In a couple weeks Watermark will depart for Mexico for its third trip to the area as a church to build homes with what is really THEE house-building non-profit for the region-Baja Christian ministries... During a recent drive down to San Diego I'm reminded of just how easily accessible a Mexico trip really is. It also makes me think of the disparities between our home here and that place that we drive down to for a weekend trip and its THIS that begs the question: do we take these trips lightly or for what they are: an intentional opportunity for new life and new worldview...?
What are those 'disparities' anyway? For me I recount images of dirt roads, tires, trash, re bar, pieces of plywood scraps laying about as you wind your way through tight corridors of what we'll call series after series of 'unengineered' roads (and obviously this is not all there is, but allow me to make a point.) Meanwhile, in our world's north of the border we have very basic things beginning with track housing, intersections, waste systems and all other manners of 'modernization' and, of course, ending with what my friend Gala Rodriguez once noted after a trip, "paved roads." Reflecting like this also makes me a recall what my associate and fellow youth pastor, Nicole Rowan (you can find her blog here: www.nicolerowan.com) has been banging on about since the new year, that is: being intentional…
On this trip to Mexico, like all the ones before, opportunities for intentionality abound… there is at least one simple and clear (one might even say obvious) way to be intentional and that's through what Powell and Clark (from the book "Sticky Faith") call the "before, during and after" approach of justice work. We need to have conversations, reflections and story sharing before during and after our journey south of the border-intentionally creating pause to make room for these things. Like the images that we saw, the people that we met, the relationships that we hope to continue to build and the partnerships that will hopefully last a lifetime (maybe also thoughtful conversations about the reasons why their homes, communities and country look the way they do).
However pause must be created in order to have those conversations, facilitate those conversations and be very intentional about using those conversations as takeaways for our lives and the faith journeys of travelers and lay people left behind. From teenagers to young adults to parents and families that go on this trip we all have an opportunity to have our faith and worldviews shaped by Missionary trips like these even though they seem like a quick trip below the border there are two completely different worlds that exist...
Let's not just go down for us (our individual experiences) let's go down with intentionality-bring back the stories bring back these lessons...
After all we are not Tourists, we don't just go down there Willy nilly-to see some sites, we are missionaries even if it be short-term missionaries...
We have purpose, we have a plan, we have a map and we absolutely seek to believe that changing lives is our business...
If you're going on this trip don't shortchange yourself; you are a missionary you are going down to Mexico to do justice work-building homes and giving new life so take the time to be intentional... ...conversations before during and after the trip, share stories so that the rest of us can be mobilized to do the same work…
