I don’t talk easily to strangers and I honestly would rather ignore the urgings of the Spirit whenever possible.Over the weekend, as I was walking from the hospital cafeteria back to my husband’s room, I passed the chapel where two days before I had stopped to pray during my husband’s open heart surgery and wished someone had come in to pray with me. There was a woman kneeling on the floor behind the last chairs. I walked by. Then halfway down the hall, I turned around and went back to the chapel. I touched her shoulder and asked if I could pray with her. She answered that she didn’t speak English and I said, “Oramos juntos,” which I hoped meant in Spanish that we would pray together.
I explained that I would pray in English because my Spanish wasn’t that good. She told me that her 4-year-child was in the ER with a broken thumb. No other details were necessary. I prayed slowly in simple English while she cried. My words didn’t matter. God knew both of our needs. She wasn’t alone. I wasn’t alone.
I saw a sign in front of a church that asked, “Are you ready?” Immediately I was transported to 1968, to a dorm room across the hall from mine, to a Bible study. I had been challenged, “Are you ready to accept Jesus into your life?” For weeks, I had agonized over my response, and that November night, I finally said, “Yes.”
Then, a few months later, my friends and I studied Hal Lindsey’s book, The Late Great Planet Earth, and that question popped up again. “Are you ready for Jesus’ return?” We learned about the signs that seemed to indicate he might come any time. We were excited, enthusiastic, feeling the urgency of fulfilling the mandate to reach all peoples now, today, to prepare for his return. If not this year, then surely in 1984. We might not have been right about when, but we were working hard to be ready. 1984 came and went, and a few decades more. Now, I ask, “Are you ready for a life-changing experience?” in the opening of an invitation to join our medical mission team.
The question, “Are you ready?” seems to be central to my whole life. “Are you ready?” needs to be the question I ask myself every day. Am I ready to choose Jesus every minute of every day? Am I ready to create opportunities, to seize them as they slip past me, to honor God with the time He has given me? Am I ready to meet the Jesus in others? Have I done all that I can do to share my commitment to Jesus with others and ask them if they are ready? Am I ready for his return? Am I fully engaging in kingdom work without the distraction of watching the skies too closely? Am I ready for a life-changing experience on my mission team? Have I let the teams become too routine? What can I do to restore the excitement and enthusiasm I had for the first team? How will our mission teams offer life-changing experiences for team members, our hosts and the people we meet and serve?
What does poverty look like to you? Is it too little or no income? Is it a small, shabby shack in the “bad” part of town? Is it gender, race or culture-based? Is it the lack of material wealth or food-scarcity? Do you answer: “I know it when I see it?”
Eight-year-old Anderson is the youngest of six children in a refugee family that fled war in their country. His father and oldest brother stayed behind. His mother is ill and the only girl in the family, at age 12, takes care of her. The boys, 16, 14, 10 and 8 don’t go to school because they aren’t citizens of the country in which they settled, and there are no schools in the community. The youngest three children receive one meal a day at a nearby daycare center, 6 days a week.
Anderson came to a clinic with a very serious infection of his thumb, extending as cellulitis up the forearm to just above the elbow. He received treatment and antibiotics, but an 8-year-old cannot be expected to take responsibility for taking pills everyday so he left them behind. And the vitamins he received unfortunately were gummies which his brother ate in one afternoon. As his wound was treated, we realized that Anderson and his brother Arly didn’t have shirts under their jackets. So we went to a store that evening and bought a shirt for each of the children.
After we gave them the shirts, we talked about education. Big brother Arly said he didn’t like to read. Anderson did read but didn’t have a book. We read to them two of our books, the stories of Jonah and Joseph and His Coat of Many Colors. Then we gave them the books.
They came everyday while we were there and made the rounds for hugs and attention. We changed Anderson’s dressings and arranged for a community health worker to administer his antibiotics daily and continue his wound care.
This is poverty: the lack of basic necessities of life, the lack of access to education, the lack of opportunities, and the lack of hope. We cannot solve this, the greatest problem so many of the world face. We can only offer the hope that God provides and the love that He freely gives through His people. And a shirt, a book and a hug.
A mission trip is all about serving people, but what does that really mean?
Choosing to do it their way. The project is always their project, not ours. We must respect the way they want things done, even when we think our way is better, faster, cheaper or more efficient. This doesn’t mean we can’t teach them or bring equipment with us to help with the project. It means we respect their knowledge and their ownership of the project.
Working with rather than for people. We want to work alongside, walk alongside, pray alongside our brothers and sisters around the world. That may require a conscious effort to involve them, but most of the time, we need reminders that we are not in this alone.
Respecting others. A mission project is not about “haves” and “have-nots.” We give a hand up, not a handout. When we learn to recognize that poverty is not about possessions but also include the spirit, and hope for the future, we see that we can also live in poverty. By seeking the God we share with others, we share each others’ burdens and walk in each others’ footsteps.
A mission trip is not a working vacation, or a philanthropic gesture or something we do because “it’s the right thing.” A mission trip is a sacred gift God invites us to share with others.
The Guatemala Mission Team returned late last night and we may see some of them in church on Sunday. They are the ones with the circles under their eyes and the huge smiles on their faces. Coming home after a mission trip is an important time in the life of the church that sends teams. Because our teams interact with people of another culture, language, nation and lifestyle, we can learn much from them. Their first-hand accounts give us a glimpse into the important role of short-term mission teams in sharing God’s love and salvation message outside our own community.
If you have a chance to speak with team members and ask them about their trip, you may hear that it was “awesome” and “Life-changing.” We ask team members not to use those two words because they don’t give you an idea what they did, what they learned or what they experienced. However, sometimes, those are the only words that come to mind. It’s very hard to distill a week’s adventure into a few sentences. Be patient and ask about something non-emotional, such as the food, or where they slept.
Help team members get back to normal. For many people, especially those going on their first or second trip, culture shock can be a very real experience when they come home. I remember crying for no reason for a week after my first mission trip. Team members can feel sadness, anger, disconnected, or even numbness when they get back. The poverty, hopelessness, life conditions they have seen and perhaps even experienced can affect anyone at any time. You can help team members for a couple weeks after their trips by asking how they are doing and listening without judgment. Offer to pray with them if that seems appropriate.
Finally, thank them for going, for representing you and your church and nation. Short-term missionaries leave their own comfort zones, utilizing their own resources of time and money, sometimes going into harm’s way for people they don’t even know, all for the love of God. We as a church send mission teams into places where people need God whether on another continent or just down the road.
Poverty is more than the lack of material possessions; it adds the burden of isolation and hopelessness and of the loss of human dignity. We who have often disparage those who do not have by thinking they are lazy or uneducated or unmotivated. Or, we go on a mission trip and brag that our target population is the “poorest” of the poor, as if we are made more noble by their degree of poverty.
Money and goods are not the answer to alleviating poverty. Poverty is a condition of the environment, social structure, body, mind and soul. Answers must focus on meeting all facets of the human condition. Working to correct isolation means going to the places and the peoples of need. We could send money, rather than teams and be much more effective in delivering medicines. But, our presence matters. When we leave our comfort zone to serve others, we combat their isolation and speak volumes to them about our respect for their dignity and value as persons.
When we listen to their needs and support their creativity in developing ways to meet their needs, we empower them to rise out of poverty.
As a medical team leader, I have concerns about providing relief versus encouraging development. We know that providing a hand-out is necessary in emergency situations, times of natural disaster and catastrophic need. However, our goal is to empower development by offering a hand-up. To that end, we have offered health education with every medical team. We have instructed childcare workers in CPR and the Heimlich maneuver, parents in making and using Oral Rehydration Solution, how to use ear drops, breastfeeding, and child care. We teach children how to brush their teeth and wash their hands. We worked with the community health liaison to provide parasite medication to children six months between our visits providing coverage for a full year.
Living in Florida means we are familiar with natural disasters such as hurricanes and tornadoes that can render us suddenly homeless. When disaster strikes, we band together, neighbor helping neighbor, one county helping another, even other states sending assistance and people to the disaster zone.
The Red Cross, FEMA, the National Guard, government and charitable organizations flood the area bringing aid. Most people have insurance to begin their recovery. We have safety nets.
When Christian communities in Syria and Iraq have fallen to ISIS, a humanitarian disaster beyond measure resulted. Homes have been destroyed, neighbors have turned on neighbors, the government has been unable or unwilling to assist. Innocent lives have been lost and more are threatened. There is no safety net. People have fled into the mountains, into harsh, unfamiliar places where they have no shelter, food, water, medical care, schools for their children, jobs or income.
They need help. Our help. Through the work of the few organizations in the area, we can offer real help to meet their immediate needs. We can pray. We can offer hope. A hand of friendship, the love of God. We can be their neighbor, their friend, their brother and sister, their safety net.
Throughout the Bible, we see examples of the power of one person time after time. Abraham, Moses, Esther, Ruth, Isaiah, Josiah, Elijah, Mary, Nicodemus, John, Paul. One person. One faith. One with God. Powerful prayers answered. Yet it’s hard for me to remember that these were ordinary people, some uneducated, some poor, some disabled, some fearful, some doubtful. Like me at my best and me at my worst.
They stood up to the evil of their times, the injustices, the poverty, the persecution. They surrendered their own wills to God and He worked through them. They didn’t become great because their stories were told and re-told so many times that they ended up being mentioned in the Bible. They became examples because of their faith.
We have such people alive today throughout the world. Quiet, ordinary people who when pressed have held up the banner of their faith in God. Mariam Ibrahim, the Sudanese Christian woman who faced execution with her newborn in her arms and her toddler by her side, never abandoned her faith in God. Pastor Saeed Abedini who languishes in an Iranian prison because he will not give up his faith. Neither of them sought fame or fortune, nor did they ask to be persecuted for their faith.
In the face of global jihad, the unholy war, what can one person do? Whose faith is strong enough to stand up against persecution? If I am being honest, I would say that mine alone is not. But God’s is. I cling to the words of a current song: The God who is within me is greater than he who is in the world. My faith is made strong by the one in who I believe. My prayers, though I am just one, do not fall on deaf ears. The God who made the universe hears my plea and the cries of each person when we pray to Him, “Free your people.”
Join your prayer with mine today. Join your voice. Speak out for those who cannot. For those who voices are being silenced by martyrdom. For those who cannot be heard because of their fear. For those who are fleeing the evil that has taken their homes from them. Make a pledge today to be a voice crying in the wilderness. Because you and I are made stronger by the Power of the One who unites our voices and our prayers.
Have you ever had a “Call to Action?” Have you ever felt God’s tug on your heart, heard his whisper in your ear, known the clarity of following his path for you? I did thirty years ago when I hear a missionary speak at my church and she invited me to join her in Africa as a nurse. I went to my pastor and shared my “Call” with him. He was encouraging but realistic. “You have five children to raise first.”
So right, but so disappointing. But I learned that God’s call doesn’t go away. I found ways to become involved with missions efforts. I supported the missionary who became my friend. I raised my children and sent them off into missions of their own. Then I began to go and to lead mission teams. Over the years, God’s Call has not diminished but has grown. And with it my heart for those in places where they cannot worship openly, and today, where they are persecuted and martyred for their faith. This video is a “Call to Action” for us to stand with our Christian Brothers and Sisters throughout the world. What breaks the heart of God, breaks mine also.#IAMYOURVOICE
During the past year, I have taught several classes about the threat to Christians around the world, and Islam. Becoming aware of the real danger, the real persecution and the real martyrdom Christians face allows us to share the burdens our brothers and sisters carry. We may feel helpless and wonder what we can do. Becoming educated and joining together in prayer are the first steps we can take.
Communicating with politicians and world leaders, and supporting organizations who provide front-line support to Christians in their home countries or in refugee situations are ways to continue our presence in time of need.
The “I AM YOUR VOICE” campaign (http://iamyourvoice.org/) sponsored by Food for the Hungry gives me a new way to encourage others to lend their voices, their prayers and their support to our brothers and sisters around the world. I urge you to join in prayer and share your heartfelt commitment with others. This is a dump-a-bucket-of-ice-water-over-your-head moment for every Christian. Make the statement “I AM YOUR VOICE” to Christians who are suffering in silent persecution in the Middle East and throughout the world.
Missions Moving Out 