What defines mission trips? Love does. A mission trip is all about loving God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength and loving your neighbor as yourself. (Mark 12:30-31). Love is a choice more than a feeling and an action more than a reaction. A mission trip is about living this out and living out the great commission to go and make disciples of all nations. Sometimes it’s hard and sometimes it’s awesome. At the end of the day, a mission trip is alway about love, but what does that look like? These are some of the ways it looks like to love on a mission trip, and a few characteristics of missions.
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Listen to others
One of the ladies told us all about her family. She showed us pictures of her mom, brothers, and sons. Even though I didn’t understand everything she was saying because it was in Spanish, it was so so cool to hear about her life. It is my desire to hear people’s stories and passions.
Hearing other people’s hearts is crucial. Something my squad leader told me in Thailand is to always go into a conversation seeking to understand. This applies to most conversations, whether with people I know or with strangers. I ask people their perspective, even when they aren’t willing to listen to mine. Sometimes listening is just hearing stories, asking about family, and picking up on small details. Listening to people is loving them well. “Be quick to listen and slow to speak” (James 1:19).
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Serve in the little things as well as the big
This morning I woke up and my teammate had made breakfast for my team and I. We had leftover ingredients, so she put together a huge unexpected breakfast for us. She made briskets and gravy, eggs, and coffee and blessed us all. It was such a sweet surprise. She served us and because of her spontaneous generosity we got to share a beautiful breakfast together.
One day, I was standing in line to wash my dish after lunch with the women and kids from Nicaragua and I thought it was silly for all of us to stand in line like that. So I made my way to the front by telling everyone I wanted to wash their dishes in my broken Spanish. It brought me so much joy to do that. On the flip side letting other people wash my dishes is a really sweet thing.
When I think about characteristics of a mission trip, serving in the little things is huge. If I serve in the little things, then I am doing the things no one else sees, the things I don’t have to do, and/or the things no one else wants to do. Serving in the little things shows the love of Christ, and it sets me up well to serve in the big things. This is what it means to follow His example and wash our friend’s feet. (John 13).
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Talk despite language barriers
Since I don’t speak Spanish very well, my tendency is to shut down and not say anything when I don’t know how to say it. However, that is not going to get me anywhere. The other day my teammate sat with me and two of the teenage girls as we made paper boxes. This teammate speaks even less Spanish than me because she took French in High School, still she boldly created conversation. It was really cool. Neither of us knew how to say what we wanted to in Spanish, but with my teammate’s boldness and my handy dandy Spanish dictionary app we were able to stumble through a conversation. There was a lot of laughter. Without communication there is no connection. Sometimes in order to communicate well, I need a translator, but then sometimes there is no translator, and I have therefore learned to be both bold and patient.
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Seek after God even when it sucks
Sometimes being away from home sucks. It can be hard, not to mention exhausting, to be a missionary. The stories of the people I meet break my heart, and I wish I could do more for them somehow. All of these things weight on my heart, and despite my initial impression, it is not always easy to seek after God on a mission trip. I feel as though I’m wandering around in the wilderness with Moses and the Israelites. In this wilderness, God is shaping me. He is showing me how to love well, and how to persist. How to keep running the race set out before me, even when I don’t feel like it. Part of missions is to keep seeking after God when it sucks.
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Be willing to look like a fool
The other day, the women showed us their favorite music from Nicaragua and we had a dance party. The women were so happy to share something that they loved from their culture with us and with each other. At the end I wanted to thank the women for sharing that with us and express that goofing off and having fun together like that is a part of Jesus’s love. I tried to say this in Spanish, but I stumbled over my words and made a fool of myself. Still, I’m glad I the step to speak up in Spanish rather than keeping silent, because even though I sounded ridiculous, I tried. When you don’t know the language, culture, or money you are going to look a little foolish sometimes. If you want to serve others, you are going to embarrass yourself from time to time, but that’s all part of growing.
There are a lot of ways to love and serve God and others, these are just a few big ways to love God and others in missions. They are things that I have come to see define missions based on some of the experiences I have had over the last five months. In the end, mission trips are so simple. A mission trip is simply loving God and loving others well as I go. Mission trips involve a lot of going and listening as well as sharing, service in small things as well as big, adapting to culture, seeking after God when it’s hard, and humility.
