Quiet Contemplation

I sit here in the quiet of night reflecting on the time we just shared at a church in a village of San José Pinula.  We took a team of youth to minister through song, drama, and sharing the Word.  The prayer time afterwards was powerful.  As the Holy Spirit filled the place I was struck with how God delights in using the most unlikely candidates at times.

I watched the youth minister in song: one on the guitar, one on the keyboard, another on the drums, and a couple of vocals.  I thought how I have no particular talent at all.  I am not very artsy.  I don't even have a charming personality that draws others to me!  I am just Little ol' somewhat boring ME. 

Still, somewhere, one step at a time, I began a long walk down destiny's road.  And I ended up here. 

This afternoon these same youth helped me to open a door into a public school that had been distrustful in times past.  For the first time we were able to go in and with skits, dramas, games, and testimonies share the goodness of God.  Before our visit the school was very hesitant to allow us to enter.  They were afraid that the very Catholic parents would be offended.  With much prayer for favor and grace we were granted permission.  Then the planning began.  How to present the góspel in such a way that it points toward God's forgiveness and mercy while not directly giving an altar call. 

The youth stepped up to the challenge and pulled it off brilliantly.  Now the school is thrilled that we came and has opened its doors for us to have future visits.

This is just one of many schools.

Recently another school sent Word to me begging to be included in our ministry Schedule. 

And schools aren't the only ones pleading.  I also have a list of people who wish to work for us full-time.  These people desire to teach children the Word of God.  They want to share Jesús with the lost.  They want to minister to the needy and downtrodden.  And they want to do it with us. 

And so, likely candidate or not, I find myself once again on my knees before God.  If He has called me to this place then surely He has already supplied all I need to prosper here.  I lay before the throne our great need for more staff and missionaries in order to handle all of the invitations we have to minister.  Also, the additional finances we need to pay more staff members!  I give these needs over to the Lord who has continued to supply everything we need over the years.  If He has called us to be here then He will provide for us. 

All that is left is to trust in Him and see His glory manifested in us and through us.

What Short-term Mission Teams Don´t Know

I fell in love with missions when I was a small child in the Baptist Sunday School listening to stories of missionary heroes.  Especially our very own Lottie Moon from Virginia.

How exotic to give your life to loving and serving God by loving and serving a people halfway across the globe.  How romantic to die of starvation because you chose to feed starving children instead of yourself.  What love.  What dedication.  What true Christianity!

So when my opportunity came to go on a short-term trip at age 16 I didn't let it slip me by.  It was the chance I had been waiting and praying for and now it was upon me.  I spent months preparing myself along with the rest of our team to visit Ensenada, Mexico.  We prepared VBS lessons and crafts and just as diligently we prepared ourselves spiritually.  It was 2 months of focus for 10 days of action. 

Those 10 days were exciting.  We did minor construction on a new church building.  We painted and painted for hours and hours.  We held VBS classes for the local children. We  passed out tracts in the Street.  We bonded as a team and with the members of our host church.  WE HAD MADE A DIFFERENCE.

After that I knew that God had called me to missions. 

Decades later and living full time on the mission field I can tell you one thing: My life is NOT a short-term mission trip. 

The excitement and adventure of those short-term trips has been trumped by the hum drum everydayness of my life now. 

Sure, I live on the mission field and dedícate my life to helping children- even feeding them!  But there is another side of my life that I never considered as a member of a short-term mission team and by comments that short-termers make to me I know that they haven't considered it either.  It is a simple yet profound reality---I HAVE A REAL LIFE. 

I wake up early every day in order to get my family ready for school and work.  Afternoons are filled with homework, soccer, and swimming.  Busy days mean evenings full of hungry boys! 

Regardless of how many mission teams we host, how busy that team is, or how many missionaries are visiting us I still have lunches to pack every day and supper to cook every night. 

My children get sick unexpectedly, we have pediatrician appointments, school activities, birthdays and other events.  My husband sometimes Works late or goes out of town.  Our children have real bedtimes because they have real school the next day.

Regardless of visiting teams or missionaries I still have bills to pay on time and grocery shopping to do.  The ministry has bills that need to be paid and bookkeeping reports that must all be done in a timely manner despite how full a teams itinerary may be. 

When I took my first mission trip my immaturity and lack of experience in life itself led me to believe that every day would be full of adventure, ministering to the lost and hurting, learning new skills, and going to new places.  As life as played out I have come to realize that life is life whether on the mission field or at home in the good ol' U.S. of A. 

So if you are preparing to go on a short term trip any time soon, please keep in mind that not only you and your team are taking personal time to come and share God's love on foreign soil, but your missionary hosts are also taking time out of their already packed schedules in order to host you as pleasantly as possible. 

As a short-termer you may never fully know how much your host missionaries have had to juggle, shuffle, change, and sacrifice in order to accomodate your team, but you can rest assured that once your team is gone they will stay behind and fall back into the rythm and routine that the mission field really entails.

My life apart from mission teams

P.S.  I understand that not all missionaries lead the same lifestyle that my family and I do.  Many missionaries live in very remote áreas.  Oftentimes the missionary families opt for homeschooling. And some missionaries probably do lead a more adventurous life tan I do.  However, I also have a list of missionary friends a mile long that live very similarly to myself.

My Old Table

The bustle around our supper table comes to a close and the children get up leaving a mess of crumbs and sticky fingerprints in their wake.  I look at this old wooden table and remember fondly the feelings of bliss and happines when I took the $100 that my dad sent to his young, adventurous, and poor daughter who had left for Guatemala with big dreams in her heart and no money in her pockets and spent it on a hand-made wooden table. 

And I am faced with a choice.

I can remember how the chairs wobbled and shook when we sat down to eat.  I can glance with contempt at the two chairs against the Wall in which no one will ever sit again- IF they value their behinds and don't wish to fall flat onto the floor!  I can moan inwardly as my washcloth brushes over stains and cracks along the table surface.  I can recall how crowded and crunched 5 or 6 of us have felt around this table when we have guests.

OR

I can see that this table is so much more than just a table.  It is the promise of better things to come.  This table represents all the parts of my life that aren't as I choose them to be, yet I know are only temporary.   The way in which I care for this table and other areas of my life shows the state of my heart.  If I can't care for what I have with a sense of Pride and excellence, why would God entrust something more to me?  And so as I make a choice to lovingly care for the things God has given me I realize that I am caring not only for my present but also for my future.  I am practicing for things that will come.

Thus, the nightly cleaning ritual has become a spiritual exercise for me; a time to reflect on all the áreas of my life that are serving as a practice ground as I wait in anticipation of something better to come.  And that, my friends, is a lesson much more dear to me than the $100 invested in this old table of mine.