When we finally decide to go on a mission trip, we start thinking about how we can bless them (them meaning whoever we are serving). The first thing we learn about is the needs as we figure out how we can help out. That can be overwhelming at times. It’s true that we may have much more money and material stuff than they do but they actually need much more than we can give. Even if we gave everything we owned, it would only be a drop in the ocean. We have to accept and make peace with this difficult reality. So, let’s forget about being burdened by the needs for a moment.
Don’t get me wrong: It’s good and we should bless those who are less fortunate than we are. However, it would be a mistake to focus our efforts on what we can give rather than who we can be together in the eyes of our creator. Imagine yourself in a remote region that only less than half of your friends and family have even heard of. Yet, you feel loved and cared for. Maybe you cannot even communicate verbally but you still feel safe. I don’t know about you, but I see God in that picture. If not God, what or who else can bring two total strangers, having practically nothing in common to make them feel like brothers and sisters?
I think we risk to get get it wrong when we attempt to place ourselves on the donor’s end while placing them on the recipient’s end. After a while, the connection between two ends is only sustained by a one-way flow of materials and money from the donor to the recipient. Soon or later, we finally realize that the issue of poverty on which we focus our efforts is much bigger than we can solve (at least in the time frame we allow ourselves). Consequently, many of us eventually give up in disappointments and discouragement, feeling ineffectively burned out.
As donors, packing our suitcases is even more stressful because we do not know what to leave behind. We want to pack everything we possibly can because we do not want to burden or inconvenience anyone (when we get there). What we are afraid of (being a burden for our mission partners) is even more reinforced by some long-term western missionaries serving abroad. They will give you an itemized list of things and tell you exactly how much money you need to bring in order to provide yourself everything without anyone having to sacrifice for you. I am not really suggesting that it’s wrong to be prepared. I am only suggesting that we should allow ourselves some room to be blessed by God and our mission partners.
I think we would have a much more fulfilling experience if we simply allowed ourselves to be blessed as much as we wanted to bless them. Being dependent is certainly not easy especially for many of us who live in the world where we can provide pretty much anything for ourselves. We have learned to be independent and self-reliant in every aspect of life. In fact, God must sometimes take us to places where we have no access to everything in order to make us feel dependent on him once again. For some of us, that place can be a mission field, where our comfort and security is only God. Who do you depend on when you are outside of your medical insurance and 911’s coverage?
Before I get to my next point, I want to propose a scenario to think about. Suppose you have a wealthy friend. Your friend offers to visit (or you ask him to) and you both agree on a date. How would you feel if your friend brought his own food and drinks, his own bed and everything else he needed so he doesn’t have to ask anything from you? You know very well that he only did this because he did not want to be a burden. Would you feel burdened if you had to sacrificially provide whatever you can afford for your friend or would you feel more accepted, dignified and joyful for being given the opportunity to share with a friend?
I guess what I am getting at is that our mission partners would enjoy blessing us as much as we would like to bless them. God has created us to feel joyful when we bless others. I think we should give them the opportunity even when we know that they cannot afford everything we are used to. If you haven’t yet, you will probably hear missionaries say: “they are so poor yet so thankful…” I believe those who apparently don’t have much (by the world standards) can still be thankful and honor God through their offering and generosity. I think that it is absolutely humbling to realize that the God we serve where we live in abundance of stuff is the same God we (or they) serve in places where there is a lack of stuff.
If you feel called, God is not sending you on a mission trip because you are best suited to bless “THEM”. He is sending you because “YOU” are uniquely suited to be blessed by him (sometimes through them). Until you accept his blessings for you sometimes from unlikely places and people, you will not fully experience his awesomeness!
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