Day 13: Mongolia
When most people hear “mission trip” one immediately thinks of mission trips in youth group. The ones where you go to another state and help restore a house, work in a food shelter, or help run a couple of VBS classes. At least this was my view on mission trips as a teenage, which isn’t a bad view, those trips are what began my passion for doing missions.
It has been twelve days in Mongolia and if you were to ask any of my teammates what we have been up to, it would be hard to give you the answer that most people want to hear. A typical day on the race for my team has looked like; doing daily devotions at 9 as a team then half the team moves on to teaching English to youth in our church congregation while the rest of the team works on laundry, cleaning, or shopping for groceries. Around 2, after the youth are done with English class we come back together and ask God what to do next. Sometimes it is walking around the city and praying for opportunities to share God with people and other times it might be people individually, spending time with God in the afternoon. Our team has been challenged to understand what missions can look like and how we expect to see the results in the community at large.
I decided to look up what the definition on a “mission trip” was and this is the definition I found. Mission trips are a great personal journey as well as an important necessity to the communities of other countries where people are in great need. My favorite part about this definition is in the first portion. Mission trips are meant to be a personal journey. As I sit on this phrase I realize even more how important it is to take time to go on a personal journey. In this month my hope is to grow in deeper connection with my Father. To take time in my day and find ways to connect with God. Lately that has looked like taking walks through town and diving into scripture. A personal journey will take place when you discipline yourself to fill the slow moments during the day with God.
It’s easy for me to look at my day and feel like I accomplished little but God isn’t asking to see results. He is asking us to stay faithful in the small things so that we are ready to say YES to the harder things. The race is what I choose to make it. I can sit around and tell myself that I am doing nothing because results aren’t happening. But that isn’t the true nature of a mission trip. Jesus’s ministry was simple love people and love God. The two go hand in hand.
