03.18.08
Jaigaon
From February 23rd through March 3rd, as many of you know, I was on a mission trip to Jaigaon, India. I was serving with Global Mosaic International, which was started by Seaford member Evelyn Biles. I have sensed for years that I needed to return to doing short-term mission trips, but it has been difficult to get away for different reasons. However, when Evelyn approached me about this trip, I sensed that is was right to go. My assigned task was to teach leadership to Bhutanese church planters. Their spiritual hunger and their passion to reach the country of Bhutan for Christ challenged and humbled me.
I know that many of you prayed for me while I was away. God blessed our trip so strongly. It is difficult to put into words what the trip meant for me. Though I might have guessed at some of the things that I would learn while I was away, these lessons are now strongly rooted in my heart and mind. I will mention only one here. You can read the rest in an extended version of this article on the church’s blog on the website.
Every Christian who is serious about their walk with Christ needs cross cultural ministry experiences. For one, they expose weaknesses. Not everyone could or should travel as far as I did. However, we need to put ourselves in other situations and cultures. In some cases you can do this by just walking across the street or at most traveling across town, since the world has come to us. The most effective way to evaluate the culture you are in, is to encounter one different from your own. For me this trip was a kind of spiritual boot camp. Traveling for two days, stepping out of a vehicle into very unfamiliar surroundings, setting up in a strange hotel, eating strange food and serving in a different culture was hard at first. Yet, I now count the experience as one of the highlights of my life. I saw God at work in the hearts of people who live in very different ways in a remote part of the world. It has shown me something new about God and it exposed weaknesses in my own walk with Christ. They may not sound very pleasant but I greatly treasure the experience.
Additional Lessons from Jaigaon:
1. Seaford Baptist has international caliber teachers and leaders within our church body. Evelyn Biles is one of them. I had to go to the other side of the world to hear her teach. I don’t know if she has time given her extensive responsibilities, but I hope that we can give the whole Seaford body an opportunity to hear from her.
2. We have a responsibility to care about the needs of people around the world. I fear much of the time we don’t think about much beyond our own community, I know sometimes I don’t.
3. Stuff does not make us happy. We need food, clothes, shelter, meaningful work and good relationships. Many of the people I worked with possessed a small fraction of what I possess materially, yet they seemed spiritually on fire for Christ and content with their standard of life.
4. It is important for us to stretch ourselves, to get out of our comfort zones. Every morning I heard an imam singing the Muslim call to prayer. An hour later I heard Hindu music blaring just outside of my hotel and all of this by 6:00 AM. There was the equivalent of a loud block party going on right under my window nightly. I was the only white man I saw for 6 days. I struggled at first to relate to the Malaysians on my own team at raucous dinner celebrations each evening. I fumbled through speaking to Indian and Bhutanese pastors older than me. I wondered what possible help I could offer them. Yet these struggles now are part of what made this experience so dear to me.
5. Serving in a culture where Christians are obviously in the minority is a fascinating and a sobering experience. In Jaigaon, four major world religions were present that I was aware of. Christians would have been the smallest minority. Probably in order were Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims, and then Christians. I did not see overt persecution or violence. However, several of the young people I met had accepted Christ at the price of losing their family of origin.
Kat said,
April 8, 2008 at 12:41 pm
I am so thankful that you had this opportunity. Keep reminding us of these things. I hope that we continually expand our vision to see more like God sees, our church, our community, and our world.