I've Made A Decision

I've been behind on this blog. Partly because I'm not sure what to do with it. The purpose if for the team members to be able to keep up to date and for our church family to be able to follow all that is going on with the trips. But as I check my stat checker I see that very few people from Fairfield/Hamilton/Cincy are reading here. Instead someone from Latvia is? So, I'm confused, but welcome people from Lativa and other parts of the world! I stay confused most of the time anyway so here goes a blog post and we'll see who reads it.


I've made a decision.

Its not etched in stone yet, as most of my decisions aren't, but I'm pretty sure about this one. The decision is to not do the trip the way we are this year ever again. This year we are blocking out most of the day there to do various work projects. My reason for that was that was twofold:

1. We really wanted to get into the village and do work for the people. This was meant to be a way to build relationships with the adults in the village as well as with the children.
   
2. We often find that we get into a work project in the mornings only to have to shut it down to go do VBS with the kids.

I don't have a problem with shutting a work project down to play with kids, but I've heard that some of my crew are frustrated by that and I do try to listen to my crew and take their ideas into consideration so this year I thought we'd try doing all day work projects and then do VBS in the evening.

The problem with that is also twofold:

1. We are unsure what work projects we are doing. We will probably not know until we arrive there. To have the whole day blocked out and not have any clue as to how to plan for it makes me a bit nervous. Not a lot because I know things always work out, but it would be much easier to plan what materials and tools to bring if we had an idea. It may mean less trips to town once we are there if we already had the supplies and it may mean less expense since things seem to be generally cheaper here.
   
2. And this one is the real "problem" as I see it. There are people both on the team and not on the team who now have the idea that this year's trip is about "construction". I've heard people say that they would have gone this year if they had known it was about construction projects this year. I've also heard team members say they are much happier with this year's plans because they feel that the work projects are our biggest contribution out there.

YIKES!

If I had known that was the message I was sending by changing around the schedule, I would not have done it.

I know work projects make us feel like we're actually "doing" something there. It makes us feel good to have accomplished something tangible and feel like we've given them something of use. A lot of us, myself included, are way more comfortable with something like that. BUT that is not the most important way in which we contribute. It is not in any way the most important thing we do. On that, I'm absolutely convinced.

The most important thing we do there is build something far more difficult to build and far more uncomfortable for us to do - relationships. That is what God is all about - relationships. It was through relationship that He created us and it was through relationship that He communicated His love for us, and it is through relationship that we communicate His love for other people. Its how we touch people's hearts.

Yes, Pine Ridge is a place of poverty. But I think we forget that there is a kind of poverty that is far more destructive than physical poverty. There is a poverty of love that is the worse sort of suffering a human can experience and I see plenty of that on the Rez. Even Mother Teresa, the great humanitarian of our time, has said this,

Being unwanted, unloved, uncared for, forgotten by everybody, I think that is a
much greater hunger, a much greater poverty than the person who has nothing to
eat.

So I'm pretty sure we need to get back to the original plan at Pine Ridge. We're not about buildings, although those are fine too, but we have a higher purpose - people's hearts.

Selfish Giving?

Reminder: May meeting on Sunday, May 6 @ 4:00 PM in the Omega room.
Bring your TP and Paper Towels and your May payment.

Here is a quote from Occasio Blog that is worth our taking a look. I have felt very much the same way as I've been a part of many different mission trips and have witnessed others. This is one of the reasons I put more emphasis on building relationships with the Lakota people than on the chairty work. We want to do appropriate chairty work but that is never our main goal. As I've said so many times, it's really all about love.

Narcissistic Humanitarianism. Another frustration comes from a kind of
selfish benevolence that permeates our culture. Can making charitable
contributions be self-centered? Yes. We tend to feel good when we help others –
and that’s the new problem in a spirited age of voluntarism and philanthropy. We
are motivated by our own good feelings, not by a sense of responsibility to a
larger cause. Narcissism is defined as a preoccupation with the self and one’s
own self-importance, along with the desire for admiration. There certainly was a
lot of that happening on “Idol.” Is it possible that what we do in the name of
humanitarianism is simply a cover to congratulate ourselves and a chance to slap
one another on the back, thus alleviating our guilty conscience?

The church plays this game as well. I have seen and been a part of many mission trips that
have a stated purpose of helping the people they are going to minister to.
Churches raise $50,000 to visit an exotic country or flock across the border
into Mexico. Team members feel good when they return home because they have
served, but missionaries often report that the groups they host are loud,
arrogant, culturally insensitive and often more trouble (to the missionary or
national pastor) than they are worth. I wonder if the best thing that happens in
Mexico over spring break is that American churches stimulate the Mexicali valley
economy by buying tacos and Pepsis. Our spirit of outreach is a veil for
self-absorbed religious tourism. But we feel good about ourselves when we come
home.

A Reminder: Our Goal

Our mission: To build relationships with the Lakota people.

Some people have questioned why our main goal is not to evangelize the Lakota people. Others have questioned why we don't focus more on charity.

Building relationships doesn't seem like a very lofty goal for a "mission trip", and yet I am more and more convinced that building relationships is the most holy goal we can have.

As much as I want to see people come to Christ, and as much as I love doing acts of charity such as giving away backpacks and school supplies, blankets , baby items, and personal care items, I never want these trips to become focused on either of those goals over and above that of building relationships. Building relationships must come first.

Why?

Because we can talk about charity and "witnessing" as much as we want and some people will do it for a variety of reasons while others will make excuses to justify why they won't. But if we love people, we will not allow them to be in need. We will do what it takes to take care of them - not because someone told us to, not even because the Bible tells us to, but because we love them. If we love people, we will want them to know Jesus. Love must come first and love becomes more "real" when we know people through relationship building.

Without love (relationship), our witnessing will be shallow and maybe even offensive. Without relationship our giving will be merely another mission project and the people will know it.

When we love, all the other things will come naturally as a result of that love.

If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but
have not love, I gain nothing. 1 Cor. 13:3

“It’s a beautiful thing when folks in poverty are no longer just a missions
project but become genuine friends and family with who we laugh, cry, dream, and
struggle” - Shane Claiborne

Love God. Love People. Nothing Else Matters.