A few days ago I came back home to Iowa after spending 2 semesters of school in Minnesota.. Over the past couple of days I’ve encountered people from my home church and several others, mostly just random people I hardly ever see, such as my eye doctor (thats ironic?). Everybody seems to have one common question for me, “What are you doing this Summer?” I proceed and say that I will be going to South Africa on a Mission trip. Of course this brings on a load of questions. The most popular question is “What are you going to be doing?” I tell them all that I have learned from the AIM trip information page and share with them the experiences I have been blessed with through other mission work. The responses I’ve got have varied, but one in particular struck me. It was the receptionist at the eye doctors. She said “Thats good for you. It takes a special person to do such a thing, the people of Africa need your help.” First their is at least 3 things troubling with that sentence but I dont want to turn this into a sermon. Second the thing that bothers me the most is the last part, “the people of Africa need your help.” Yes parts of Africa are struggling with AIDS, starvation, and poverty and it’s great to address these issues, but there’s more to our purpose in South Africa. If we are to solely bring help, why are we going? Our team should take all of the funds raised, $4600 per person and send it to South Africa. Thats alot of money that could go towards AIDS relief and other struggles. But there’s more to our purpose in South Africa. The people of South Africa need something more than our help, they need hope! Our purpose is to bring the hope of Jesus Christ and his redeeming powers to the nations. My prayer is that we remember in all our actions we offer the hope of our savior and that our actions of help are not empty but rather full of hope and love.
I realized today that next time Im asked, “What are you going to be doing?” I can skip all the details and simply reply “Sharing the hope found in Jesus.”
AMEN AMEN AMEN AMEN AMEN brother. that was good .That was encouraging. i can’t wait . Those kids do need the hope of Jesus so bad, as do all children AND ADULTS.
Kyle, I FULLY relate to this, as Im sure everyone else too…I feel like mission work has become the new thing in today’s American culture, especially with AIDS, and its frustrating to tell people sometimes when their response is “good for you”, when its not about me in the first place. It’s neat that you wrote this bc I almost wrote a blog about the same thing!
Kyle, I fully can relate with you on this too. I can’t stand it when someone says “good for you” because it’s not about me, I am just being a vessel that God can use. When people ask what we are going to be doing it’s like they want to know everything and I’m like I don’t know what God has in store, I know ministries that we are able to help with, and I say the most important thing is that we are spreading God’s Word and seeing lives changed by God’s hand. Thank you for sharing your heart with us…I think we can all relate in some way to this!
The easiest way to answer this question (“What will you be doing this summer?”) is “Whatever God asks of me.”
Kyle, I have been working through the same thoughts as I tell people about going to Africa this summer. Christ should be our aim in all that we do. That is something I pray that our team realizes as a whole as we embark on this adventure. The things of this world will fade… and the people we are going to serve need the work of Jesus Christ forgiving their sins more than anything we have to offer them.
When our goal is to make Christ known, then all the gifts of service that we do will fall perfectly into place. Praise God for the abundant grace that He extends to us as we broken vessels seek to tell others about Jesus. We need that grace everyday!