Resolution to “Drinking Games”
Our teams did end up taking liberties with the alcohol offerings. There were a few moments of indiscretion, but nothing overtly offensive occurred. Our primary contact, however, opened up to one of the teammates while out in the community doing ministry and confessed how disappointed he was that our racers were “just like every other young adult…playing drinking games around the world”. He failed to see any relevance to our “ministry” because there was no discernable difference between our racers and, say, his son and friends. It is a contact we had to apologize profusely to and may or may not endorse our ministry in the future.
Knowing what I now know, I would have mandated no alcohol for this month of ministry – the price was just too great.
Implied Authority
One of the ways we work toward safety for our participants out on the field is by following the strict advice of local partners or long-term missionaries in the locations we visit. For the most part, the cultural advice and wisdom from experience has served us quite well. In one instance, however, it may have been too extreme.
Gladys is a Guatemalan matriarch on the eastern coast of Guatemala. She lives in an American style house and enjoys her comforts though still moved to serve the more impoverished areas around where she lives. She graciously offered to host one of our teams for a few weeks, introduce them to the area and facilitate their experience on the Gulf Coast.
Our teams arrived and were welcomed with open arms. Gladys spent time sharing about the community, casting vision for the ministry to do around the area and also the cautions to be aware of. Nothing out of the ordinary to date. She embraced her role as hostess and waited on the team hand and foot. After a few days, however, the service began to feel a little stifling.
The teams, passionate about the area to which they had been sent, were restless and desired to get out into the community as often as possible. Gladys however, had different advice. She began imposing rules about curfews, which areas of town were permissible for them to visit and mandated that she accompany them whenever they left the house (which became less and less frequent given her busy schedule). The teams spent hours and sometimes full days never being allowed to leave the house because Gladys deemed it “unsafe” to do so. The teams took a proactive approach to ask her about the dangers and assure her that they would take extra caution if out on their own. She adamantly refused professing that they were her responsibility and that she would never forgive herself if something happened.
What does the team do?
