Bringing a team on a Mission Discovery project is loaded with benefits. But the one that may go unnoticed. Every day there are 11 of us full-time staff here at Mission Discovery along with our 9 partner field workers, working to make your week the best possible experience for your team. From ordering building supplies to knowing where the nearest emergency facilities are. From having a backup plan in the event of rain to having extra water on hand with a team accidentally spills the 10 gallons on their site at 8 am that morning. No detail goes without deep consideration.
When I was a youth leader at Hendersonville Chapel in Hendersonville, TN and the years I was on Youth for Christ staff here in Nashville, TN, I did the planning for most of the mission trips planned. The two most memorable projects were in Belize, Central America and in San Pedro Sula, Honduras. In Belize, I assisted YFC director Bill McDowell with construction and outreach projects through an arm of YFC called Project Serve. We built a classroom at a Salvation Army church and lead a youth outreach at the civic auditorium there in Belize. I'll never forget the long lists of details for preparing for that project, then implementing it on the ground in Belize City. I think that Bill and I always felt like were were playing catch-up. Hopefully none of the participants noticed, but it had to be evident that we were in over our heads on the construction project and yet felt prepared when over one thousand showed up for the youth event at the civic center.
In contrast, Honduras afforded me the opportunity to take Bill's role as a leader of the project near San Pedro Sula in a community known as Higito. The team of adults was much different than the team of high school students I'd been with in Belize City, Belize. The adults were actually more childlike (kind word for childish) in there performance often seeking some kind of impossible creature comfort during the work day. Questions like, "Can you pick me up a Diet Dr. Pepper when you go into town?" "I forgot my Sholes Ice Pack...will you be passing a pharmacy to pick me up another?" Needless you say this community had never heard of the word "Diet" most of the community lived on $1 a day. I don't think Higito, Honduras was on the Dr. Pepper marketing team planning board!
Still here at Mission Discovery we find that each project brings unique challenges and rewards. Challenges that range from a simple supply need to team personality issues. But just like those projects I led as a youth pastor years ago, each day something falls apart on a short term experience. The good thing about Mission Discovery leading a project is that the youth leader no longer has to concern himself/herself with what's falling apart, we have it under control. The youth leader is free instead to focus on the team's experience, ministry and know that there is a plan to make "this day" successful.
I was recently back stage at the Grand Ole Opry at the invitation of Nora Lee Allen, a backup singer for the Opry. The beauty of the Grand Ole Opry is that it is actually a live radio show. In other words there is an audience, but it was never meant for television. So what you get is a stage with no curtain. The audience can see back stage. While the performer, Vince Gill, was on stage there were all kinds of things going on back stage. Everyones function back stage was making it possible for Vince to sing his hear out and prepare for the next act, Diamond Rio.
We believe strongly that your team is the next "act" to perform so to speak on the mission field. Our responsibility as Mission Discovery staff is to work "back stage" to open the door of opportunity for you and your group to communicate God's love through simple and complex acts of service and to prepare you to effectively hear the hearts of some of the neediest people in the world. I believe in your ability to be used by God to impact the world and see it change before your eyes as children and adults trust Christ. I also believe in the abilities of the poor to reach into your heart and draw you closer to Him.
This October I will be "back stage" in Montego Bay, Jamaica with a team of 40 adults from all over the U.S. and England. They will serve the poorest of the poor on the not-so-beaten-paths of Montego Bay sharing God's love wherever they go. Would you join me? How could you say no?
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