By Erin Erickson
“All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had…and God’s grace was so powerfully at work in them all…” Acts 4:32-33
Mission trips leave a mark on you. It was years ago during my internship as a youth leader that one such imprint occurred for me and our students while on a mission trip to Merida, Mexico. Prior to this trip, we had arranged many successful outreach events for the students. We raked leaves for widows, visited the elderly, fed the homeless at a shelter in Minneapolis, and ran a clothing drive. These experiences inspired the students but didn’t help them to own their faith. It was time to try something new: a youth international mission trip.
I’ll admit that at the start of the trip our relationships within the group were pretty shallow, but it didn’t take long before God began to change us. The transformation started about two days in. We were painting the orphanage and creating a play yard for the kids, and the conditions were tough. The sun was blazing, we were dusty, and we seemingly couldn’t drink enough water. We decided to take a rest on the roof and hope for a breeze.
One girl refused to go on the roof—she begged us to get down and began to cry. We joined her on the ground and listened as she grieved the memory of her brother who had fallen while rock climbing two years prior. As we remembered him together, God moved among us. The students shared their struggles with faith, peer pressure, self-esteem, bullying, friendships, family, and even a fight with leukemia.
As the days went on we laid down our differences and let the bond of Christ weld us together. We laughed as we pulled weeds, competed for who could get the dirtiest, shared our possessions, filled each other’s water bottles, and dropped our shovels to pray. We hugged more, laughed more, shared more, and gave more.
On the last day, the orphanage was a lovely shade of pink. The yard was free of overgrowth, floors were swept, doors installed, and bunk beds assembled. The children had a good and safe place to live.
Missions is different than outreach. Like the first disciples, we need to leave the familiarity of our hometown and experience Jesus together, often through the eyes of another culture. Local outreach is important, but when you drop your net of security to follow Jesus, you have opened yourself up to God in a way that abandons self. I pray God gives you the courage to load a group of students on an airplane in order to serve and grow in Him. You never know what will come of it—you can’t know—until you follow the call and go.
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Starting in 2017, you can take your team to Belize, Alaska, or England with Thirst Missions. As always we will partner closely with local churches and ministries, doing vital, boots-on-the-ground work. We’re excited for you to join us! For more information on going with Thirst Missions, visit our webpage or email us. We’ll be happy to help.
Erin Erickson is a missions consultant at Thirst Missions. When not at work you can find her and her husband and kids hauling a camping trailer through the Badlands.
