A week ago, I got back from my mission trip to Guyana. It would be hard to minimize my experience to a single blog post, but I'm going to try.People always ask me, "What did you do?" when I come back from a mission trip. We spent five days painting a community outreach center. The building is used to run a children's feeding program for underpriveleged kids. It's also used for youth and children's church activities, and they hope to use it as a gathering place for community events. For example, they used it to host the recent Valentine's dance. We also held two days of Bible school. What I didn't realize at the time was that more than 100 of the kids who came did not go to the church where we held Bible school. No doubt, some of those kids weren't from Christian homes, so that was an incredible opportunity to reach out in love to them and teach them about God. Lastly, one of the other team members and I held two sessions of Sunday school teacher training. Teachers from 8 different churches came, and as a result, I think those churches will network to plan more lessons together instead of doing it alone.
One of the big lessons God taught me in Guyana was what mission is. Mission is a mindset of sharing God's love with everyone you meet. So, the question I would love people to ask
me about my trip is, "Who did you meet?" There was Andella, the youth and mission coordinator for the Methodist Church in Guyana. She and I instantly connected and talked about ways we could help each other minister to the youth in Guyana. Sister Ross, Sister Edith, and Sister Merlyn showed up faithfully everyday at the worksite to help paint and clean. There were the people who lost their sense of security in their own country because of recent random shootings. We met several people who we would call poor but who I learned were rich in the Spirit. A group of young children always stopped by the worksite after school to see what was going on and to play with us. And there were the four little girls, Rosalina, Selene, Kaneisha, and Baby who would come by our house after work just to get a hug.
me about my trip is, "Who did you meet?" There was Andella, the youth and mission coordinator for the Methodist Church in Guyana. She and I instantly connected and talked about ways we could help each other minister to the youth in Guyana. Sister Ross, Sister Edith, and Sister Merlyn showed up faithfully everyday at the worksite to help paint and clean. There were the people who lost their sense of security in their own country because of recent random shootings. We met several people who we would call poor but who I learned were rich in the Spirit. A group of young children always stopped by the worksite after school to see what was going on and to play with us. And there were the four little girls, Rosalina, Selene, Kaneisha, and Baby who would come by our house after work just to get a hug.My heart has been changed because God gave me the opportunity to love complete strangers. The thing is . . . I have the opportunity to offer the presence and love of Christ to others every day. Perhaps that's why coming back to the OBX feels like I'm still in the mission field.
