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Well that gives you a little
snapshot. We did more than just eat! (Ha Ha) And yes I do like
crawfish! (Ha Ha) This was just a little bit of a slide show that was
put together from over 600 slides or pictures that were taken by many
folks; and it was produced by one of the children of one of the people
who went down. Paul Hjellming was the one that put this together. So I
want to publicly just thank him for the work to put that together for us
today.
Well that’s what we’re here to do
today. We’re here to talk a little bit about missions and what it means
for us and how we can be a part of it and make a difference in the
world. And as I was thinking about how to get into that this day, I
started reading a book called The Dangerous Act of Worship by a guy by
the name of Mark Labberton. He is the Senior Pastor at First
Presbyterian Church in Berkeley California. As I began to read the
book, he began to talk about worship as being more than just what we are
doing right now, gathering for services; it is more than prayer; it is
more than preaching. He began to make the point that worship
encompasses all of our life and it should be a part of everything that
we do. When we begin to take that kind of a mindset towards worship, he
says the following, “When we do that” he says “our lives are on the way
to being turned inside out. Every dimension of self-centered living
becomes endangered as we come to share God’s self-giving heart.” He
then goes on to say that “part of worship also includes alleviating
suffering and injustice.” And he says that “if that is what we are to
be about”, he says “the church in the U.S. for the most part has fallen
asleep. We’ve forgotten what God’s heart is for the world and for His
purposes.” And I’m just starting this book and as I’m reading that,
it’s beginning to click in my mind because I’m going “Aha! Short-term
mission trips are one of the ways I think God can wake us up.” So that
is what we want to talk about today. It wakes us up to what God wants
to do in the world. So that’s what we’re going to do as we think about
where we’re going today and I think that leads into our scripture. It
is a fairly famous scripture and it comes from Jeremiah.
Jeremiah 29:11
“For surely I know the plans I have
for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for your harm, to
give you a future with hope.”
That’s what we want to try to do
today is probably accomplish a couple of things. One is to take a look
at our experience in Gulfport and how was it? What did we learn? What
are we doing as a result of that? And then to be thinking about going
forward, what can short-term mission trips do for us as we go forward?
We have more trips coming and we will talk some more about that as we
get into our day. But I want to start by taking a look at these 29
people. About a month ago these 29 people, including me, representing
five different churches, all went down to Gulfport, Mississippi for a
week. In that time you saw from the video that we worked on houses. We
did primarily sheet rock; we built a playground, a shed; we worked at a
kitchen that served food to the homeless as well as the workers. In
that time we did a little calculating at the end of our week and we said
we figured we spent about a thousand hours working for the pieces that
were needed down there as well as supporting the work. To give you an
idea of what that is, that’s about one-half year’s worth of work for one
person working forty hours a week. That’s a pretty tremendous thing to
happen in the course of just seven days. Despite all of that work there
is still tons to do. There are still people living in FEMA trailers
that have been there since Katrina, over eighteen months, still waiting
for their houses to be rebuilt so that they can kind of get on with
life.
One of the other things that was very
startling for me is I heard down there that all the work that is taking
place in the private sector from New Orleans all the way through down
the coast of Alabama, ninety percent of that work is being done by
church groups. That is a significant statement, I think; a significant
statement to who we are, and what God has for us to be about in the
world. With that then I want to begin to kind of think about and allow
you to hear some of the stories, because it is important for us to share
the stories. I want to invite Barb Tenney and her sister, Chris Bryant,
to come up here. Come on up here, girls. They are sisters. I won’t
tell you what they were called growing up, but they are already doing
it. I’m going to give this to you guys. We just want to kind of talk
to them a little bit. Girls thank you for coming. I appreciate it. To
let you know, obviously, Barb is a member here. Her sister Chris is a
member at Colonial Church of Edina. So she’s come and she’s spending
the morning with us; so thank you for being here, Chris. We appreciate
that very much. Now, this was probably a new experience. This was your
first trip for you, wasn’t it?
Barb and Chris: Right
Buck: Why? Why did you go?
Barb: Well, I felt God’s nudging in
my heart, as I have heard people talk about Faith mission trips and then
listening to the Nolans from last summer talk about being down in
Mississippi; and then another friend, Julie Simondet, said “Let’s go.”
So I told Chrissy and God’s timing was right.
Chris: Dan (my husband) and I had
been to the Gulf coast area just months before Katrina and so when we
heard when the storm happened, it was on my mind or in the back of my
head that, “Maybe you could help.” But of course all those other little
voices were saying “No, you can’t. There’s nothing you can do to
help.” So when Barbie mentioned it to me that Faith was having the
mission trip, I was very interested. Then her enthusiasm sparked my
enthusiasm and I went to the informational meetings and there was a way
for me to go.
Buck: Very good. Very good. Well
Barb I mean both of you, first experience, going into a big unknown,
what kind of reservations did you have as you began to kind of project,
“I’m going down there and I’m going to do something (whatever that
something might be)”?
Barb: That something was scary
because that was too unknown and I don’t have any skills in building
houses and the little voice said “Well what can you do? What can you
do?” But again, talking to people who’d been there just said, “There
are always things to be done. Come. Just come. Any hands are great.”
So with the enthusiasm and encouragement of friends right here in Faith
I took the leap and God’s push, I think, too.
Buck: Good. I appreciate that.
Well, Chrissy, tell us a little bit, I mean, you’ve been down there,
you’ve been back, we’ve been back about a month or so. Tell us how you
have changed, maybe how your life has changed as a result of your
experience at Gulfport.
Chris: Well one of the ways is
having gone to those informational meetings, people gave testimony to
the fact of the unbelievable joy that comes from having given and
received. I came home with that unbelievable joy. It’s hard to even
explain. Another result, a personal change, is that when one of our
team members, Cheryl, from Hope, sent out an all call to us for some
construction help and other help with a project that their church is
undertaking, I only waited for two days before I signed on. And one
other wonderful change, those people at the informational meeting, 29 of
them, they’re all my friends.
Buck: Very good. Very good. Barb,
for you?
Barb: I was just going to say I
think, and I kind of said it a little bit before too, just taking that
one small step to take a risk, to step out and go someplace outside the
church walls of Faith to lend a hand to someone else. So I’m just
practicing trusting God even more and keep practicing.
Buck: Very good. Very good. Well,
tell us a little bit about something that stands out for you, either one
of you can go first. Tell us about an experience.
Chris: One of the volunteer
activities that Barbie and I took on, there was all kinds of
opportunities for other things besides construction, and one of the ones
that we did was we volunteered at an after school tutoring program.
They actually bussed kids over to the local Baptist church and twice a
week there was academic tutoring and one day a week there was spiritual
mentoring. So they covered the bases with these kids. The two girls
that ran the program were interns who had given a year of their time to
the Presbytery and were using their time and talents. One of their
missions was to run this after school program. Barbie and I were
privileged to work with those wonderful little energetic kids and to see
the wonderful program that these girls had developed and were
coordinating.
Barb: Another great thing that we
got to do, you saw a picture up there of God’s Katrina Kitchen, it is a
huge tent-like structure down by the ocean. There’s a huge cross that
stands in front that says God’s power at work here and God supplies.
And it truly was seeing faith in action and a faith building thing for
us because these people, these volunteers, depend totally on God to
supply the food to serve at least two to three hundred people every
meal, three times a day, six days a week. We went there and our mouths
dropped open at the joy-filled atmosphere and the fun that we had with
all these other volunteers that we’d never met before. The people who
ran it were just enthusiastic and never ruffled. And we were stirring
big pots of chili, like we were in the Army, and it took both Chrissy
and I to do it. But we said “How do you do this?” And they just said
“God supplies and He brings in the volunteers.” They have been doing
this, running this, since the day after the storm. It is amazing. They
walk outside the door and bless, always before every meal, bless the
people and bless the food. We got to participate in that blessing, step
out and do that. That was huge. Then as the people came in to be
served, they blessed us. It was a faith builder.
Buck: Thank you girls. I appreciate
that very much ladies. I appreciate that. Give them a hand. Thank
you.
You know one of the things that
happen on mission trips is that community and there was a real community
spirit and a bonding that happens not only on this trip but for anytime
you go on a short-term mission trip. That’s one of the benefits that
always happen. I should also mention that all the activities that we
were taking part in, apart from the kitchen experience, were
underwritten and supported by the Presbyterian Disaster Relief Fund
which is a denominational funding base that feeds money into the Gulf
coast. They’re working with the Presbytery of Mississippi to do a lot
of the work that we were doing. So I just want to throw that out for
you as well.
Another person I want to call up is
Charlie Pickard. Charlie, come on up. Charlie is one of the guys that
have been around here for a while. He’s known to us and he was our
worship leader extraordinaire. He brought his guitar down and Charlie
we thank you for leading us in music. Appreciate that. Now my
understanding is that this was not your first mission trip. Right?
Charlie: Right. I’ve been on, I
think this is my fourth one over the years. I went to Chicago for
Habitat for Humanity with my wife with a group from here. I went to
Kentucky with another group from here for Habitat. I took my family to
Montana to an Indian reservation a few years ago and our whole family
did this same kind of work, some construction and miscellaneous things;
and then this Gulfport trip.
Buck: So why did you pick this
trip? I mean, you have had a lot of experiences, why did you decide to
go to Gulfport?
Charlie: Well, I think mainly it was
a timing thing with my own schedule. I’m a person that kind of needs
momentum to get anywhere, sometimes. It takes me a while to ramp up.
It’s hard for me to squeeze in an afternoon sometimes to do a work
project or a church activity. It’s easier for me to actually just
schedule a whole week that says I’m not doing all these other things I’m
just going to do this. When it looked like it fit in the schedule and
my wife encouraged me to do it, that helped.
Buck: Well you have some experience
with short-term mission trips. What makes them significant for you that
would be maybe helpful for all of us to hear?
Charlie: Part of it relates to what
you began about the book you were reading. I think a lot of the world
and the culture in our society has a bad impression of the church and
they view the church as judgmental and self serving and kind of out of
touch. I think when people have that impression of the church it closes
their ability to be able to hear God’s message at all, certainly through
us. When we participate in these activities I think it says loud and
clear that the church is bigger than that. It is involved in helping
make the world a better place and we’re living out our faith. And I
think when people see that it opens up their hearts to be able to hear
God’s message too, not necessarily that we spoke it in words, but I
think it has an important effect on how the world sees the church and
can relate to that.
Buck: And I’m guessing you go
because you have fun doing it, too.
Charlie: Yeah, if you think I have
lofty reasons to go, I just think it’s really a blast, I mean, to be
part of a kind of a ragtag group like that. It’s like F Troop or the
Bad News Bears or something I mean it’s really fun. Everybody comes
through. It’s not rocket science. There’s something for everybody to
do and it’s all important work. But it’s really easy. It’s a lot of
fun.
Buck: Thank you Charlie. I
appreciate it. Give Charlie a hand.
It is not hard and you go down and
like you’ve heard, you know, “We didn’t know what we could do.” There
is something you can always do. There are ways to begin to learn new
skills. There were a lot of people that did new things that they had
never done before, like putting wall board mud on. Some people had
never done that. That was a good experience for them. So they not only
learned, maybe tried some new things, it kind of pushed them out of
their comfort zone a little bit too and I think that’s a good thing. As
you kind of began to hear, everyone has a different experience, everyone
is changed as a result of going on a short-term mission trip. I think
that’s an important piece because it allows us to kind of step back and
take a little view of God’s larger plan of what He’s doing in the world
and how we might fit into those purposes. That’s what short-term
mission trips I think are about. It allows us to do that. That is
something that I believe this church is learning. I believe Faith
Church is beginning to learn how to do that. Let me show you this.
This is the number of people that have gone on short-term mission trips
starting back in 2001 when I believe two people went to Tecate, Mexico,
all the way through to 2007 and Gulfport. That’s the 29 people that
just went. We also have three more trips planned for 2007. That’s
going to put us off this chart. But that shows you that we are growing
in our understanding of short-term mission trips. I think that’s a very
good thing, that’s a very significant thing.
As I began to think about this and
what it means for us I started thinking about what do short-term mission
trips do for us? What do they bring? And you kind of heard some of
what I am thinking about this morning because I think one of the things
it brings us is an opportunity. An opportunity not only to serve but to
be a witness, as scripture says, to let people know the hope that is
within us. Because when you go on a short-term mission trip you are
stepping out of your culture into another culture. “You’re not from
around here, are you?” “How could you tell?” When you are in another
culture inevitably people are going to be watching you. People within
the churches that you are serving or are a part of are going to be
watching you from that other culture. People outside of the church are
going to be watching you. They’re going to be looking at how you
interact with each other, how you work together, how you laugh together,
how you resolve differences, how you overcome problems together. In
doing that I think they begin to kind of rub elbows with Jesus. They
get to smell, touch and kind of feel what Jesus is like up close.
That’s one of those significant things that can happen on a mission
trip.
I think the other thing that happens
is that we are changed because we are moving out of our habits, our
normal routine. You know, we all are creatures of habit, I think. We
all like to do things the same way. On a mission trip we’re not able to
do that. We have to do things differently. We have to adjust. We have
to kind of go with the flow. I think that’s intentional. Intentional
on God’s part because when that happens it allows God to get our
attention because we are more open to Him. God is able to maybe show us
what He’s about, maybe He’s able to speak more directly to who we are,
what’s going on in our lives. So it’s an opportunity in significant
ways to go on a mission trip.
The other thing I think it does, that
you heard, is it’s a blast. It’s a joy. You know when you are being
used by God there is a good thing because you know you’re doing what God
wants you to do. When you’re doing what God wants you to do, you’re
being obedient, aren’t you? I think that obedience produces joy and,
Lord knows, our world needs more joy. We need more joy. I think
short-term mission trips begin to see that. You could kind of see that
in the interviews couldn’t you, that excitement? We need more joy. And
the other thing that we said, you know, we typically think we’re going
down to care and love the people that we’re going to serve. But what
happens is typically we get more love back than we give. To be able to
see people walk their relatives through their halfway constructed house
and go “This is ours.” To have a granddaughter come in and go “This is
my bedroom.” That’s good stuff. That brings joy. To see the joy in
the faces of the family that the house that was finished that our group
finished last summer was significant. To have thirty people converge on
their house and then just celebrating what God has been doing. That joy
is infectious.
I think God calls us to make a
difference in the world, to bring about His kingdom, or if you will, His
influence in the world. It got me thinking, what would happen if over
the next two years all of us at Faith Church went on a short-term
mission trip? What would happen? As you are thinking about that, I’m
sure some of you are going, “Buck, you know maybe my health isn’t what
it should be, I can’t do the things that I might like to do or used to
do.” But you can still participate. You can still participate by
praying for us, by supporting us like you did with the bake sale a few
weeks ago. You can support us by listening to the stories. That is
significant. But for the rest of us, it does mean go. It does mean
go. As you think about that, what kind of difference would that make in
the world if all of us went on a mission trip over the next two years?
What kind of difference would it make on our lives? We have three more
trips coming up this year, a couple in Tijuana to support the orphanage
that we support down there as well as going back to the Gulf Coast.
What would happen if half of us signed up to go on these trips right
now? That would be a problem that our mission folks would love to
have. They would love to have that because you know what would happen?
We couldn’t handle that many people on these trips. We’d have to add
some more trips. Maybe we would have to add some trips that were family
friendly, so that the whole family could go together from young through
parents. Those of you with children here what would happen if you were
to go and spend a week serving side-by-side with your children? What
kind of difference would that make in your family? What kind of message
would you be sending to your kids? That would be significant. That’s
what we could do. That’s what we should be thinking about. If all of
us went, what kind of a difference would it make to Faith Church? How
would we be a different church if we all went?
So I challenge you. Put it down.
Pray over that. In the next two years take time out to do this, for you
will reap benefits as well as serving the kingdom of God. Almost every
week we pray the Lord’s Prayer and as part of that prayer we say, “Lord
may your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” What we are saying
really is “God we want up there to come down here. Lord make up there
come down here”. I believe that we all believe that prayer when we pray
that. So now here is your opportunity to act on what you pray. Act on
what you pray by being part of a short-term mission trip because that’s
how up there comes down here.
Let me pray for us.
Mighty and holy God, thank you, that
you have called us to do significant things. You have called us to be
your witnesses to the world and that’s what we want to be. Lord so move
in our hearts that we cannot escape your call to serve this world, to be
obedient in our worship of you. Lord thank you for that. Move in our
hearts. By the power of your Spirit may we know what you have for us
and may we be obedient to act on it. In your name. Amen
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