My First Mission Trip

I don't even know where to begin I have been home for about a week now. And this morning I am experiencing the missionary blues. Jeff, the leader of the trip, said more then once that the things we are doing here can be done at home. Yet I find in myself no desire to do that work. I make excuses. I am an RA, an intern at a church and a full time student. Do I really have time to reach out into the community? The answer should always be yes. So this morning I am asking God to rebreak my heart. To break it for the needy, the down and out. To break it for those who aren't being loved. I am asking him to remove my skepticism, my doubts. Lord help me to live out here what we lived out there.

The whole week I couldn't help but think that this was more what life was supposed to be like. First of all we were living out the gospel. We were loving on the people of Tacoma. We went to a family shelter, new life shelter, and other places to help prepare and serve lunch. We had VBS at two different locations. We served in a food bank sorting and handing out food. We served in a donation center. In addition we did work around the church and school that we were staying. We reached out and loved on the people of Tacoma. When the opportunities came we shared the love what we had found in Jesus. While I know we had the week off so it made serving the people easy. But it made me think. Shouldn't we be making time to serve the people of Salem? Shouldn't I be making time to serve the people of Salem? To help those in need? To show the love that I have found.

Second, we lived in real community. I believe at the core of who were are is relational. I believe that part of being made in the image of God is being relational. He exists in a continual perfect relationship with himself. We look at the Adam and Eve. They lived in perfect relationship before the fall. While in Tacoma I couldn't help be think that we were living this out. Within two days we were bonded like a family. 27 students and 11 leaders. We lived together, eat together, served together and laughed together. As a team we wrote 1000 encouragement cards to each other. In our broken culture the individual is emphasized so much that it hinders community. But here we lived it out. Every night we had family time which was by far my favorite time. We started off with all stars, people who stuck out that day for doing something good. Then we had God stories, stories of how God moved. Next a few people would share their testimony. Some of the people that shared we prayed over. Finally, we worshiped God through music. I believe community in heaven will be much stronger then what we had. But I believe this was a glimpse into what it will be like. We listened to each other. We laughed with each other. We lived life together. We sat in each others pains. We lived out what it meant to bare one anothers burdens and what it meant to be in real community.

Lastly, people's lives were changed. When a group of people are living out the gospel and living in community how can lives not be changed? There were stories of redemption. Stories of joy. Stories of sorrow. God was in them all. He is in my story. I am not sure how different of a person I am today because of this trip. But I can tell you one thing God moved. So many students and leaders walked away with a changed life. So many people in the places we served walked away with changed lives. God Moved.

Now I ask you. I ask you how are you living out the Gospel? How are you loving on the people around you? Are you living in community? I ask you to join me and keep me accountable. I ask you to challenge me. Lets do this thing together. Lets live out the gospel and love those around us.

In Him,
Dan