A group from San Antonio spent the last year planning a mission trip and fundraising for it. They got a group of 50 youth and sponsors together and drove 12 hours to serve the Lord and others for a week. Their destination? Vera Lloyd Presbyterian Home for Children. Their mission? To build a campfire pit, low ropes course, and prayer/meditation path for the youth and staff here to use, as well as put on a "camp" in the evenings for us with a band, speaker, and games.
What an experience for me to be on the recieving end of mission. A new one for sure...it was strange to say the least. In fact, it was not even quite a year ago that I was on a mission team very similiar to theirs for the same reasons and purposes. When we entered the gym with our girls the first night for "camp," I couldn't place my feelings. I loved that this group was here, and there was some awesome teens on the trip as well as some incredible youth pastors and sponsors that I enjoyed getting to know. We were even able to host a portion of the group in our home one night for dinner and a game of Apples to Apples, which we all really enjoyed.
However, the reasons behind so many of the "lessons" I have taught in mission trainings before was illuminated before my eyes by having the group here, and I was able to learn a ton from my new role in their mission.
Why We Teach: "Mission must be about God and what He wants to do through His people and not about you and what you are bringing to change their lives. It must be about selfless, true love and not anything manufactured that turns people into projects."
I remember the first lady I noticed when we walked in. She was more than excited to be on this mission trip and was exploding with something, yet later I could not decide what it was. She flashed gigantic smiles, animated greetings, and huge hugs to all the children she had never met. She was hopping around and dancing and singing, and we were at the very least, overwhelmed. Everyone was friendly. In fact, they were more than friendly. They were zealous (perhaps overly) about meeting each youth (the one's they had heard all about - you know, who have a harder life than them, who are away from their family right now, who have "nothing," etc.) and there was a distinct look in so many of their eyes. I've been chewing all week on words to describe the look and the best I have come up with is this: self-fulfilling pity? Does that bring a picture to your mind? And I felt like I was one of the only ones noticing it. Maybe our youth just felt they were being friendly, and they certainly didn't complain to me about the people or their zealousness. Our little girls attached to some of the youth and sponsors quickly for the rest of the week in fact. But something bothered me about the way they were looking at them. And maybe it was because I've been on trips like it before and the look has been in my own eyes. Like you feel better about yourself after you interact with one of "them" and you gave them a compliment and changed their life. It's probably the way I looked at people coming into the food pantry in NYC or the VBS we did in Mexico. I wish someone could have told me what it would have meant to those people for me to have just treated them like a normal human being and asked them meaningful questions about themselves...what it would have meant to have truly cared instead of performing a sociological experiment upon them. Don't get me wrong; this group did AWESOME things for Vera Lloyd, and I believe they really did care. They sweated all day long every day as they put in all the great new things on campus and they did it without complaining. That's real love for sure. The work they accomplished during the day will bless our youth and organization for years to come, and the girls are so excited to use the new things we now have. But I guess I saw for the first time the attitude, the one we teach and teach and teach to avoid on these trips...the one I have carried myself. And I thanked God for the opportunity to be on the recieving end for the first time in my life. Because I'm not sure I'll ever be able to have that look in my eye again.
Why We Teach: "Study their culture; don't bring your culture in. You become a part of what God is doing among them."
I would say about 70% of the youth at Vera Lloyd are African American. About 30% are white. And then we have some other races and cultures mixed in. Needless to say, this youth ministry was very similiar to the one we just came from at First Covenant. Upper-middle class white culture. And what they did was bring their white youth group culture in for us to "enjoy." We played the white youth group music and games, we listened to talks that were written for Christian-y kids who understand the lingo. We didn't dance or sway or find out what the questions were on the hearts of the kids in the room who didn't know the music or enjoy the games or understand the Christianese. I understood and felt comfortable in the culture they brought to us, so as an individual, it didn't bother me at all. However, I was frustrated as I sang and as I listened because I knew our kids were not connecting. I knew there was a lot of wasted energy being poured into the room with only the best of intentions. I wonder what transformation could have happened had someone studied the culture of Vera Lloyd and the kids we have here before planning the program. I wonder if more than just good feelings and fun times could have been produced.
Why We Teach: "Don't take pictures the first few days. And when you do, ask for permission."
The lady I noticed on the very first night of camp had a camera in her hand the first time I saw her. She snapped pictures throughout the entire first worship session as she stood on a ladder in the back of the room, and as the Vera Lloyd kids stood motionless trying to feel out this new environment. After the worship session, she was snapping pictures of kids and houseparents and all kinds of things. For the first time, I feel like I fully understood why we teach things like this in mission training...why its rude to take pictures of people you don't even know. Why its weird to take pictures as soon as people arrive. What an invasion it feels like. And what a project it makes of the people you are supposedly serving. Just so you can take home a picture of "them." And the intentions you think are hidden (the ones I have had before on so many mission trips) are in actuality so apparent to the onlookers. I know our girls would have loved to have had their picture taken with one of the students or sponsors they really connected with and been given a copy of it to keep...on the third or fourth day. But instead, their faces became peices of puzzles snapped for the scrapbook of "the people we helped"..."the people we served"..."the people who are better off now because of us."
What an experience for me to be on the recieving end of mission. A new one for sure...it was strange to say the least. In fact, it was not even quite a year ago that I was on a mission team very similiar to theirs for the same reasons and purposes. When we entered the gym with our girls the first night for "camp," I couldn't place my feelings. I loved that this group was here, and there was some awesome teens on the trip as well as some incredible youth pastors and sponsors that I enjoyed getting to know. We were even able to host a portion of the group in our home one night for dinner and a game of Apples to Apples, which we all really enjoyed.
However, the reasons behind so many of the "lessons" I have taught in mission trainings before was illuminated before my eyes by having the group here, and I was able to learn a ton from my new role in their mission.
Why We Teach: "Mission must be about God and what He wants to do through His people and not about you and what you are bringing to change their lives. It must be about selfless, true love and not anything manufactured that turns people into projects."
I remember the first lady I noticed when we walked in. She was more than excited to be on this mission trip and was exploding with something, yet later I could not decide what it was. She flashed gigantic smiles, animated greetings, and huge hugs to all the children she had never met. She was hopping around and dancing and singing, and we were at the very least, overwhelmed. Everyone was friendly. In fact, they were more than friendly. They were zealous (perhaps overly) about meeting each youth (the one's they had heard all about - you know, who have a harder life than them, who are away from their family right now, who have "nothing," etc.) and there was a distinct look in so many of their eyes. I've been chewing all week on words to describe the look and the best I have come up with is this: self-fulfilling pity? Does that bring a picture to your mind? And I felt like I was one of the only ones noticing it. Maybe our youth just felt they were being friendly, and they certainly didn't complain to me about the people or their zealousness. Our little girls attached to some of the youth and sponsors quickly for the rest of the week in fact. But something bothered me about the way they were looking at them. And maybe it was because I've been on trips like it before and the look has been in my own eyes. Like you feel better about yourself after you interact with one of "them" and you gave them a compliment and changed their life. It's probably the way I looked at people coming into the food pantry in NYC or the VBS we did in Mexico. I wish someone could have told me what it would have meant to those people for me to have just treated them like a normal human being and asked them meaningful questions about themselves...what it would have meant to have truly cared instead of performing a sociological experiment upon them. Don't get me wrong; this group did AWESOME things for Vera Lloyd, and I believe they really did care. They sweated all day long every day as they put in all the great new things on campus and they did it without complaining. That's real love for sure. The work they accomplished during the day will bless our youth and organization for years to come, and the girls are so excited to use the new things we now have. But I guess I saw for the first time the attitude, the one we teach and teach and teach to avoid on these trips...the one I have carried myself. And I thanked God for the opportunity to be on the recieving end for the first time in my life. Because I'm not sure I'll ever be able to have that look in my eye again.
Why We Teach: "Study their culture; don't bring your culture in. You become a part of what God is doing among them."
I would say about 70% of the youth at Vera Lloyd are African American. About 30% are white. And then we have some other races and cultures mixed in. Needless to say, this youth ministry was very similiar to the one we just came from at First Covenant. Upper-middle class white culture. And what they did was bring their white youth group culture in for us to "enjoy." We played the white youth group music and games, we listened to talks that were written for Christian-y kids who understand the lingo. We didn't dance or sway or find out what the questions were on the hearts of the kids in the room who didn't know the music or enjoy the games or understand the Christianese. I understood and felt comfortable in the culture they brought to us, so as an individual, it didn't bother me at all. However, I was frustrated as I sang and as I listened because I knew our kids were not connecting. I knew there was a lot of wasted energy being poured into the room with only the best of intentions. I wonder what transformation could have happened had someone studied the culture of Vera Lloyd and the kids we have here before planning the program. I wonder if more than just good feelings and fun times could have been produced.
Why We Teach: "Don't take pictures the first few days. And when you do, ask for permission."
The lady I noticed on the very first night of camp had a camera in her hand the first time I saw her. She snapped pictures throughout the entire first worship session as she stood on a ladder in the back of the room, and as the Vera Lloyd kids stood motionless trying to feel out this new environment. After the worship session, she was snapping pictures of kids and houseparents and all kinds of things. For the first time, I feel like I fully understood why we teach things like this in mission training...why its rude to take pictures of people you don't even know. Why its weird to take pictures as soon as people arrive. What an invasion it feels like. And what a project it makes of the people you are supposedly serving. Just so you can take home a picture of "them." And the intentions you think are hidden (the ones I have had before on so many mission trips) are in actuality so apparent to the onlookers. I know our girls would have loved to have had their picture taken with one of the students or sponsors they really connected with and been given a copy of it to keep...on the third or fourth day. But instead, their faces became peices of puzzles snapped for the scrapbook of "the people we helped"..."the people we served"..."the people who are better off now because of us."
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