the guy would come out on Monday afternoon.  He did, and I have my hot water.

I was so tired anyway, I guess I needed the cold showers yesterday and this morning, but again, not as bad as expected.  It reminded me of a swimming pool, that moment when you decide to submerge yourself completely - the moment when I stepped under the shower head.

By the way, I really missed my garden tub when I was gone.

I plan to carry my new worldview into my entire life:  Life as mission trip.

Which reminds me, I need to order the scripture booklets for Halloween.