Faith

Is Your Mission Trip Worth It?

/ Erin Kirk / 2 Comments

Colorado RockiesOn Saturday night, 20 people gathered at my house to eat, plan and pray about our upcoming  medical mission trip to Africa. After dinner, I asked all of them to write down one thing they are afraid of.

While there were many answers, one stood out (probably because I share it):

Not being useful/productive enough to justify the astonishing expense of taking 20 Texans to Zambia for three weeks.

Shouldn’t we just send the money instead? Isn’t that more effective?

What a wonderfully American way of looking at the world. Unfortunately, throwing money at a problem is a great way of helping “poor people” without admitting our complicity or acknowledging that we too are poor and broken, only in entirely different ways.

And really, how many chicken coops must I build to justify the cost of my presence? Three? Six?

What if God wants me to sit still instead? Can I handle that? What if in my stillness a child with no mother crawls up on my lap? What if I can pray over that baby, washing him in the love of God, which is the only real thing I have anyway.

Is that worth the money?

Over the past six months I’ve gotten to know the members of this team and each meeting I am astonished by the depth of their spiritual wells. We have 20 year-old women saying things like this:

I am going on a Mission Trip to Africa. But when I say this, people often miss the impact this trip has had on my life. God has taught me that with an open heart, He will change my world. He has taught me to rely solely on Him for this mission…There is so much I feel lost on and out of control and helpless, but at the same time – I KNOW I am meant to go on this mission. I just have no idea what God has for me on the other side. – Khaliah

 

Everybody on this trip “knows” they are meant to go, even though many, like me, don’t understand why. Is it really to clean wounds or fix a chicken coop? Or is it to get on with the business of co-creating with God, making a scorched bit of earth slightly more like it is in heaven?

I was reminded by my teammates on Saturday, people I am growing to love for their candor, that we operate on a different framework – one where it’s acceptable to fly to the other side and bottom of the world for reasons we don’t completely understand.

One team member, Rickey a carpenter, put it like this:

“I don’t care if I don’t build shelves, I do that every day here. If I have to walk down the street in shorts carrying a sign that says I love Jesus, that’s fine. I just want to show his love.”

We leave in a week.

Mary Oliver Monday

/ Erin Kirk / Leave a comment

Are you on the cusp of something shiny and new, that’s equal parts requisite and terrifying?

Me too. Here’s a good reminder from poet Mary Oliver to take a deep breath and go little by little.

The Journey

One day you finally knew Nice, France
what you had to do, and began,
though the voices around you
kept shouting
their bad advice—
though the whole house
began to tremble
and you felt the old tug
 at your ankles.
“Mend my life!”
each voice cried.
But you didn’t stop.
You knew what you had to do,
though the wind pried
with its stiff fingers
at the very foundations,
though their melancholy
was terrible.
It was already late
enough, and a wild night,
and the road full of fallen
branches and stones.
But little by little,
as you left their voices behind,
the stars began to burn
through the sheets of clouds,
and there was a new voice
which you slowly
recognized as your own,
that kept you company
as you strode deeper and deeper
into the world
determined to do
the only thing you could do—
determined to save
the only life you could save.

Living in Wisdom and Love – Meet Gayna

/ Erin Kirk / 2 Comments

On Monday, I asked you, my readers, to think about how and whether you live with intention and purpose. As Bob Goff says, forget what you are capable of doing, what were you made to do?

One response caught in my throat.

Meet Gayna. She’s a born and bred East Texas gal, who works with special needs kids in the local school district. Here is her answer to the question:

Picture 1I have always taught my children that no matter what comes our way that God has our back! I have taught them that everyone has a God-given talent and we are to take that talent and use it for the good in our lives and others. Needless to say this is how I was raised. I have been blessed to possess the talent to work and teach children and youth. My joy has been hearing a child I have worked with for months say his first word, take his first step or just acknowledge that he is loved. Wow!

The emphasis is mine because that is exactly what I’m after here. Love + Service = Joy.

When the Apostle John said, No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us, I think he was dreaming of a girl like Gayna.

Countless kids have tumbled into her orbit and because of who she is, they cycled out with more love, more confidence and more vision for their own lives. What Gayna does is simple, but it’s not easy. She listens to Jesus and does what he says, whether anyone notices or not.

Soon, a few of us are embarking on a new project based on that very simple principle. Don’t just talk about Him, do what he says. Christians and non Christians are welcome to join us because this isn’t about religion, it’s about wisdom and love, and discovering your purpose, so you can live it.

If you want to come along, sign up as an email follower, so we can keep you posted. In the meantime fill in the blank:

If I could, I would love to ________________.