Ola!
This is another special edition blog entry. Our guest writer this time is one of the younger members of our mission team, Amit Parasar. Amit was assigned to the Construction Team in Cochabamba, Bolivia. His team was putting the finishing touches on La Trinidad Anglican Church.
Amit was the Bible Study leader for his team and discovered his colleagues had varying levels of faith. Such variance can cause tremendous rift - even unChristian-like behaviour - as I personally witnessed on my first mission. While no such rift occured on Amit's team - in fact team leader Brian Van Order told me the team was strengthened through Bible Study - how does one reconcile these varying levels? I hope you will appreciate Amit's thoughtfulness on this topic:
What does it mean to participate in a Short-term Christian Mission Trip? I must confess that while Bolivia 2009 is my 7th mission trip, I've never actually pondered this question until now. This trip was the first time I officially undertook the responsibility of being the spiritual leader of my mission team. I can honestly say that I never thought I would be hosting discussions questioning the existence of God like I found myself doing this year because a firm spiritual grounding has always been a prerequisite in every other mission that I've been on. I must admit that seeing such lack of faith was frustrating and even depressing for me because I know how my faith has pulled me through the most difficult times of my life. I wish that I could give that strength to my mission teammates, but if there's one thing that I've learned thus far is that belief is a choice. In some cases, people struggle with faith because Christianity is far from easy. It requires an honest effort at a lifestyle change and, for the most part, people are comfortable in their own ways. In other cases, people want to know God exists, but unfortunately knowledge and faith are two different things entirely. Indeed, if I were to define faith, I would say that it is believing despite the fact that you have questions, believing despite the fact that you don't know. Jesus summarized how much God values our faith when after his resurrection he said to Thomas, "Blessed are those who do not see and believe."
I realize that I've gone on for some time and have yet to address the question presented in the beginning of my blog. What does it mean to participate in a Christian Mission Trip? Does it mean that only those with the strongest faith should be allowed to embark on a Christian Mission? To those who believe this I say that Jesus came to heal the sick, for what does a healthy man require even of the best surgeon? In Romans chapters 14-15, Paul writes about different levels of faith and how those with strong faith should not judge those with weaker faith. Everyone is on their own journey. Where some stumble, others will run. Should the runner look down on the one that stumbles? Of course not, because it is when we stumble and fall that we can get back up again. It is in these moments that we learn the most. If anything, the runner should be humble enough to ask the one who fell what he learned so that they can grow together. I've witnessed weak faith develop into strong faith over years and I've seen far more dramatic spiritual development happen over a few days of mission work. I've learned much from my teammates in both instances and I've learned so much from my mission teammates this year. While they've questioned God's existence, I've watched Him work through those that don't even believe He exists. While they struggle with their belief, I've watched them display Christ-like qualities and deeds to a far greater extent than some people I know who claim to be Christians, but happily continue on in their sinful ways. If I were asked to choose which of these cases I believe God would be more pleased with, I would certainly choose the first. So, who belongs on a Short-term Christian Mission Trip? If you feel that you can decide that, I'll leave that up to you. I prefer to let God decide.
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