Missions as a way of a Life: A couple weeks out West

I know I'm technically supposed to be resting.  I promise, I am doing less, but I've also been taking opportunities as they come, whether that's leading worship for the Howard’s small group, recording some songs, or facilitating a discussion group and playing frisbee at Jr. High youth group.  It was great seeing old friends at Riverview and El Camino Real, the bilingual church that we partner with to go to Mexico every summer.

Presenting the Keys to the Loft House

I also jumped at the opportunity to go to Mexico again, although I'd just been “back” for two weeks.  Felipe, a YWAM staffer, was a young pastor of Pastor Jenny's little church that we worked with in Ensenada during the 8 summer mission trips I did there during high school and college.  Now Felipe is working with an orphanage in Rosarito, where he and his Canadian wife live with an older couple and 16 girls.  I was able to help out with a school they're building for the girls and other local kids who can't afford the local public schools.  The next day I helped construct a "loft" house, a pre-fabricated house that Riverview EFC puts into pieces in California and then drives down to Ensenada and puts together for needy families.

Me and Luis

I didn't go down to Ensenada with a specific agenda, except to make myself available for ministry and to catch up with Luis, a good friend and a Mexican teen who's been a part of our ministry team the last four summers.  Pastor Jenny tried to recruit me as a youth pastor the last time I was there, but I wasn't thinking that was where I'm supposed to be, but I thought I might should follow up.  Guess what?  For about $30 in transport and $30 in food, I did a five-day "missions" trip.  I had no plan, just a couple connections.  Everything was relational.  Glory to God!

More Loft House Pics

So after the loft house I tell Pastor Jenny "Hey, I'll be here at the service tomorrow, use me how you like." And she's like "Okay, you're preaching."  So I did, modifying the sermon I gave at Iglesia Cristiana de Paz, sharing my testimony and my Mexico stories, emphasizing that we're all called to missionaries and God wants to be a part of each of our daily lives, the small congregation was really moved, going so far as to give me the offering money (I didn't know what to do but accept it), and everyone there thanked me personally.

After the service one lady came up to Luis and I and proposed that we come and play music during a weekly visit she pays to a Christian rehab center on the edge of town.  So the next day we go over to her place to pick some songs out and she drags us next door to an Old Folks' Home.  I felt kinda bad, as some of the old folks were trying to sleep, (they were pretty out of it awake too) but I think we really encouraged the staff.  Then the next day we went down to the rehab, which was AWESOME.  The teens were really eager to hear and talk to us guys, and I think they really enjoyed the singing as well.  What’s more, I and this lady, Lizabet (so joyful and engaging), got to share some testimony and verses!

Relational ministry is kinda crazy.  It's slow; you end up "wasting" time.  Most volunteering involves a lot of waiting, really.  For relational ministry to work, you can't put too much of an agenda into it.  One of my Mexican friends I was talking to in Ensenada have been hanging out with the local Jehovah's Witnesses.  I was tempted to go in guns blazing, but I realized I didn't really have firm answers, so I had to just point them to a personal relationship with God rather than blindly condemning.

It struck me as I came back to the US, that'd by all practical standards, I'd been on a short-term missions-trip.  It wasn't really my intention, I just wanted to help out and see old friends.  On some level, it's what I do wherever I go.  By short-term missions-trip standards, it wasn't flashy or efficient, and it didn't impact hundreds.  But it got me thinking about the way we live.  About people like Felipe, John, and Lizabeth, whose lives are a "mission," often without the trip.  I think that should be the goal for all of us.