The Eagle Magazine
"Falling Off the Wall"
I know many of you have been on short term mission trips, even more have not, but you've seen the pictures. I've taken hundreds and been in thousands of mission trip photos and I love looking at them or seeing them in a well done presentation. It seems every picture tells a story; from the young nurse in the Philippines evidently glistening with sweat holding an infant that is obviously severely undernourished, to the crowd of a hundred or more kneeling in a Grenada rugby stadium; many of whom are trusting Christ as Saviour, to the thirty American teenagers in the Puerto Rico airport studying the Bible lessons they will soon teach. I see the pictures, but I also know the stories, and even if I don't know them firsthand I can see past the photographs to the lives behind them.
But the truth is that no matter how well done the presentation, how sharp the picture or how real the story, you haven't been there till you've been there. I was thinking about this as I thought what to write in this blog and I considered that pictures don't bring you the smell of the dirt floor, the aroma of the unusual meal cooking in the other room or the odor of the rotten water stagnant in the ponds and puddles all around you. In the photographs you can't feel the gravel road under your feet, the sweat running down your back, the one gentle breeze caught at just the right moment to usher in that feeling of relief from the sweltering heat. Then it dawned on me, that's not really what's missing, because we all have those similar experiences in life to relate to and while watching that video or perusing those pictures we surely can imagine those sights, sounds and feelings.
So I thought of a special night in Costa Rica when a young vibrant nurse knelt down in front of an aging lady of medicine who had spent her physical abilities to the limit serving her Saviour, the young nurse proceeded to remove the dear lady's shoes and wash her feet. The night was silent at first, not one person spoke a word, and then I heard it; sobs and weeping from everyone in that circle were softly sounding through the hot sticky evening. Not one of those workers was exempt; everyone wept that night. I used to tell this story often in my presentation, but I noticed the vast majority of people were completely unmoved...then it hit me...you had to be there; no story, song, video or picture could take you there. After the evening was spent and we were on the bus the next morning headed to the airport, I asked our photographer if she got pictures or video and she said, no, I figured what was happening could not be caught on film. She was right; if you weren't there, you weren't there.
This last trip we made to Honduras was truly amazing, twenty-three saved, over three hundred received medical treatment, preaching through an interpreter again, hearing those who have practically nothing sing of the heavenly riches they own...yes it was tremendous. I'll tell the story, show the videos and pictures and thank everyone who prayed and gave, but the reality of this mission will live only in the hearts of those who experienced it. Now don't get me wrong, we have heartaches, disappointments, struggles and pain on those trips as well.
On our last full day in Honduras, we had a day off and we visited a Spanish Fort built in 1750. It was impressive with a twelve-foot wall all the way around it except in the very back of the fort where water once flowed into a huge moat, there the wall was only six foot high. I walked that twelve-foot wall, climbed down to the six-foot wall and onto the thick grass where once were crocodiles and slimy water. After some time there at the back of the fort, we started back. I started climbing back up the six-foot wall and just as I reached the top, my foot slipped and like Humpty Dumpty, I fell off the wall, with the end result being one broken rib and several bruised. It's been over a week since we got back and I'm still sleeping in the recliner and taking pain medicine. It only hurts when I breathe!
To close, if someone said, we're going on another mission trip to Central America, you can go but if you do you will fall off another six-foot wall. Well, I would still be the first one on the bus and ready to ride, because you haven't been there until you've been there.
P.S. I want everyone to know that God in his infinite wisdom has not called us all to do the same thing. What I love about short term missions, others would hate; and where I receive joy and fulfillment, others would only have discomfort and loneliness. Following God's call on your life is what matters most. Many will never go to the foreign field because they are not called to go. If you're a child of the King, he has a work for you in His kingdom. Find God's will and live there
