Teens and Outreach

Robin,
love to see the teens processing this….
we have a church in San Fransciso that might help arrange a service project in the City…
also… how about doing a few local - Saturday afternoon type projects here in San Jose…
one call to San Jose Council on Aging… we could have a few older folks homes who need work…

do it.

I love the idea of doing some small community projects at different places! (I know a few if you want some ideas) I also feel like we need to have a High School mission trip out of California during the upcoming summer. What that is I don’t really know. The high school group skipped their mission trip this year because of to short of notice and other reasons. This upcoming year I would really like to do something on a bigger scale than going to San Francisco for a day and helping at a soup kitchen. Money is not an issue. We can fund raise and do all sorts of things to raise enough money to do whatever we decide to do. If we plan far enough ahead. I thrilled that Robyn is excited about this too maybe her and i can work on this together. I will treat you coffee know that i have a job ;)

See you Monday nights!

-Ross

Missions doesn’t have to be a “trip” — I would love to see you guys get involved in local mission efforts like CityTeam.

I think the important thing to realize about short-term mission involvement is that it’s not really a big help to the missionaries; the ones who benefit the most are you guys. I know a guy in San Francisco that focuses on it strictly as a learning experience; he calls it “Jesus Dojo”.

I think I would have to disagree with you a little bit, Jon. Although, I do understand where you are coming from, as there are a lot of trips that are more trouble to the missionary than it is help. But I have been on several short term mission trips that were very fruitful for the missionaries. One of them being in Romania where we built and furnished a full house for a set of parents and orphans through an organization called Caminul Felix. Had we not come, there would not have been that house. Therefore, we helped in a huge way. Yes, we experienced God in many ways on that trip, and were blessed by the people in Romania, but all in all, we were able to build a house for children who didn’t have a home. Not all trips are self centered.

—brandi

I think it’s vital that we rethink short term missions, just as we try to rethink everything else we do — and I don’t mean to rain on Brandi or anyone else who has had positive experiences in sending, going or receiving.

Here are the seminal articles on the topic:
Deconstructing Short Term Missions Part 1
Deconstructing Short Term Missions Part 2: A Reconstruction

Interestingly, the author relates his experience of participating in one of Mark Scandrette’s “Jesus Dojos”. Here are a few key quotes from part 2:

The first thing we did after asking these questions was decide that a trip could be a good thing for our group.

From this we ended up framing the whole thing not as a Mission Trip, but as a Trip of Mission and Spiritual Formation.

When someone asked us why we were painting and cleaning up the [food distribution center for the homeless] our answer wasn’t “Because Jesus loves you.” That would have been, as Mark said, “an alienating motive”. Instead we described our purpose personally. We said that we were people trying to learn the way of Jesus and service is a big part of that. Do you feel that difference? It’s still service that blesses another, but the motivation has changed to something appealing and not disaffecting.

Robin and gang, if you’re interested in learning more about Mark, just ask.

I feel like I would get more out of a long term, out of our comfort zone (California) mission trip. I will never forget when i went to Mexico for the first time and how uncomfortable i felt but by the end of the trip I felt changed in a way i can not describe. I am not at all saying lets not do small projects for I have done hundreds of them and have also gotten a lot out of them but we still need to do something big next summer. Like I said i would be more then willing to help in the planning of that.

-Ross

Mission trips change lives - no doubt. They are effective learning tools and I hope the Journey has many many of them. Hopefully a few to Honduras! And they can be great for those served, but we really have to re-think to have this happen.

But i agree with Jon, they often benefit more those who go than for those who are served. Use a building trip as an example, take the money for the transportation, and the money donated for the building, and we could employ locals, who are often unemployed, to do the same work, cheaper and often better. That diesn’t even count money loss from not working ourselves during that time.

That said, the greatest thing we have to offer is love and encouragment. When those we visit, see us pouring our life and love into a project, that can stay with them and mean more than the building or meeting or whatever it is we did. As long as we stay culturally relevant, using the “project” as a tool to build relationships, stm are awesome. But, take care, your life can be dramatically changed.

But sorry Ross, staying a week in a downtown SF mission, trust me, it would be out of your comfort zone. Possible more than Mexico since being surronded by Americans in such great need is really disorientating. I did it in HS and it changed my life. You also don’t have language barriers and it eleminates the “poor them” mentality. And, these locations have significantly less help then northern Mexico.

Both style of trips have their place, when done right!

…take the money for the transportation, and the money donated for the building, and we could employ locals, who are often unemployed, to do the same work, cheaper and often better.

I agree with Jaclyn. I think the students should use their energy and money to help locally first before going to another country. Going to another country and/or state is not going to necessairly have a bigger impact on the students. If we want to make changes and help people, we need to start locally and then build out from there. I remember when I was helping lead the hs group in the spring, and we were starting to talk about possible mission trips for the summer, some of the students wanted to go to NYC and clean up. As much as I love it there, why spend all that money to go there and do that when our cities here (SF and SJ for example), need it just as much - I think even more.

When I was in high school, I remember some of the other students and I would get together after church and make bag lunches and take it to downtown San Jose for the homeless. We’d go to this one area where they’d hang out and start handing out food. Sometimes we’d take blankets and things like that as well. Looking back on it, I think that had just as big an impact on me than going to Mexico and building. Not that the families in Mexico don’t need our help. I just find it dissapointing to hear Ross and other students say that the mission trip needs to be this big elaborate trip to another country.

That’s my two cents.

I am out here for you. You don’t know what it’s like to be me out here for you.
A positive anything is better than a negative nothing.
I’ve failed as much as I’ve succeeded.

I don’t think one is better than the other. But I do think that God has given us all different talents, passions, and interests. Yes there needs to be giving to our own communities. But I also think that if God has given you an interest and passion for traveling to foreign countries, experiencing different cultures, connecting with people through the barrier of language…then going to a different country for missions can be a wonderful thing too. I am fearful of saying such a blanket statement, that one is more important than the other.

—brandi

I will be joining Club Dust Dec. 26th - Dec 30th for thier bi-annual trip to Tecate, Mexico.

For more information, here is the link.

http://www.clubdust.org

Frank

I really don’t have any desire for a building type trip myself… what I like is seeing what happens when I lay my hands on someone from another culture that has a simple faith that goes way beyond mine… God zaps them with his love and his healing power… it is addictive… yeah, I get a lot out of it… but so do they… they get their sight restored, demons cast out, they feel the love of God in a new way… they can hear again… they are encouraged that someone from the “outside” cares for them… I like to hug kids…. etc… it is worth the airfare for that… Keith Green once said: “how bout you stop giving to missionaries and go and be one”. When I considered that… a couple years later we packed the family in the van and drove south of Ensenada, Mexico to play with kids at an orphanage for a few weeks. It was wonderful. I want to do more.

I did have a good time at a foot washing station on a SF sidewalk a while ago on a Sat night… it was very rewarding to see the look in their faces when I put their feet in the hot water and put clean socks on afterward. My boys did other things that night too.