Dear Spring Break Mission Trippers...
A Dose of Humanity for your Travels
Dear Spring Break Mission Tripper,
By now, you’ve raised the money. You’ve packed your bags. You are off to someplace far from here, someplace you feel called to serve.
Some of your friends are going snow skiing or to the beach with their families, but not you. You are preparing to ride hours in a crowded church van, sleep on a gym floor, and spend the next week painting houses, and building things you’ve never built before. You may even be flying hours on a plane to set up a makeshift medical clinic in the jungles of a faraway place. You will most likely be serving and talking to people who don’t look or sound like you.
You feel excited and ready for the work ahead. You want to make a difference in the world this week.
But I want to offer you a challenge, one that may feel a little uncomfortable to hear:
Your job is not to be a HERO in someone else’s story.
Your job is to be a LEARNER in the story of the people you’re visiting.
Christians love a good hero story. Even more, we sometimes love to BE the hero in someone else’s story. But when we do that, even our best “love your neighbor” efforts quietly become about us. When that happens, we end up reducing people to projects and dehumanizing the very communities we are going to serve.
So, this week stay curious.
Let curiosity shape how you see, listen, and learn.
Be curious about your own assumptions.
What are the stereotypes you may have adopted?
What are your expectations of your role on this trip?
What quiet judgements might you already have?
Be curious about what already exists. The community you are going to serve has a rich history long before you arrived. So often, we focus on the poverty and the needs; challenge yourself to highlight the strength and beauty also.
What is already beautiful about this place?
Who are the leaders already serving here?
What strengths does the community already have?
Be curious about the people. Listen before you help.
Ask someone what they love about their community.
Ask what they wish people understood about where they live.
Ask people’s names. Pronounce them carefully. Remember them.
Be curious about what you might learn.
What can this community teach you about resilience?
What can this community teach you about faith?
What can this community teach you about hospitality?
Be curious about what happens after you leave.
Who continues the work?
What does sustainable support for this community look like?
How will your experience change the way you love and advocate for people in your community back home?
Your week matters. But the real story started long before you came and will continue long after you return home. Turn “the people we served” into neighbors with names. Not numbers and statistics.
Stay curious.
Listen well.
Be the learner, not the hero.
You may leave for your trip thinking you are going to change lives.
I hope that you return as one whose life has been changed. ❤️