For the past month, I have been on a mission trip in Scotland with AIM. I led a group of high school students from all over the country (ages 15-19) with my co-leader, Joshua. Although I was primarily responsible for teaching, I also learned a great deal about myself and ministry in first world countries. I can see now how God not only used me to impact the lives of my students, but also brought me there to prepare me for the World Race in January.
We were staying at The Stanley House–a YWAM base in Paisley, Scotland with 24 other Christ followers (36 including us). The Stanley House is used as a DTS (Discipleship training School) base, so about 10 of the people living there were college students enrolled in their program. The other people were interns and staff members.
The Stanley House
Although I’ve been to college and lived in community before, this was the first time I had actually been with the same 36 people every day for that length of time. I am one who likes my personal space and quiet time. Unfortunately for me, alone time was pretty much not an option on this trip. I probably had a total of 2-3 hours of personal time in three weeks! Although that was very difficult for me, it taught me a lot about living in community. On the World Race, we will be spending the majority of our time with the same 5-7 people for 11 months. THAT is going to be a challenge!! But I think after this trip, God has really prepared my heart to dive into community living. It is definitely a great way to grow spiritually and have constant accountability.
I didn’t really know what to expect when I agreed to lead a group of students to Scotland. Originally I wanted to go to Cameroon, Africa and play with orphans and live in tents, but that trip got cancelled. I prayed that God would send me “To the place with the greatest need”, so when I got the call from AIM asking me to go to Scotland, I was quite puzzled. I thought to myself, “Scotland? The greatest need? He’s got to be kidding…” I struggled with the idea of going on a mission trip to Scotland for quite a while. I mean yah, I figured I would go there eventually… like … for my 50 year anniversary or something, but a mission trip? If I were to be completely honest, I would say I was still struggling with it up to the point of training camp (one week before the trip). But over that week, God slowly began to break my heart and my overly strong will to submit to his plan for me.
When I got into Scotland and began working with the people, it became clear why God had sent me there. The city of Paisley is quite stunning with its beautiful architecture and historical tenor, but the collective attitude among the people for their city was disdain and indifference. Whenever we would tell people we were visiting from the States they would reply, “Why would you come to Paisley!?” On One of the first days in Scotland, our team took a prayer walk through the city. As I stood by the river overlooking a beautiful cathedral, I could sense God’s presence all around me. It wasn’t until I observed the people that God’s presence seemed to fade. They had an emptiness in their eyes as if they had been searching for something for so long and never found it. At that moment I knew that “The Greatest Need” was right there, in Paisley, Scotland.
God began to break my heart for His people. For the first time in my life, I began to see just how essential missionaries are in these first world countries. Yes, people are starving in Africa and need Jesus, but people in Paisley, Scotland need Jesus just as bad, if not more. I say “If not more” because there is no attention on Paisley, Scotland. No one says “Wow, I really think I need to pray for the people in Scotland right now.” Why? Because we don’t think of them as “needing” anything. We think of the orphans on television with bloated bellies and no shoes. And that breaks our hearts so we want to do something about it. Of course–There is nothing wrong with that! We are going to Africa for three months on my race and I’m sooo excited to get to go. But we can’t forget about the people who are already comfortable, because they need Jesus too. So what I’ve learned through all this is, the greatest need is where God is forgotten about and no one seems to notice.
