Mission Trip as Spiritual Practice
1 Peter 4:10
"Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms."
I love to see a face filled with joy, who doesn’t? It is the reason I loved theater from a very young age! It wasn’t always about the joy of the actors; they were acting. It was about the joy on the faces of the audience; the recipients of the talented actors and their craft. My years of costume work for the theater was a source of great joy for me, especially when an actor loved their costume! The joy in creating a costume had a ripple effect. The actor felt the joy in becoming their character, the director saw the joy it would bring to the stage, the audience can relate to and understand a character through their costume.
1 Peter 4:10
"Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms."
I love to see a face filled with joy, who doesn’t? It is the reason I loved theater from a very young age! It wasn’t always about the joy of the actors; they were acting. It was about the joy on the faces of the audience; the recipients of the talented actors and their craft. My years of costume work for the theater was a source of great joy for me, especially when an actor loved their costume! The joy in creating a costume had a ripple effect. The actor felt the joy in becoming their character, the director saw the joy it would bring to the stage, the audience can relate to and understand a character through their costume.
Observation is a wonderful and learned spiritual practice. At first, my costume work was just a job, paid the bills (barely) and was a talent I could share. As I continued in theater, I realized that theater, like many other things including movies, music, dance, reading can transport us to a different place and time. We observe and learn from all of these things. And they can help to get through trying times.
Now as the Director of Pilgrim Fellowship (PF) service trips, I have observed great joy in the middle of great hardship. I have not only learned but have observed and experienced something amazing, something so significant that it has changed my perspective on faith and service. I observed that transformation happens when you step outside your own comforts and self protections and show up for the unknowns and when you power down your cell phone and dirty your shoes in new soil.
Transformation happens when you position yourself as a guest in someone else’s home and choose to be present in another person’s reality and when we show up with eyes wide open to all we can do and all that God is doing. These experiences transform me every time by observing the way these service trips transform teens. The spiritual practice of not only serving but observing the looks on people’s faces, those doing the work and those receiving the work, is truly amazing. I want to share a short service trip story about an 87 year old gentleman in Tennessee whose home we helped paint and restore, as well as working hard to care for his overgrown yard and gardens.
On our last day, after hearing about his life as a coal miner (he suffers the horrible effects of ‘black lung’), a father who has lost 5 of his 7 children to addiction and overdose, a husband who adores his wife, and as a grandpap who is bringing up his 5 year old granddaughter, he asked us if he could pray with us. We circled up in his crowded kitchen that hot day, and received such grateful prayer and blessings from this gentle man as he named each one of us. He offered prayers for our journey, our friendships, our families, our education, our opportunities, and our church. He spoke with great joy on his face, even in his great hardships. His joy created a ripple effect. We were the recipients of his joy and gratitude. We returned to camp telling others of the joy given and received. And we returned home sharing the story and carrying pieces of it in our hearts and lives.
Why do we travel hours from home, use our hard earned money, and engage in work for people we don’t know? It is practice. It changes us. It renews us. It fulfills God’s will. It fill our hearts with joy.